Residency Curriculum
Residency Curriculum
Introduction
The Family Medicine Residency program at the University of Virginia is designed to prepare the medical school graduate for the delivery of comprehensive health care to patients of all ages in a variety of settings. Our residency has a strong base in medicine and pediatrics but also provides excellent training in behavioral health, gender health, sports medicine, obesity medicine, maternity care and women’s health. Our residents learn the dermatologic, musculoskeletal and women’s health procedures essential to the practice of Family Medicine.
Diverse elective opportunities are available and each resident is encouraged to develop areas of special interest.
The underlying goal of the curriculum is to ensure that the graduate will be an outstanding family physician.
Our first-year residents spend much of their year rotating through different services in our hospital. They see patients 1 to 2 sessions a week in our practice, and “come home” for Family Medicine Inpatient rotation, Family Medicine Outpatient rotation and a weekly intern lunch.
After two weeks of orientation, which begins in mid June, a typical schedule for Year 1 follows:
During the second year there is an increasing focus on ambulatory care, with residents spending 2 to 3 sessions a week in the Family Medicine Center. Our residents also serve as supervisory residents on our own inpatient service, as well as on the Acute Cardiology Service and in the Pediatric ED.
A typical schedule for Year 2 follows:
Our third year curriculum is almost entirely focused on ambulatory care, with residents able to pick from a number of electives to hone their skills and knowledge in areas of their choice. Third-year residents spend 4 to 5 sessions a week in the practice, and play more of a leadership role on their clinic teams. Each resident “runs” our labor and delivery, post-partum and newborn nursery service, while playing an important teaching role during their 6 week Family Medicine OB inpatient rotation. All of our residents also see patients at one our department’s rural satellite practices, located in Nellysford, Virginia.
A typical schedule for Year 3 follows:
Our Tuesday afternoon conferences form the backbone of our didactic curriculum. Our residents are actively engaged, helping to plan the curriculum, select speakers, and do some teaching themselves. We build our conference calendar around a repeating 18 month cycle that covers core content areas in Family Medicine.