Curriculum and Call

Our program focuses on developing and preparing collaborative, rural-ready, full spectrum family medicine physicians.

The majority of our graduates practice in communities with populations less than 25,000. Most clinical rotations are hosted at three primary training sites: Duluth Family Medicine Clinic, St. Mary’s Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital.

Rotations and Electives
View rotations below for each year of residency, longitudinal curriculum, and electives.

Procedures
Residents learn clinic office procedures and hospital procedures.

Moonlighting
Numerous moonlighting activities are available for second- and third-year residents.

Global Health
Opportunities include international and global-local electives, courses, seminars, conferences, and fellowship.

Programmatic Courses
The department sponsors several required and optional one- to two-day programmatic courses. Topics include women's health, sports and musculoskeletal medicine, community health, and more.

Call
View information below on shift call, in-hospital call, and family medicine service call.

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Residents As Teachers

Family medicine residents are directly responsible for a portion of medical student clinical education during clinical experiences and clerkships.

Medical education features a closely connected cycle of teaching, learning, and progressive responsibilities; senior learners teach junior learners, and all learners are involved in ongoing professional and personal development.

Residents of the eight University of Minnesota family medicine residency programs have many responsibilities, including that of supervisors and educators. Most medical students encounter family medicine residents as teachers during the Family Medicine Clerkship. Therefore, residents receive instruction about clerkship/rotation goals and objectives as well as training in teaching methods.

Resources

Resources are available to aid residents in development as teachers.

  • Residents Teaching Students: Developed by family medicine medical student education director David Power, MBBS, MPH, and colleagues, it provides an overview of several teaching strategies. One of these is a common teaching method used by both residents and faculty, known as the One Minute Preceptor.
  • Faculty advisors and residency directors also can connect residents with resources to enhance teaching abilities.

First-year rotations

  • Adult Medicine
  • Behavioral Health
  • Bootcamp/Orientation
  • Community Medicine
  • Continuity Clinic
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Geriatrics
  • Inpatient Pediatrics
  • Musculoskeletal Medicine
  • Obstetrics
  • Surgery

Second-year rotations

  • Adult Medicine
  • Ambulatory Pediatrics
  • Continuity Clinic
  • Critical Care
  • Electives
  • Family Medicine
  • Gynecology
  • Obstetrics
  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Rural Family Medicine

Third-Year Rotations

  • Adult Medicine
  • Ambulatory Pediatrics
  • Continuity Clinic
  • Dermatology
  • Electives
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Inpatient Pediatrics
  • Jeopardy
  • Obstetrics

Longitudinal curriculum

  • Continuity clinic
  • Geriatrics
  • Integrated behavioral medicine
  • Professionalism
  • Practice management
  • Research
  • Residents as teachers
  • Systems-based practice management
  • Scholarly activity
  • Quality improvement
  • Wellness and support

Electives

  • Addiction medicine
  • Anesthesia/Tubes and lines
  • Cardiology
  • Continuity clinic
  • Critical care
  • Dermatology
  • Diabetes education
  • Emergency radiology
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Geriatrics care facility medicine
  • Gynecology
  • Hematology/oncology
  • Hospice 
  • Infectious disease
  • Integrated alternative medicine
  • Medical weight loss
  • Nephrology
  • Neurology
  • Non-surgical neurosurgery
  • NICU/advanced pediatrics
  • Parent/child leave
  • Physical medicine and rehabilitation
  • Physician as patient/caregiver
  • Plastic surgery/wound medicine
  • Podiatry
  • Pulmonary medicine
  • Rheumatology
  • Rural emergency medicine - Deer River/Virginia
  • Rural family medicine

Clinic office & hospital procedures

Clinic office procedures

We perform an array of common office procedures including:

  • Lesion removal
  • Joint injections/aspiration
  • Excisional biopsies
  • IUD/Nexplanon insertion
  • Laceration repair
  • Casting
  • Abscess drainage
  • Toenail avulsions
  • Foreign body removal

Colposcopy is an integral part of our training, and we have an excellent teaching colposcope as well.

We offer dedicated procedure days to ensure all residents are getting consistent and equal access to clinic procedures.


Hospital procedures

Hospital-based procedural experience is garnered throughout the Duluth residency experience beginning with the Emergency Medicine and Adult Medicine rotations in the first year.

The second-year Critical Care rotation provides the backbone of our procedural training. During this rotation, residents can expect to place multiple chest tubes, central lines/arterial lines, perform numerous intubations with ventilator management, and perhaps, even be the primary during bronchoscopy. The procedural experience gained from the critical care rotation is valuable during the advanced rotations of the second and third years.

The opportunities for paracentesis, lumbar puncture, and thoracentesis are present throughout the three years of training. Circumcisions and neonatal resuscitations are performed routinely during the pediatrics rotation as well.

Whether on rotations or moonlighting in a rural emergency department, these procedural skills will be put to use. 

We also provide advanced trauma life support for all residents, and the Fundamentals of Critical Care Support (FCCS) course is offered in Duluth to all residents.

Moonlighting activities

Numerous moonlighting activities are available in Duluth and the region.

Moonlighting is open to second- and third-year residents who desire the opportunity to supplement residency education in diverse settings.

Locations

Duluth

  • Essentia Health Duluth - Miller-Dwan Building

Regional

Minnesota

  • Aitkin
  • Aurora
  • Baudette
  • Cloquet
  • Cook
  • Crookston
  • Crosby
  • Deer River
  • Grand Marais
  • Hibbing
  • Moose Lake
  • Mora
  • Roseau
  • Sandstone
  • Two Harbors
  • Virginia

Wisconsin

Additional regional opportunities are available in Wisconsin with license.

Shift/In-hospital/Family Medicine Service Call

Shift call

Provide coverage of obstetrics at either St. Mary’s Medical Center or St. Luke’s Hospital as assigned in-hospital call shifts. It's divided among second- and third-year residents.


In-hospital call

Residents on Obstetrics, Pediatrics, and Adult Medicine rotations will be assigned in-hospital call shifts. Shifts are divided between team members. Second- and third-year senior resident members serve in a supervisory role to junior residents and medical students.

  • Obstetrics: Call is a combination of 12-hour daytime and nighttime shift for second-year residents at St. Luke’s Hospital. Third- and first-year residents cover a combination of 12-hour daytime and 12-hour nighttime shifts at St. Mary’s Medical Center. 
  • Pediatrics: Call is variable based on resident status with a four- or five-resident team and includes a combination of 12-hour daytime and 12-hour nighttime shifts.
  • Medicine: Call is divided throughout a 28-day block with a four-resident team and includes a combination of 12-hour daytime and 12-hour nighttime shifts.

Family medicine service call

Family Medicine Service call provides coverage for the program’s continuity patient population. A five-resident team admits all of our clinic patients. Twenty-four-hour call is divided among second- and third-year resident team members as 12-hour daytime shifts and 12-hour nighttime at home pager call. Second- and third-year senior resident members serve in a leadership and supervisory role to team members and medical students.

Inpatient admissions from Duluth Family Medicine Clinic, Essentia Health-Lakewalk and Proctor Clinics

The resident on call for the Family Medicine Service will admit all Duluth Family Medicine Clinic patients, as well as patients from Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center based on in-patient census.