Curriculum and Rotations, Department of Family Medicine in the Medical School at the University of Minnesota

Curriculum Overview
The faculty and staff at Smiley’s know that residents need to be trained to deliver the best care possible in the dynamic and ever-changing health care environment. Smiley’s has a reputation for innovation, and our curriculum is no exception. We are actively using and teaching the chronic care model, and our new facility is designed to be a medical home for our patients. With an interdisciplinary team and the most advanced technology at their disposal, our residents are able to advocate for patients and provide the best possible care. We have an emphasis on sustainable work/life balance, and we strive to support our residents in their pursuit of their individual goals.

Core Curriculum
Our family medicine curriculum is designed not only to provide exceptional instruction in the fundamentals of family medicine, but also offers unique opportunities for training above and beyond the status quo. 

• Smiley’s features a distinctive procedure clinic that offers superb training in dozens of minor office procedures, including skin procedures, hemorrhoid care, vasectomy, endometrial biopsy and joint aspiration. 
• Smiley’s behavioral medicine curriculum features a week spent at the world renowned Hazelden addiction treatment center. In their continuity clinic, residents receive excellent teaching and the support they need through collaborative care with our psychiatrist and psychologists.
• Smiley’s women’s health curriculum offers generous opportunity for women’s health procedure training and will soon include an opportunity for training in termination of pregnancy.
• Smiley’s OB curriculum combines instruction from our experienced family medicine faculty on our inpatient OB service and a high-volume delivery experience with OB faculty at Methodist Hospital.
• Smiley’s residents become skilled inpatient physicians while working with our faculty caring for Smiley’s inpatients and through one-on-one teaching with our internal medicine hospitalist colleagues.

Electives
Smiley’s boasts a list of innovative electives that include sports medicine and the USA Soccer Cup, alternative medicine, Camp Needlepoint (adolescent diabetes program), a medical humanities elective, an elective on self-care and balance for physicians, and a parenting elective for second- and third-year residents who have a child.  Many of our graduates take advantage of the opportunity for international electives; residents have recently been on rotation in India, Costa Rica, Pakistan, Panama, Korea, and Thailand. Elective rotations are available in almost every specialty through our partnership with the University of Minnesota Medical Center-Fairview.

Teaching Conferences
Core didactic lectures at Smiley’s are dynamic, interactive and attended by both faculty and residents. Scheduled from 11:30 am-2:00 pm every Tuesday at Smiley's Clinic, Smiley’s faculty and outside consultants present a variety of ambulatory care related topics. Recent highlights include “Asthma, Humanities and Chronic Care,” a manual vacuum aspiration workshop, and a developmental pediatrics resource workshop. Inpatient topics are discussed on a rotating basis Thursdays in the medical center. Topics include mock codes, ER lectures, IM case presentations, and M&M discussions.

2008-2009 Rotation Schedule