Innovation
Training at Seneca Family Medicine Residency is refreshing and innovative!  We have looked at what the typical rural family physician practice is like and have decided to make those key components of practice the core of our curriculum: clinic first but broad-spectrum, focused on developing patient relationships and continuity, and team-based care.  To do this we have done away with the traditional block structure and developed a longitudinal three-year curriculum.

Clinic
Clinic will be the main hub of your training.  You will spend your first four weeks at the Center for Family Medicine-Seneca learning who your team members are, starting to meet your patient panel, and managing the day-to-day tasks in our EMR.  We will also orient you to the hospital services and the community in general so that you can get your feet under you before taking on any inpatient responsibility.  You will be in your continuity clinic at least three half-days per week no matter what other learning experience you’re immersed in (unless it’s away elective or vacation of course!).

Inpatient/Core Experiences
Rather than be a hospitalist for a month, a cardiologist for a month, a pediatrician for a month, etc. why not be a family doc all the time?  Our inpatient and core rotations will be a week at a time which will still allow you to follow a patient from admission to discharge but also let you stay in clinic and be more available to your patient panel.  It also allows for more rapid repetition so you don’t lose your skills between each experience.  By breaking up these experiences into smaller chunks you will learn how to manage patients across both inpatient and outpatient domains and across all specialties which will minimize burnout, maximize learning, and develop your identity as a family physician.  Family medicine specializes in the patient in front of us, bringing our broad training experience and knowledge to that one encounter rather than choosing to only see dermatology cases one day or ICU patients the next.

Electives
If you would like a more extended block to pursue elective endeavors, you can still do that in this new structure.  Most outside elective experiences are either two- or four-week rotations and we can absolutely arrange for that if you would like to gain more experience in a field that we cannot provide locally.

Call
Much like a practicing family physician, you will share call with your classmates no matter what experience you’re on during any given week.  This will average out to every sixth night with the ability to swap call obligations for away electives or vacation time.  We will give you a post-call day after your night on to protect your time and honor our duty-hour requirements.  We value education over service and acknowledge that as we grow this new program there may be times the faculty need to cover a shift if a resident is not available.  We’re OK with that!

We can’t wait to implement this fresh look at residency education and welcome any questions you may have about this innovative structure!

It’s not easy to describe what a longitudinal curriculum looks like since your assignment will change week to week.  Here is a sample of what a six-week period would look like.  Each six weeks this pattern will repeat with some minor adjustments.  PGY-1 outpatient experiences in the first year are cardiology, sports medicine/orthopedics, emergency medicine, community medicine, outpatient pediatrics, general surgery and outpatient GYN.  PGY-2 and PGY-3 will see less hospital assignments, more outpatient experiences and the opportunity to participate in electives.