Family Medicine Riverside Medical Center - Curriculum
Goals and Objectives
As a member of our residency program, you will learn to practice evidence-based, cost-effective, and caring medicine in a very diverse community – an approach indispensable to providing health care in all future medical settings.
Teaching Program
Family Medicine Clinical Experience
Our Family Medicine Clinic is located within our medical center and allows residents to experience an extensive and diverse pathology during their training. This is a classic outpatient setting providing residents with exposure to acute patient illness, chronic disease management, and a virtual medicine experience.
In addition, we also hold five separate specialty clinics which provide intensive teaching in the areas of Dermatology, Orthopedics, Minor Surgery, Pediatrics, and Joint and Soft Tissue Injections. These concentrated clinics allow residents to learn from many patients with direct instruction/mentorship from our specialist physicians. We have found this model to be enjoyable and fulfilling for all participants. A similar Resident Counseling Clinic is held in the Department of Behavioral Medicine.
After completion of the first two years of training, many residents enhance their knowledge and experience by moonlighting in either the Urgent Care department or the Family Medicine After-Hours Clinic.
Internal Medicine
Internal Medicine training occurs throughout the three-year residency. First and second year residents have three months each year dedicated to inpatient hospital medicine. The third year consists of two months of inpatient medicine during which the resident leads a multidisciplinary team.
Under the supervision of attending general and subspecialty internists, residents will learn from a wide pathology of disease. Residents will gain experience in admitting patients from the Emergency Department, managing, and following these patients in the hospital, and, as necessary, into and out of the ICU. Teaching rounds occur daily and allow residents to obtain specialist physician knowledge, become proficient in the interpretation of results and imaging studies, and adept in formulating plans of care for their patients.
The Riverside County patient population is fast growing and very diverse. This provides residents the opportunity to take care of a multitude of patients of varying social and economic backgrounds. Residents often find the extensive variety of both common and uncommon medical conditions to be very rewarding for their education as physicians and critical in their preparation for their future endeavors.
Residents also gain invaluable experience as leaders of a multidisciplinary team comprised of physicians, nursing staff, case managers, social-workers, and discharge home health planning teams. Attending physicians are always available providing supervision and daily feedback helping residents gain knowledge and confidence.
In addition to the core IM experience, residents also have exposure on other rotations to specialty departments in the fields of Critical Care/Pulmonary Medicine, Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurology, and various others. During these rotations, residents are provided experience to inpatient and outpatient management by the specialty attending physicians.
Pediatrics
Numerous Riverside County families rely on our Pediatrics Department for medical care. Training in Pediatrics occurs in all three years of residency and includes the ambulatory, inpatient, and newborn care center settings. There is also a weekly pediatrics-only half day clinic in the Family Medicine Center.
Two months of the first year are set at Kaiser Permanente Fontana for inpatient pediatrics. This experience provides our residents with a wide and diverse pathology and the bulk of the pediatric hospitalist experience. Second year rotations are based at the Kaiser Permanente Riverside facility, focusing on newborn care, NICU experience, and outpatient clinic. Third year rotations are primarily focused on outpatient care in the pediatrics clinic.
General Surgery
Training in the first year has exposure to both outpatient care and the operating room, often acting as first assistants. Rotations in the second year are focused on inpatient post-operative management, and outpatient minor procedures.
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Obstetrics rotations are set as one month in the first year and one month in the second year of training. Residents will assist with the management of patients admitted through labor, delivery, and post-partum period. The medical center has more than 275 deliveries a month. Obstetrical procedures residents are exposed to include laceration repair, placement of internal and external catheters, interpretation of monitor strips, and assisted-delivery devices.
Gynecology rotations are set as two weeks in the first year and two weeks in the second year. For the first year, the focus is on routine cervical cancer screening, contraception counseling, and women’s health maintenance. For the second year, the focus is on inpatient and post-op management.
There is also a weekly gynecology clinic for second and third years that is focused on procedures, such as endometrial biopsies, Nexplanon placements and removals, and intrauterine device (IUD) placements and removals.
Emergency Medicine
First year residents rotate through the Emergency Department for two weeks, and second year residents rotate through for 3 weeks. The case variety seen in the Emergency Department is broad, with our residents getting experience with acute critical conditions and fast-track urgent care type complaints.
Research Opportunities
Lunch time teaching conferences are held nearly every day of the week, including weekly Resident didactic lectures covering topics from different specialties and Family Medicine, Resident Journal Club, Morning Report, and Board Review. Grand Rounds occur monthly with a wide range of topics arranged by the hospital CME department. Quality Improvement meetings occur quarterly with residents fully participating in the meetings and case discussions.