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, two mornings per week, the residents on the Family Medicine Service and Critical Care rotations (including Night Float) run an Internal Medicine morning report that highlights important diagnostic and management issues in recently admitted patients, and develops clinical reasoning skills in Internal Medicine.

Every morning, residents on the Obstetrics and Pediatrics/Neonatology services (including Night Float) 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 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.