Curriculum

Immersion Rotations

EVMS Family Medicine is one of 25 residency programs across the United States participating in the Family Medicine National Innovation in Continuity Clinic Experience (FM-NICEE) pilot, which grants our program a waiver from the ACGME requirement that states a family medicine resident must have a presence in their continuity clinic at least 40 weeks per academic year.

The program has taken advantage of this waiver by developing "immersion" rotations, which allow our residents to spend two full weeks dedicated to their specialty rotations in each 4-week block.  The remaining two weeks of the block is spent in continuity clinic.

Advantages of immersion rotations:

• Simpler schedules: less worry about balancing clinic with other experiences during a rotation
• Better experience with community faculty: the faculty know you're with them for a full, unencumbered two weeks, and they don't concern themselves about when you might have to leave to get to clinic each day
• Continuity clinic patient panels are shared by 2+ residents, leading to greater satisfaction for both patients and providers, and allowing easier access to each other
• Clinic weeks allow time for self study and research endeavors

PGY-1

• Orientation
• Inpatient Team (Norfolk General and Maryview)
• Ambulatory Pediatrics
• Behavioral Medicine
• ICU
• Geriatrics
• Labor and Delivery (Norfolk General)
• Newborn Nursery
• Night Float (Maryview)
• Pediatric Hospital Medicine
• Ultrasound

PGY-2

• Inpatient Team (Norfolk General and Maryview)
• Adult Emergency Medicine
• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Ambulatory Pediatrics
• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• Geriatrics
• Night Float
• Musculoskeletal Medicine
• Procedure Weeks
• Surgery
• Women's Health
• Backup

PGY-3

• Inpatient Team
• Adult Emergency Medicine
• Ambulatory Pediatrics
• Electives
• Nephrology
• Night Float
• Procedure Weeks
• Backup

Longitudinal

• Continuity Clinical Practice
• Didactics/Workshops (Wednesday afternoons)
• Practice Management
• Scholarly Activity
• Self-Study

Community clinics 

Interns spend multiple mornings at Sentara's Ambulatory Care Clinic (ACC), providing care for Hampton Roads' underserved population. Many ACC patients had previously been patients of Ghent Family Medicine in Hofheimer Hall; the department strives to continue to provide continuity care to our patients, in partnership with Sentara and its access to community resources and services such as Medication Assistance Plans.

Residents also have the opportunity to spend Thursday evenings at the Health Outreach Partnership of EVMS Students (HOPES) clinic, the first and only student-run free clinic in Virginia. At HOPES, residents help medical students serve the uninsured residents of Norfolk, including Spanish-speaking patients during Clínica Esperanza evenings at HOPES.

The Family Medicine Residency offers residents the opportunity to develop their chosen Family Medicine interests with elective time utilization. Many of these tailored experiences have more electives than the available elective months given to residents; this enables the resident to choose which ones will best suit their academic needs. If a resident has an interest in a tailored experience, they should meet with the program director within the first six months of their residency to help establish goals for their residency.

For more information about tailored experiences, please email us at fmr@evms.edu. 

Conferences

Curriculum at EVMS Family Medicine includes a variety of learning opportunities including:

• Grand rounds once a month
• Lectures every Wednesday covering topics including:
  • Pediatrics
  • Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Dermatology
  • Journal Club
  • Geriatrics
  • Practice Management
  • Quality improvement
  • Hands-on workshops, including Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)

Resident life

Intern year

The internship is often considered the hardest year among the three years of family medicine residency, but you will have tons of fun. Every day is a learning day. Interns participate in a comprehensive orientation schedule in the first days of their internship, preparing them to be more self-sufficient and comfortable conducting the daily responsibilities of residency. Faculty and senior residents are always available and friendly. We offer regular resident support groups with our behavioral medicine faculty, which provide a secure and supportive environment to discuss residency successes and challenges, both in the hospital and outside of it.

Second and third years

Senior residents will have more responsibility in supervising interns and teaching medical students. Hours are more flexible, access to elective rotations becomes more prevalent, and residents have more spare time to enjoy the Hampton Roads area.