Curriculum

The formal instructional portion of the curriculum takes place on an ongoing basis throughout residency. The centerpiece is a series of didactic conferences that convenes three times per week from 12:15–1:15 pm in the Medical Center’s Residency Conference Room. These midday conferences tend to focus on ambulatory issues and practice management skills.

In addition, the residents on the Family Medicine Service attend a weekly team teaching session that highlights important diagnostic and management issues in recently admitted patients, and develops clinical reasoning skills in Internal Medicine.

Each day, residents on the Maternal Child Health and Neonatology services review Maternal-Child health topics that highlight important diagnostic and management issues in recently admitted obstetrical or pediatric patients, and develop clinical reasoning skills unique to these areas. Program faculty and residents lead or moderate most morning or noon sessions, but also draw on the expertise of specialists practicing at the Medical Center, as well as a wide range of faculty from the Chicago area's seven medical schools.

In accordance with American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and ACGME guidelines, our curriculum also includes continuing medical education (CME) seminars with visiting medical staff. Hospital-wide CME conferences take place every Tuesday and Wednesday at noon.

In addition to clinical and conference attendance responsibilities, each resident is provided with and expected to complete a monthly reading and self-assessment program (including clinical simulations in selected areas as they become available) throughout the course of their residency training. Comprised of up-to-date, evidence-based learning modules from the AAFP, American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and other authoritative sources, these elements are keyed to the resident’s current rotation to ensure the timeliness and relevance of the material. This component of the residency is designed to ensure that each resident 1) becomes well-grounded in the medical knowledge competencies covering the breadth of Family Medicine, and 2) is guided to assume primary responsibility and a continuing commitment to their own lifelong learning process.

All residents are certified in BLS, ACLS, PALS, ALSO and NRP throughout the course of their training.

Finally, reflecting the missions of Ascension Saint Mary - Chicago and its affiliated health centers, the program provides residents with many opportunities to serve the community outside of the scope of the traditional inpatient and outpatient medical care settings. The residency's robust community medicine curriculum offers residents the opportunity to learn and employ public health concepts as residents complete a community assessment in our primary service area, gain experience providing care to homeless and incarcerated populations, and increase their neighborhood involvement by providing health talks at local community-based organizations and schools.

Faculty Development: 
Our faculty development curriculum is designed to cultivate one’s abilities as an academic clinical teacher and 'learner-facilitator'. Throughout the longitudinal experience, the focus is on practical skills essential for success in academic medicine. Development and assessment of curricula using the GNOME model, design of interactive sessions, and mastery of effective feedback techniques are taught. Learners dive into topics such as adult learning theory, curriculum development principles, and clinical precepting, gaining invaluable insights into structuring engaging presentations and addressing challenging learners. With hands-on experience and mentorship, participants emerge equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary for a fulfilling career in academic medicine. Notably, only a handful of programs in Illinois have implemented a faculty development curriculum.

OBGYN:
The program boasts a robust OBGYN curriculum, both inpatient and outpatient. While on Maternal Child Health (MCH) rotations, besides performing deliveries, residents also have the opportunity to scrub into cesarean sections and perform procedures such as intrauterine pressure catheterization (IUPC), fetal scalp electrode (FSE) placement, amniotomies, and circumcisions. Through this hands-on OB experience, by the time of graduation, residents gain the confidence to effectively manage the entire delivery process. Most importantly, there's continuity of care, where residents are entrusted to deliver the babies of their patients from the clinic.
In the clinic, residents are exposed to women’s health cases and pathologies, with the ability to perform procedures such as endometrial biopsies and LARC insertions/removals. In PGY-3, two residents are selected for the colposcopy track, where they perform colposcopies under the supervision of faculty within the resident clinics and complete additional coursework through the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP).

Addiction Medicine:
Residents have the opportunity to actively manage patients with substance use disorder on the inpatient services built into the curriculum as well as during their emergency medicine rotations.
Electives are available for more specialized exposure to treating alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder, and other addictions through a specialty clinic within PrimeCare, our affiliated FQHC. Residents will gain experience understanding how to help patients recover from substance use disorder through culturally competent social services and medication-assisted therapy.

Behavioral Health:
Supporting and treating patients’ mental health is a key pillar of family medicine. David Salas, the head of our Behavioral Department, emphasizes residents gaining strong skills in the core principles of Motivational Interviewing, especially during the ICHS rotation. Additionally, we value promoting mental health within our residents through monthly support group meetings where residents openly share their rotation and patient experiences. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see residents share mutual support. Activities throughout the year such as meditation, drawing, physical and mindfulness exercises, and end-of-block celebrations are just part of the way we support resident wellness.

Electives: 
Residents are able to choose from a variety of electives, and with close faculty supervision, can design their own elective experience.  Electives residents have done in the past include Migrant Health, Midwest Access Project, Integrative Medicine, Advocacy, Sports Medicine, and many others.