Curriculum

Family Medicine Program Focus

The Family Medicine Residency program is 3 year program with 10 positions per year.

View Curriculum (PDF, 131KB)

In the first year, the residents will experience more inpatient rotations. Most rotations are at Trinity Health Grand Rapids. There are two required Obstetrics rotations: one is at Trinity Health Grand Rapids and the other at Corewell Health, Butterworth Campus. The Pediatrics rotation is at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

The Family Medicine Service (FMS) provides the opportunity to work with many community physicians. Interns typically manage 6-8 patients each day during their time on the Family Medicine Service.

We have a night-float system in place on the Family Medicine Service. Night float coverage begins Sunday evening and ends Friday morning. Family Medicine call is taken during the months on the Family Medicine Service and the outpatient rotations. When in the FMS call pool, you will have 1-2 weekends of call. There is always a PGY1 and senior resident on night float together.

Upper level residents have a primarily supervisory role on the Family Medicine Service. In addition to supervising the interns and assisting with the education of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year medical students rotating on the service, upper level residents also care for post-partum and newborn patients. Call responsibilities vary per rotation.

Our residency supports Comprehensive Obstetrical training in addition to the required Foundational training. Residents interested in the Comprehensive training will expand their OB experience through an additional obstetric rotation in the second year. 

Our Geriatric longitudinal rotation begins in the second year and continues until the completion of the residency program. Residents spend one afternoon per month providing care for a panel of geriatric patients who reside in variety of settings - Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing and Memory Care – at a single campus.

Family Medicine Residency Center

The outpatient setting is a significant component of our training here. We truly prepare our residents to work in any clinic setting—rural, federally qualified health centers, global health clinics or private practice. About 40% of our clinic patients have private insurance, another 45% are patients with Medicaid or Medicare; the remainder are self-pay, uninsured, or have other forms of insurance. We serve a large refugee and immigrant population, and in fact, the most common language spoken in our clinic after English is Kinyarwanda/Rwanda. This is followed by Spanish, Swahili/Kiswahili, and Arabic.

Our clinic is in the Wege Building which is connected to the main hospital.  We are divided into 5 different "pods," each with 2 residents from each class, as well as 1-2 core faculty. We have many faculty and community physicians who precept in our clinic, with a diverse set of interests. This makes it easy to find experienced providers to help develop your specific interests. Some examples include women's health, point of care ultrasound, musculoskeletal medicine, underserved medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, and obstetrics.