Curriculum Overview
Our curriculum was designed to meet the needs of family physicians that practice in remote and isolated Alaskan communities. Alaskan bush communities differ greatly from many rural communities of the lower 48 states and our areas of emphasis reflect this. We encourage our residents to think freely so they will feel comfortable managing patients without rapid specialist access other than by telephone. Our faculty, who all have longstanding experience with the Alaskan rural and urban needs, continually revise and improve the curriculum based on the needs and input of the residents. The close faculty resident relationship has helped to maximize resident learning while minimizing those parts of the curriculum that are ineffective in meeting their goals.
See below for a breakdown of the curriculum by year or go to Core Rotations for detailed descriptions of our rotations.
Program Overview Video
| Rotations Offered | Weeks on Service Intern Year | Weeks on Service 2nd Year | Weeks on Service 3rd Year |
| Ambulatory: Dedicated outpatient clinical rotation at the FMP site. | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Community and Ambulatory Medicine (CAM): This rotation serves as an introduction to the FMP site and the patient centered medical home and is composed of outpatient clinic sessions and didactic sessions. Interns will have a relaxed schedule with dedicated preceptors and peer level support during the first block of their residency. Didactic presentations review the EHR, billing and coding, the interdisciplinary care team, and other primary care topics. | 4 | ||
| Cardiology: Composed of time with the inpatient cardiology team as well as the outpatient cardiology clinic seeing general new referrals. Includes continuity clinic at the FMP site. | 2 | ||
| Critical Care (ICU):Teams of 3-4 residents. Work under dedicated intensivists at the hospital. Procedural opportunities available. | 4 | ||
| Dermatology: Composed of time with community dermatology clinics and sometimes includes online modules. Includes continuity clinic at the FMP site. | 2 | ||
| Elective: 6+ months over 3 years. Involves time in continuity clinic at the FMP site; rural electives exclude time at FMP site. | 4 | 8 | 14 |
| Adult Emergency Medicine: These are staffed by ER physicians. R1 Year includes options at an Anchorage or a rural ER site (Soldotna, Fairbanks have been common rural options, ANMC or PAMC ER for a local option). This R1 rotation includes 1 week of intubations, 1 week of ER bootcamp, and 2 weeks in an ER. Clinic at the FMP site is included for the intubation and bootcamp weeks. Third year includes two 2-week blocks at the PAMC ER, the Level 2 Trauma Center for the state. Includes clinic at the FMP site and often includes cross-coverage call on the inpatient medicine service on the weekend. | 4 | 4 | |
| Pediatric Emergency Medicine: Staffed by ER physicians at PAMC, some of which have specialty Peds EM training. This rotation includes clinic at the FMP site and often includes cross-coverage call on the inpatient pediatrics service on the weekend. | 4 | ||
| Geriatrics: Includes time at a local ALF doing home visits on site, time with local hospice teams, and time in the PAMC wound care clinic. There is dedicated time for scholarly activity during this rotation, and many residents participate in a GEM article review (publishable paper). This rotation includes clinic at the FMP site and often includes cross-coverage call on the medicine service on the weekend. | 4 | ||
| Gynecology: Includes time in our internal OBGYN consult clinic at the FMP site working with the FM-OB faculty to address concerns within our own clinic panel. Additionally, includes time with community OBGYN and/or GYN/ONC clinic. This rotation includes time at the FMP site and often includes cross-coverage call on the OB service on the weekend. | Linked to Ambulatory Clinic rotations. | 4 | |
| Inpatient Pediatrics: Staff the inpatient pediatrics service at PAMC which is run by dedicated pediatric hospitalists and is the only Children’s Hospital in the state, caring for both common and specialized health conditions. There are often medical students on this rotation. This rotation includes clinic time at the FMP site. (4 weeks days R1/4 weeks nights R2) | 4 | 4 | |
| Medicine (Inpatient): Staffed by primarily full scope FM physicians, majority of which are core faculty at the residency. The service keeps a dynamic cap to grow the census through the year as the teams mature. Max census is usually 15-18 patients for 2 interns and 1 senior, but this can go higher depending on the milieu and the team. There are usually medical students on this rotation. This rotation includes clinic time at the FMP site and includes night and weekend coverage. Interns serve as the primary clinician for their panel of patients with management of the team being the primary responsibility of the senior resident. (12 weeks days R1, 4 weeks nights R1/8 weeks days R3, 4 weeks nights R3) | 16 | Some cross coverage. | 12 |
| Musculoskeletal (Ortho): 2-week block in R1 year. Includes clinic time at the FMP site. | 2 | ||
| Obstetrics: These rotations are dedicated time on L&D, OB Triage, postpartum, antepartum, and newborn units. Staffed by core FM OB faculty and combination of community OB-GYN and CNM faculty. R2 serves as the senior on the rotation. Newborn care is included in this rotation. (6 weeks days R1, 2 weeks nights R1/4 weeks days R2, 4 weeks nights R2) | 8 | 8 | |
| Outpatient Pediatrics:R1 year includes time at community outpatient peds clinics, Alaska Cares (forensic pediatric clinic), and pediatric therapies (PT/OT/SLP). Second year includes time at a single primary care site, typically at Southcentral Foundation for time with AK Native beneficiaries and the IHS system. | 4 | 4 | |
| Health Systems and Practice Management: Focuses on functioning within larger health systems. Includes didactic experiences meant to enhance the resident’s understanding of functioning within larger health systems. Includes dedicated time for work on QI projects. Rotation is led by the Medical Director of the FMP site. This rotation includes clinic time at the FMP site. | 2 | ||
| Mental and Behavioral Health: Focuses on management of substance use disorders and integrated behavioral health. | 4 | ||
| Rural: All residents spend 6 weeks in their second year in one of two rural sites off the road system (Bethel or Sitka). The R2 rural rotation does not include time at the FMP site. In R3 year, residents have 8 weeks of rural electives, 4 of which can be in an international location; residents choose where to go and what skills to focus on in these rural electives. | 6 | 8 | |
| Rural and Austere Medicine (RAM): Covers winter survival skills, field triage, and other rural medicine topics. 2-week rotation in R1 year paired with TCM. There is the option of participating in components of this rotation as a facilitator/peer teacher in R3 year, but this is not required. Additional, optional opportunities include the Marine Wilderness Medicine experience in the Spring/early summer. | 2 | 2 | |
| Surgery: Includes time with general surgery/trauma surgery service as well as ATLS experience and floor management of surgical and postoperative patients. This rotation includes clinic time at the FMP site. | 2 | ||
| Transcultural and Community Medicine (TCM): Uses a combination of didactic and experiential learning opportunities to deepen resident’s understanding of the diversity of our Anchorage community as well as that of our Alaskan community more broadly. This rotation is led by the behavioral health faculty of the residency. |
2 |