North Memorial Curriculum and Call

Our program is ACGME-accredited, and we pride ourselves in training residents who are prepared to practice full spectrum family medicine in any setting, urban or rural.

Below is information about our curriculum and call.

Rotations
View rotations for each year of residency.

Electives
Electives help residents personalize their training, taking into account future practice needs.

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

Longitudinal curriculum
Includes integrated training in behavioral medicine and community health and elective tracks.

Didactics
Designed around adult learning models and utilizes residents to lead and teach.

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 call information below for each year of residency.

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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.

North Memorial Electives

Electives help residents personalize their training, taking into account future practice needs.

Senior residents enjoy up to 28 weeks of elective time over two years. Four weeks in each second- and third-year are reserved for “away” time, allowing residents to travel and explore other opportunities.

Our elective catalog has been developed by residents, faculty, and administration to include more than 40 options. A sampling of electives follow:

  • Policy and advocacy
  • Eating disorders
  • Rheumatology
  • Acute injury
  • Research
  • Sexual health
  • Teaching

Rural electives

While our clinic is deeply rooted in North Minneapolis, 30% of our graduates practice in rural settings. To support these interests, our residents enjoy rural elective opportunities. Many of these electives can be completed while maintaining continuity clinics, allowing residents to complete additional “away” electives. Options include the following:

  • Family medicine and Native American health in Grand Marais, Minnesota
  • Obstetrics in Alexandria, Minnesota
  • Sports medicine in Aitkin, Minnesota

Many residents are motivated to set up new rural, regional, national, and international rotations. Residents are also encouraged to develop local electives that meet their own educational objectives. Supportive advising and administration help make this possible.

North Memorial Longitudinal Curriculum

The longitudinal curriculum includes integrated training in behavioral medicine and community health. Curricular emphasis is available in the following topic areas:

  • Policy and advocacy
  • Underserved and international medicine
  • Sports medicine
  • Research
  • Osteopathic medicine

Our clinic is closely involved with community programs such as The Ladder, a mentorship program for North Minneapolis youth interested in a career in health care. 

Integrated

BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE

Behavioral health teaching is fully integrated into our clinic curriculum and didactics.

Elements of behavioral health teaching include the following:

  • Family medicine service teaching rounds
  • Weekly interprofessional team meetings
  • Clinic precepting
  • Videotaped reviews
  • Workshops
  • Lectures

Behavioral health faculty also provide integrated care within clinic appointments, and see their own panels of patients for therapy.

COMMUNITY HEALTH

Our clinic has several programs and resources aimed at improving patients' abilities to access and benefit from medical services. These include a patient advocate, a social work care coordinator, an OB nurse educator, pharmacists, and psychologists who are available for immediate interventions and counseling.

Our clinic also hosts monthly seminars for staff and providers, featuring community partners such as:

We also partner with the Minnesota Department of Health to integrate and research postpartum depression screening at well-child visits.

Longitudinal curricula

POLICY AND ADVOCACY

Policy and advocacy in health care is a core part of what we live and teach at North Memorial. There is opportunity to participate in a structured year-long longitudinal curriculum on advocacy, which is led by North Memorial faculty member Anne Doering, MD, and other members of the department and is attended by residents from across the department. Policy and advocacy talks are built into our didactics series. In addition, there is a multitude of opportunities to participate in the MAFP, the annual White Coats Day at the Capitol, conversations with our state and national legislative leaders, elective rotation opportunities in health care policy, and more.

SPORTS MEDICINE

North Memorial has a strong reputation in sports medicine, having successfully matched several residents to sports medicine fellowships, most recently at Duke University and the University of Minnesota. David Olson, MD, directs sports medicine education at North Memorial. Dr. Olson also serves as the associate director of the University of Minnesota Family Medicine and Community Health Sports Medicine Fellowship.

First-year

  • First-year orthopedics and sports medicine rotation includes opportunities for injections, casting, splinting, and diagnosing acute musculoskeletal injuries
  • Provide sideline and event coverage—Life Time Fitness Triathlon, Twin Cities Marathon, City of Lakes Tri-Loppet, North High School and other area schools sporting events
  • Attend continuing education classes and workshops

RESEARCH

Research focus areas include educational innovation, clinical medicine, and care delivery. Multiple North Memorial faculty and residents are involved in ongoing research projects and are eager to mentor residents in the area of research, whether residents come in with little to no research experience or extensive experience. We have a research coordinator dedicated to our clinic who offers extensive assistance and guidance on projects.

OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE

Our program is a supportive, thriving environment for osteopathic physicians and has ACGME osteopathic recognition. We have two core DO faculty: Tanner Nissly, DO, and Andrew Slattengren, DO. The clinic is equipped with three manipulation tables, including one that is portable.

Clinic faculty and residents meet regularly to share osteopathic medicine training ideas and introduce osteopathic principles and services to MD faculty and residents. DO faculty and residents also teach osteopathic manipulation and medicine to their MD peers at two workshops integrated into our didactics training.

Note for DO students: Past residents have received American Osteopathic Association recognition for their internship year.

PROCEDURE

Residents have the opportunity to gain competency in procedures through longitudinal electives. Recent graduates have been able to incorporate colonoscopy and colposcopy into their practice.

North Memorial Didactics

Conferences, workshops, lectures

Tuesday afternoons are reserved for conferences, workshops, and lectures. Our didactics curriculum is designed around adult learning models and utilizes residents to lead and teach.

Recognizing that medical knowledge has a brief half-life, our goal is to promote lifelong learning skills that will keep your knowledge fresh after you leave residency. Our core faculty provide or facilitate talks each week, with contributions from behavioral health, pharmacy, emergency medicine, and other sub-specialties.

In addition to traditional lectures, some of our unique content include the following:

ANTIBIOTIC BOOT CAMP

Learn about infectious processes, which antibiotics to use and when, and how your plan (and the evidence) changes under different circumstances.

EVIDENCE-BASED CASE REVIEW

Third-year residents present a narrative history of a patient’s life through essay, poetry, a video, or an oral history. After sharing about the patient, the focus turns toward clinical decision making and evidence-based medicine for that patient’s care.

PRIMARY CARE UPDATE

Residents give a presentation on a primary care topic of their choice, presented during didactics time. Hospital attendings and staff are invited to attend.

INTENSIVE DIDACTICS

Residents in each year study and discuss cases on a topic before coming together as a group to discuss the case. Faculty facilitate and provide summary lectures on these “bread and butter” topics, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, OB triage, abdominal pain, hypertension, and more.

WORKSHOPS

We recently added monthly workshops into our curriculum. These workshops are often interdisciplinary, featuring content experts from related fields and hands-on work.

Topics include:

  • Sports medicine
  • Underserved medicine
  • Women’s health
  • Antiracism
  • Geriatrics
  • Point-of-care ultrasound
  • Dermatologic procedures
  • Pediatric development
  • Addiction medicine

University-sponsored grand rounds

The department offers monthly grand rounds on a variety of family medicine topics.

North Memorial Call

Year 1

Family medicine service schedule

Two shadow call shifts with a second- or third-year resident in house.

  • Five to six weekend call shifts
  • Saturday or Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Responsibilities

  • Answering clinic patient phone calls
  • Caring for inpatients from the family medicine service
  • Working up admissions from the ER
  • Participating on the medical emergency team

Obstetrics schedule

  • Shifts are 10 or 14 hours, three to four times per week; no 24-hour shifts

Years 2 and 3

Family medicine service schedule

  • Five to six-weekend shifts (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)
  • Friday overnight shift, 5 p.m.–7:30 a.m. 
  • Saturday or Sunday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Responsibilities

  • Answering clinic patient phone calls
  • Caring for inpatients from the family medicine service
  • Working up admissions from the ER
  • Participating on the medical emergency team

Obstetrics schedule

  • 10- or 14-hour shifts; no 24-hour shifts
North Memorial Program Residents