Curriculum

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Family Medicine Residency education is divided between inpatient and outpatient sites. The core learning experience involves treating patients and their families in the Family Medicine Clinic.

Educational Program Highlights:

  • A strong focus on patient-centered, evidence-based humanistic care.
  • Special focus curricula in: obstetrics, rural practice, sports medicine, care to the underserved, faculty development and leadership.
  • Five months of electives customizable to resident interest.
  • Strong pediatric and obstetric experience.
  • Outstanding core faculty mentors who provide full-spectrum family medicine care.
  • A supportive multi-residency setting that values the expertise and excellence of our family medicine residents.
  • Exemplary, evidence-based noon didactic teaching sessions and core family medicine ambulatory seminars develop resident skills.

Didactics

Our daily noon conference is highly rated, rigorously evidence-based and excellent preparation for the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) board examination.

Our residency has a 100 percent board pass rate for the last five+ years!

Didactic seminars are interactive and feature our family medicine faculty, resident evidence-based medicine (EBM) talks, resident journal club and select outstanding subspecialty speakers from other specialties.

Elective Months

A total of five elective months are scheduled in the second and third year. Residents can choose from a wide range of elective experiences to prepare them for practice in a variety of settings, including:

  • Academic Medicine/Leadership.
  • Addiction Medicine.
  • Community Health/Underserved.
  • GI/Proctology.
  • Global Health/International.
  • High-Risk Obstetrics.
  • Pulmonary.
  • Rheumatology.
  • Rural.
  • Scholarly Activity/Project Month.
  • Sports Medicine.
  • Urgent Care.

Special Focus Curricula

Academic Medicine/Leadership

All our residents learn to be outstanding teachers by teaching medical students and fellow residents and through formal “Resident as Teacher” instruction and our close relationship with the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. All our residents graduate as strong evidence-based physicians.

We have many graduates who are currently family medicine faculty across the country. Residents prepare for a career in academics and leadership with the following curricular options:

  • Project month to develop scholarly project.
  • Presentations at local and national meetings.
  • Faculty development fellowship at the University of Arizona.
  • Publications.

International/Rural Health

Residents from the past several years have rotated in a wide variety of international and rural settings including: Hopi Health Center (AZ), Whiteriver Indian Health Service (AZ), the Grand Canyon, Page (AZ), Snowflake (AZ), the Dominican Republic, Thailand, South Sudan and Nepal.

Residents may be away from their continuity clinic no more than two months of residency. We have many graduates working in rural areas and several who practice internationally.

Maternal Health/Obstetrics

All our residents get a high-volume OB experience in the intern year. All residents also have an outstanding continuity obstetrics experience in their second and third years, delivering with family physician mentors. All residents graduate with 60-80 vaginal deliveries.

Residents that wish additional obstetrics experience work closely with our OB/GYN residency colleagues to do high-risk obstetrics care, additional vaginal deliveries and C-section experience if desired.

Sports Medicine

In addition to our strong musculoskeletal medicine training, the residents and faculty at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix work closely with our orthopaedic residency colleagues and primary care sports medicine fellows to cover seven high school football teams.

We regularly match graduates to top sports medicine fellowships around the country and sponsor our own Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship.