Details on the curriculum and educational tracks in the Family Medicine Residency program at IU Health Arnett.

a family medicine resident practices her sutures on a chicken breast with the help of another trainee

Curriculum and Educational Tracks

At the IU School of Medicine Arnett Family Medicine Residency program, we pride ourselves on the content, structure, and continuous reappraisal improvement of all our education content.

Longitudinal Curriculum

One of the most exciting and unique aspects of the Arnett Family Medicine Residency is our longitudinal approach to family medicine education. We acknowledged early on that residents must have continuous exposure to specialty topics and experiences in order to allow for retention and application of the knowledge obtained. Along with understanding the unique benefit this type of curriculum provides, we also appreciate that certain experiences must be conducted as a continuous, traditional block. These include inpatient adult, pediatric, and obstetric rotations; critical care; and general surgery. Therefore, our curriculum is presented as blocks, with certain blocks designated as longitudinal blocks.

Educational Tracks

In addition to the excellent training that all residents at IU School of Medicine Arnett Family Medicine Residency are provided, we are also very excited to offer targeted education tracks in care of the older adult, global health, hospitalist medicine, and sports medicine.

Care of Older Adults Track

The care of older adults track allows for enhanced education in the care of our older adults. The track is designed for learners interested in pursuing a geriatrics fellowship, though it can be completed by any learner interested in learning more about the care of older adults. This educational track complements the care of older adults curriculum as well as the longitudinal nursing home experience that all residents complete.

Highlights of the care of older adults track include:

Elective rotations specific to the care of older adults
Resident-led presentations during didactics on geriatric medicine
Regular journal club sessions reviewing emerging research in geriatric medicine
Quality improvement project targeted to the care of the older patient in the Family Medicine Center
Community outreach opportunities geared towards to the older adult
Resident-led patient education sessions to community-dwelling older adults

Global Health Track

Residents at Arnett Family Medicine Residency have the opportunity to participate in the IU School of Medicine interdepartmental Global Health Track. This track engages highly motivated residents from all specialties to understand the social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors that contribute to health and disease throughout the world.

Highlights of the global health track include:

Local or international global health elective
Quarterly half day conferences that include didactic sessions, case reports, hands-on-learning, journal clubs, and group discussions
Mentorship: Twice/year meetings with global health mentor to discuss track progress, explore global health opportunities for career after residency, and inspire long-term commitment to global health issues
Scholarly project on a global health topic

Residents who successfully complete the global health track receive a certification in global health from the IU Center for Global Health.

Adult Hospital Medicine Track

The adult hospital medicine track offers enhanced training for resident physicians interested in a career as an adult hospitalist. The track is designed for resident physicians interested in practicing as an adult hospitalist after completion of residency training as well as residents interested in applying for hospital medicine fellowships.

Highlights of the adult hospital medicine track include:

Elective rotations specific to adult hospital medicine, including critical care, hospitalist administration, palliative care, inpatient neurology, and infectious disease
Participation in root cause analyses for inpatient cases
Participation in an Inpatient Hospital Committee
Quality improvement project targeted to the care of the inpatient adult

Sports Medicine Track

The sports medicine track offers additional training for residents who have a passion for sports medicine. The track supports resident physicians who wish to boost their skills in sports medicine as well as those who wish to pursue a sports medicine fellowship.

Highlights of the sports medicine track include:

Mentorship with fellowship trained Arnett physicians
Event coverage and sideline experience
Increased opportunity to practice musculoskeletal ultrasound and ultrasound guided joint injections
Opportunity to participate in scholarship activity at both local and national conferences

Curriculum by Year

PGY1 Curriculum

Inpatient Adult Medicine – 3 blocks Maternity Care – 1 block

Inpatient Pediatrics – 2 blocks Inpatient Nights – (2) 2-week blocks

Emergency Room – 1 block Longitudinal – 4 blocks, (2) 2-week blocks

PGY2 Curriculum

Inpatient Adult Medicine – 3 blocks Inpatient Nights – (2) 2-week blocks

ICU – 1 block Longitudinal – 3 blocks, (2) 2-week blocks

Maternity Care – (1) 2-week block Elective – 2 blocks

Surgery – 1 block

PGY3 Curriculum

Inpatient Adult Medicine – 2 blocks Inpatient Nights – (2) 2-week blocks

Maternity Care – (1) 2-week block Longitudinal – 2 blocks, (2) 2-week blocks

ICU – (1) 2-week block Elective – 4 blocks

FMC - 1 block

Curriculum by Rotation

IU School of Medicine Arnett Family Medicine Residency provides residents with an exciting and well-balanced approach to learning in an environment that enhances both clinical skills and personal development. Faculty and residents regularly review the curriculum to ensure it meets the educational needs of our residents to maintain curricular excellence.

Core Rotations

Maternity Care

IU Health Arnett offers many options for patient’s obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) needs. Residents at IU Health Arnett provide maternity care in their continuity clinic, rotate with Arnett obstetricians, and have exposure to the midwifery program. Residents have two months dedicated to Obstetrics during PGY1 and PGY2. During this time, residents will see patients in triage, manage active laboring patients, and participate in both vaginal and cesarean deliveries. When not on the Labor and Delivery floor, residents rotate in the outpatient OBGYN clinic seeing patients for prenatal care visits. In addition, residents have continuity OB patients they will see in their Family Medicine Residency Clinic. For these continuity OB patients, residents provide all prenatal care with an expectation to manage the delivery, postpartum, and newborn care.

a family medicine resident examines the arm of a patient in the clinic

Adult Inpatient

During the three years of training residents will get an opportunity to be part of our residency inpatient adult team. This group consists of a PGY1, PGY2, and PGY3 resident, as well as an attending physician and rounding pharmacist. During these rotations PGY1 and PGY2 residents manage their own list of patients as well as admit patients to the service with close supervision provided by the PGY3 resident. Attending support is comprised of both residency faculty and hospitalists, offering the opportunity to learn different care approaches and experience different teaching styles.

Residents also spend time on night-float working with the hospital nocturnists to cover our adult patient list, manage rapids, codes, and admit patients.

a resident examines a patient in the adult inpatient rotation

Pediatrics Inpatient

Inpatient pediatric is accomplished with three rotations during residency. While a PGY1, residents will do a block of inpatient pediatrics at Arnett Hospital where they get the opportunity to experience pediatric care at a community-based hospital. At IU Health Arnett residents get the opportunity to round on newborns at the hospital as well as the pediatric patients who are present. Residents also get the opportunity to rotate at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in their PGY1 and PGY2 years. During these blocks, residents are part of the Riley care teams and get exposed to higher volume pediatric care.

Family Medicine Clinic

The Family Medicine Clinic curriculum is a longitudinal outpatient-focused experience where all residents will provide wellness, acute and chronic care for patients of all ages in their continuity clinic at the Family Medicine Clinic. Residents gain a substantial amount of outpatient experience early on with as much as three half days of clinic as an intern. Care is provided through multiple formats including in-office care, video visits and phone visits. Residents will learn about population health and begin to manage their own patient panels while monitoring their quality metrics. Residents also learn a wide variety of procedural skills that can be done in an outpatient setting by rotating through our twice a week procedure clinic beginning in the intern year.

Longitudinal Training

Cardiology

During PGY1 residents will rotate with a cardiologist in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Residents will focus on learning the pathophysiology of common cardiovascular diseases and understand how to educate patients on prevention of cardiovascular disease. Residents will be exposed to the various diagnostic modalities for the cardiac patient, including stress tests, echocardiograms, tilt-table tests, cardiac catheterization and angiography and more. By the end of the longitudinal experience in the first year, interns will be expected to be able to master self-interpretation of EKG’s.
Dermatology

As part of the PGY1 longitudinal blocks, residents will spend time within the clinic with the dermatology department. On rotation residents will get experience in full body skin exams, simple procedures, and management of acute and chronic dermatologic conditions.
Outpatient Pediatrics

During PGY1 and PGY2, residents will rotate with our community Pediatricians focusing on the care of newborns, infants, children and adolescents in the outpatient setting. Residents will work alongside the pediatric physicians and expand their knowledge of well-child visits, developmental screenings, acute and chronic care of the pediatric population.
Gynecology

The gynecology rotation is integrated as part of the longitudinal curriculum in PGY2. Residents rotate in both general gynecology and urogynecology outpatient clinics with additional surgical gyn during OR days. Knowledge gained during this rotation is focused on preventative health for women, cancer screening, evaluation and management of gynecologic complaints, and reproductive health counseling and procedures. All residents gain experience with a myriad of gynecologic procedures including contraception management (IUD, Nexplanon, and tubal ligations), endometrial biopsy, colposcopy, LEEP, and cervical cryotherapy. These skills are continued during a resident’s Family Medicine Residency continuity clinic and procedure clinic. Each year the residents participate in workshops to review skills for colposcopy, IUD insertion, and endometrial biopsy.
Urgent Care

Throughout PGY2, residents rotate in both our Urgent Care sites in the Greater Lafayette area. During these shifts, residents staff all patients with an Urgent Care physician. Patient volumes are typically high as is opportunities for procedures.
Surgery

During the second year of residency training, all residents spend 4 weeks rotating with the General Surgery Department at IU Health Arnett. During this rotation, residents perform initial surgical evaluations for patients in the emergency department and inpatient settings, participate in planned and emergent surgeries at IU Health Arnett hospital and IU Health Arnett surgery center, have the opportunity to rotate in the IU Arnett Wound Care Center, and evaluate and treat patients in the General Surgery outpatient clinic.

Common procedures performed include bariatric (weight loss) surgery, breast surgery, chemotherapy ports and catheters, minimally invasive da Vinci robotic surgery, endocrine surgery, gallbladder surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, hemorrhoid surgery, hernia repair, laparoscopic/da Vinci colon surgery, laparoscopic surgery, including anti-reflux surgery, and office surgery performed in an outpatient setting.
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

All residents complete 30 four-hour clinical experiences with the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Department at IU Health Arnett during the longitudinal curriculum in the first and third years of training. Residents evaluate patients in the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine outpatient clinics, participate in scheduled orthopedic surgeries, and perform outpatient procedures (including ultrasound-guided joint injections).
Care of the Older Adult

The Care of the Older Adult curriculum is divided into two experiences. During the first and second years of training, residents complete 30 four-hour experiences during the longitudinal curriculum learning about the care of older adults outside of the inpatient setting. This includes dedicated time with Senior Wellness Clinic, Connected Care Clinic, Area IV Agency on Aging, Home Care, Hospice, and Inpatient Palliative Care. Residents also take part in a longitudinal nursing home experience that starts in the second year and finishes at the conclusion of residency training. During this experience, each resident is assigned 3-4 continuity nursing home patients to treat and manage similar patients seen in the Family Medicine Clinic.
Behavioral Health

All residents complete 30 four-hour clinical experiences dedicated to behavioral health as part of the longitudinal curriculum in the first and second year. Residents work with our embedded clinical psychologist during these experiences as well as work side by side managing patients during their family medicine clinic. There are also several didactics sessions throughout the academic year dedicated to the diagnosis and management of common mental health illnesses and motivational interviewing.
Practice Management

The practice management longitudinal experience throughout residency stimulates engagement of various activities that will help prepare the resident for their own future medical practice. This begins as an intern learning appropriate clinic billing and coding. By PGY2 each resident will become an active participant within our healthcare organization by joining a professional committee and attending organizational meetings. Residents will continue to gain understanding of population health management working with our pop health care team while aiming to improve their own quality metrics. They will also complete a personal finance course dedicated to physicians to help set personal financial goals and planning for the future.
Emergency Medicine

Residents complete their experience in emergency medicine during their PGY1 and PGY3 years. Residents rotate through emergency rooms at both the Level 3 Arnett Hospital as well as at the critical access White Memorial Hospital in Monticello. Each site offers residents unique learning opportunities, with White Memorial being 1:1 with attendings, while Arnett has multiple attendings and higher volumes. During each shift residents are required to staff every patient with an Emergency Room attending, but otherwise are the primary physician for the patient.
Point of Care Ultrasound

As medical technologies continue to advance and develop, IU Health Arnett is dedicated to training on the forefront of medicine. Point of care ultrasound training is integrated throughout the residency experience during both inpatient and outpatient rotations. Residents gain knowledge of point of care ultrasound application and improve diagnostic proficiency through participation in didactic lectures and workshops. During outpatient continuity clinics, residents are encouraged to use one of the 4 easily accessible and portable ultrasounds available to evaluate appropriate concerns ranging from MSK pathology, soft tissue disorders or infection, pulmonary concerns, or OB fetal presentation. The inpatient rounding team is encouraged to integrate point of care ultrasound evaluation as an extension of their routine physical exam with group teaching occurring during Gel Rounds.
Intensive Care

Residents spend two weeks in their PGY3 year working 1:1 with the ICU attending. During their week’s residents are responsible for 1-3 patients, and coordinate care with the ICU team during ICU multi-disciplinary rounds. Residents also get to participate in procedures if available as well as help consult with the pulmonary service.