Family Medicine Curriculum

Our Family Medicine Clinic consists of 60% clinic, 20% research, 10% practice management and 10% community health/osteopathic principles. You’ll have 6 months dedicated to care in the ambulatory setting. Longitudinal care is also provided during core rotations. This newly designed Gundersen clinic is a certified PCMH team. Focus will be on maximizing the doctor-patient relationship in motivational interviewing and providing high-quality longitudinal care across all ages. There will be an integration of wellness, disease management, pharmacy and behavioral health in the clinic. During these months, you'll have dedicated time to explore scholarly projects, quality improvement and practice management skills. 

You’ll spend 2 months in emergency rooms during your residency – 1 month in La Crosse and 1 month in Tomah. Emergency Services cares for more than 40,000 visits per year and is staffed full-time with emergency boarded physicians. Our hospital in La Crosse is the only Level 2 Trauma Center in the area, receiving complex medical and surgical emergencies. 

In this PGYI inpatient month, you’ll care for critically ill adult patients in our state-of-the-art ICU staffed by pulmonary and ICU intensivists. 

In this PGYI month-long rotation, you’ll gain experience caring for patients with acute and chronic cardiac illnesses under the care of board-certified cardiologists. This includes patients with ACS, STEMI, CHF exacerbations and rhythm disturbances. 

The inpatient internal medicine training comprises 2 months per year for all 3 years. The PGYI year includes 2 months on an academic teaching service that emphasizes a slower pace within a highly academic environment focusing on complex cases. In the PGYII and PGYIII years, you will rotate onto a hospitalist service staffed by general internal medicine and family physician hospitalists. You'll be part of a fast-paced, high-volume service with problems common to a community hospital that family physicians will encounter. 

This 1-month experience in PGYII will include experiences in the General Surgery clinic evaluating common surgical problems and performing common ambulatory procedures such as anoscopy, lesion removals and preoperative evaluation of common surgical problems. 

During this 1-month rotation, you will work at one of Gundersen's rural community clinics to learn about the opportunities, strengths and challenges of practicing in a rural community. The site will be a PCMH and offer full-spectrum family medicine including obstetrics in the community. You will practice with the clinic's Family Medicine team providing care in the clinic, and also work with rural surgeons and other specialists in the community during this rotation.  

Housing will be provided if required. All clinical sites are within a 2-hour drive allowing you to return home for weekends if there are no call responsibilities. 

Spend 1 month caring for geriatric patients with a board-certified geriatrician, performing geriatric assessments on frail, elderly patients. This experience includes caring for patients with gait dysfunction, multiple chronic problems, polypharmacy and dementia-related illness in an integrated team. 

You will participate in a Sports Medicine Clinic for 1 month supervised by a family physician with an added qualification in sports medicine and 20 years of clinical practice. Learn about pre-participation sports evaluations, treatment of common sports related injuries, with an added focus on concussion care. You will also attend sporting events and participate as a team physician during this rotation. 

There are 2 months of required obstetrical inpatient care during the first year, which allows you to care for pregnant patients in prenatal, labor and delivery and postpartum. Routine vaginal deliveries, vacuum assisted deliveries and assisting in cesarean sections will be mastered. There are no other residents competing for vaginal deliveries on labor and delivery. Two months of further obstetrical training are available during the second and third year if you plan on offering obstetrics in your practice. This additional training emphasizes advanced skills and high-risk obstetrics. 

This 1-month musculoskeletal rotation involves providing care with orthopedic physicians in the ambulatory setting. Common joint examinations will be mastered along with management of common problems of the hip, shoulder, hand and hip. Fracture care, splinting and casting will be integrated into this experience. 

Gundersen has a pediatric hospitalist program which includes pediatric inpatient, newborn and consultative services. You will provide pediatric inpatient care for 1 month of each training year with progressive responsibility and authority. The pediatric inpatient experience has no competition from other residents. After these months, you will be competent to care for common pediatric diseases. 

You will spend 1 month in PGYI and PGYII in the Patient-Centered Medical Home certified pediatric clinic caring for children with common ambulatory problems. This experience includes the full spectrum of pediatric practice, emphasizing well care, anticipatory guidance, common infectious diseases, asthma, GI disorders and other common neurobehavioral issues such as ADHD. 

Provide care to patients with board-certified gynecologists during this one-month experience and master common gynecologic procedures. You will also experience with consults in the ER for issues such as evaluation of heavy vaginal bleeding, ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. 

This residency focuses not only on improving medical skills, but also the personal wellness of staff and residents. Gundersen has a long history of providing an excellent work-life balance. Our curriculum has longitudinal time carved out monthly for wellness activities. Two- to 4-hour blocks are dedicated monthly for our residents to practice personal wellness activities and team building. These resident-inspired activities range from ropes courses, kayaking, hiking, snow shoeing, and curling to visiting art museums, river picnics, meditation and yoga. 

For graduation, you'll be required to participate in two scholarly projects, at least one of which involves quality improvement. Our faculty have extensive experience in quality improvement, efficiency and safety. Gundersen Medical Foundation has staff including biostatisticians with expertise in designing, performing, presenting and publishing scholarly work. Learn more about our research opportunities.  

Gundersen offers a number of high-quality electives to round out the resident experience so you can tailor your educational experience. Many of these are available on the La Crosse Campus including most of the surgical, medical, neurologic and pediatric subspecialties.