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The three-year Family Medicine Residency Program consists of a combination of patient care and teaching. This takes place at the bedside, in the Family Practice Center, in formal conference settings and in the community. The teaching and supervision of the residents is primarily the responsibility of the program’s faculty. The faculty includes family practitioners, obstetricians, pediatricians, a psychologist and an internist. Volunteer faculty, representing all specialties, also provides academic and bedside instruction.

In accordance with ACGME policy, the curriculum is competency based and may be modified at any time in accordance with ACGME guidelines for family medicine.

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Internal Medicine	13 weeks
Pediatrics	7 weeks
Obstetrics / Gynecology	8-9 weeks
Family Medicine	7-8 weeks
Surgery	2 weeks
Neonatology	4 weeks
Pathology	1 week
Emergency Medicine	4 weeks
Family Practice Center (4-8 hrs/wk)	1 week
Radiology	2 weeks

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Internal Medicine	5-6 weeks
Pediatrics	4 weeks
Obstetrics / Gynecology	5 weeks
Emergency Medicine	4 weeks
Cardiology	4 weeks
GI	3 weeks
Pulmonary	4 weeks
Dermatology	4 weeks
Surgery	4 weeks
Family Medicine	4 weeks
Community Medicine	Longitudinal
Orthopedics / Sports Medicine	2 weeks
Elective	1-3 weeks
Night Float	6 weeks
Family Practice Center (12 - 16 hrs/wk)

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Internal Medicine	4 weeks
Pediatrics	4-5 weeks
Obstetrics / Gynecology	4-5 weeks
Family Medicine	5 weeks
Emergency Medicine	4 weeks
Endocrinology	4 weeks
Urology	2 weeks
ENT	2 weeks
Community Medicine / Occupational Medicine	2 weeks
Electives	10-11 weeks
Night Float	3 weeks
Behavioral Science	Longitudinal
Geriatric Medicine	Longitudinal
Community Medicine and Occupational Medicine	2 weeks & Longitudinal
Orthopedics / Sports Medicine	6 week
Ophthalmology	2 weeks
Night Float	2 weeks
Electives	3 weeks
Family Practice Center (20 hrs/wk)

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Conferences/Meetings – Residency lectures are intended to augment the practice-based learning that occurs in the Family Practice Center. A comprehensive three-year didactic lecture series has been designed for residents to ensure that all current and important topics are covered.

Morning Report, Mondays 7:00 a.m.
Inpatient cases presented by residents.

Morning Lecture, Mondays and Tuesdays 7:30 a.m., Fridays 7:00 a.m.
Lecture series given by faculty and guest lecturers on topics geared toward primary care.

OB/GYN and Pediatric Lectures, Thursdays 7:30 a.m.
Lecture series given by faculty and guest lectures on topics geared toward OB/GYN and Pediatrics.

Tumor Conference, Tuesdays, 4:00 p.m.

Grand Rounds, Fridays 8:00 a.m.

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There are a number of teaching opportunities that take place in the Family Practice Center. Working one-on-one with skilled preceptors, residents obtain skills in the colposcopy clinic, the allergy clinic, and the podiatry clinic.

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One of Heritage Valley Beaver’s strengths is the wide variety of elective experiences available to residents. Design of electives should take into account learning needs as identified by the resident and their faculty advisor. Electives allow residents to broaden their exposure to numerous other areas of medicine, including those below, and to individualize their training experience. Electives may be taken at Heritage Valley Beaver or at numerous other facilities. International electives are encouraged.

Adolescent Medicine
Alcohol/Drug Abuse
Ambulatory Surgery
Cardiology
Gastroenterology
Hematology / Oncology
High-Risk OB
Infectious Diseases
International Medicine
Nephrology
Occupational Medicine
Outpatient Pediatrics
Physical Therapy
Plastic Surgery
Psychiatry
Pulmonary Medicine
Radiology
Rehabilitative Medicine
Rheumatology
Shock Trauma
Sports Medicine
Women’s Health

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All residents have opportunities to participate in community, public school and public health education. Residents provide instruction to grade school children with programs such as Tar Wars (a health education program to prevent the initiation of smoking) and sex education for high schoolers. Second- and third-year residents devote several weeks to visiting and learning about resources in the community. Experiences are tailored to meet the individual interests of the resident.

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As the area’s population ages, serving the elderly will increasingly become a greater part of family medicine. To prepare to meet the special needs of the elderly, residents have geriatric patients included in their panel of patients at the Family Practice Center. Second- and third-year residents provide longitudinal care for patients at the skilled nursing facility adjacent to it. Residents provide both acute and chronic care for these elderly patients.

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Our residency program has a long history of excellence in behavioral science training for family physicians. We believe that our curriculum enables the family physician to effectively respond to the frequent psychosocial matters that present in primary care. Our training is longitudinal; making use of clinical encounters throughout the residency training, providing the basis for experientially based learning, while other content is provided in structured learning venues.

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Effective July 1, 2003 and in accordance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Program Duty Hours Requirements, the curriculum was revised to include the resident assignment of night float. Night float ensures that resident assignments are made to prevent excessive patient loads, excessive new admission workups, inappropriate intensity of services or case mix, and excessive length and frequency of call contributing to excessive fatigue and sleep deprivation.

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First-year residents are on call an average of every fifth to sixth night at Heritage Valley Beaver. While on call, interns are supervised by senior residents who are available in the hospital. The call team performs as any fully trained family physician. On a given night, residents may care for someone with an acute myocardial infarction, deliver a baby, and admit a child with asthma. By learning to utilize all the skills of a family physician from the onset of residency training, residents gain a comprehensive knowledge and establish a strong foundation of skills that benefit them over time.