Curriculum and Pathways

Our Curricular Approach Stresses Balance, Advocacy, Mentorship

The 4-year MedPeds curriculum at the University of Minnesota is designed to prepare residents for practice in the setting of their choice. After completing our curriculum, recent graduates thrive as fellows, chief residents, primary care providers, hospitalists, international and social medicine health experts, and active faculty members teaching the next generation of MedPeds providers.

Please peruse the tabs below for an overview and highlights of our curriculum.

Overview

OVERVIEW

Evaluation and Mentorship
Formative mentorship and sustainable resident advising and evaluation practices bolster our curriculum. The UMN MedPeds residency established its Resident Assessment Committee (RAC) in 2014. The primary goal of RAC is to implement a holistic, timely, formative, and sustainable approach toward resident evaluation and development. The process is designed to focus as much on identifying and developing strengths within each resident as it is on identifying opportunities for improvement. Annual reviews of the RAC by faculty and residents alike demonstrated increased resident satisfaction, and resulted in higher levels of faculty engagement. All RAC faculty coaches are MedPeds-trained physicians who possess a diverse array of interests, expertise, and career paths.

A second developmental approach to assessment is supported by semi-annual performance reviews with Drs. Aylward, Bhatt, and Williams. This review process operates with these goals in mind:

  • Clearly set expectations
  • Clearly reinforce the values of our profession
  • Promote habits of competence
  • Measure progress and provide honest, objective feedback on resident performance
  • Promote an individualized learning plan
  • Identify and act upon red flags
Continuity Clinics

CONTINUITY CLINICS

UMN MedPeds believes continuity clinic should be valued as much as inpatient and consult rotations. As such, we've designed a continuity clinic model that maximizes time and continuity within clinics, minimizing transitions between inpatient obligations and clinic. We integrate longitudinal clinic-based quality improvement projects with team-based care initiatives.

In 2015, we established a new clinic curriculum, with obvious emphasis on MedPeds care. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we are establishing our first resident-run continuity clinic editorial board in fall 2017 to mold future iterations of our continuity clinic curriculum.

General benefits of our continuity clinic model are as follows:

  • Residents attend a full day of clinic each week while on outpatient, consult, and Children's Emergency Department rotations.
  • Residents do not attend clinic while on inpatient rotations, except for eight half-day clinic afternoons while on pediatric inpatient rotations during intern year. This alleviates the stress of moving between inpatient and clinic-based responsibilities, improving teamwork and efficiency in both settings.
  • Clinic staffing drives our templated resident schedule system. Residents are split into clinic- and day-specific teams. At any given time, half of the team will be on an inpatient service, and half the team will be on an outpatient service. The team on outpatient service provides coverage and follow-up on patient issues for the inpatient team.
  • Residents have their own schedule in clinic. Full clinic days allow for both morning and afternoon patient panels, as well as dedicated teaching time over the lunch hour.

     
Continuity Clinic Sites
The UMN MedPeds residency has three primary continuity clinic sites, each with its own unique patient population and surrounding community.
 
Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC)
CUHCC is a federally qualified health center and also a department within UMN's Academic Health Center. The clinic offers medical, dental, mental health, advocacy, legal, and other services. It serves approximately 11,000 patients a year through 55,000 visits. The patient population spans 12 different racial and ethnic groups across five continents. Its mission is transforming care and education to advance health equity.

 
CUHCC WEBSITE
 
Fairview-Eagan Clinic
Founded in the 1990s by a UMN-trained MedPeds physician, residents rotating at this clinic will work entirely with MedPeds preceptors. Located in a south Minneapolis suburb, patient populations are largely suburban. Yet physicians at this site increasingly see immigrant populations as well as rural Minnesotans from just outside the Twin Cities metro area.

 
FAIRVIEW WEBSITE - EAGAN
 
Center for International Health (CIH) and Midway Clinics
The CIH was established in 1980 in response to the influx of Southeast Asians to Minnesota after the close of the Vietnam War. Since then, patients from more than 30 countries use CIH as their primary care site.

 
CIH WEBSITE
 
HealthPartners Midway Clinic
The HealthPartners Midway clinic primarily serves an inner-city population in St Paul.

 
MIDWAY WEBSITE
Schedules and Rotations

SCHEDULES & ROTATIONS
 

Schedules
Each MedPeds intern is assigned a four-year schedule template, indicating what type of rotation--Medicine Outpatient, Medicine Inpatient, Pediatrics Outpatient, Pediatrics Inpatient--they will be scheduled for at a given point in time. Templates are matched with continuity clinics, for the purpose of forming balanced clinic teams at each site. Rotation templates fulfill ACGME exposure requirements to each categorical specialty, as well as meet inpatient and consult/clinic requirements. 
 
SAMPLE SCHEDULE

Each residency year is split into 13 blocks. Each block is approximately 4 weeks in duration, although certain rotations occur in 2-week increments.

Rotations
UMN MedPeds residents rotate at 7 clinical sites in addition to their continuity clinic. You can learn more about the sites on our Clinical Sites page. Here is a quick look at how each residency year breaks down, in terms of required rotations, versus rotations that residents have some leeway in choosing.
Schedule
 
Pathways

PATHWAYS

MedPeds residents can opt to participate in curricular and training pathways under the larger umbrella of the UMN Department of Medicine. The four primary pathways that exist are as follows:

Physician Advocacy Pathway
In 2017 the UMN Med-Peds program started a citizen-physician initiative focused on advocacy, which has gone through several iterations over the years. Starting AY 22-23, we are proud to recruit IM, Med-Peds, and Med-Derm residents into the restructured Physician Advocacy Pathway. This longitudinal program will focus on skills-building, community engagement, and service opportunities. LEARN MORE
 
Clinician-Educator Pathway
Teaching skills are vital for resident success. Led by UMN's current Internal Medicine Residency Program Director, Dr. Briar Duffy, MD, the clinician-educator pathway further develops the teaching skills of residents and prepares them for careers in medical education. 
 
Global Health
MedPeds residents have myriad options when it comes to global health at UMN through categorical pediatrics global health, categorical internal medicine global health, or through the unique UMN MedPeds Global Health Trackway which brings the best of both worlds together. Global health training at UMN is comprehensive, and includes annual disaster simulations each fall and a month-long global health live course each May.
 
The two links below will give you the best glimpse at UMN's Global Health programs:
Hospital Medicine Pathway
The Hospital Medicine Pathway is a joint venture between the HealthPartners Medical Group Division of Hospital Medicine and the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. This pathway fosters growth and development of residents wishing to pursue careers as practitioners, educators, researchers, and leaders in hospital medicine. MedPeds-trained physicians comprise the core of this pathway's roster.
Primary Care Pathway
UMN recognizes the unique role of primary care and the importance of properly preparing residents for this field.