Education / Graduate Medical Education / Prospective Residents / Family Medicine / About the Program

About the Program

Watkins precepting

Clinical Training

Outpatient Continuity Practice – At both of our resident continuity practice sites – Highland Family Medicine (urban) and Brown Square (urban FQHC) – residents spend a progressively increasing amount of time in clinic seeing patients from their continuity panel. This is 1-2 half-days per week in the PGY-1 year and increases to 4 half-days in the PGY-3 year. To better promote wellness and to emulate practice after training, most outpatient rotations now also have scheduled half-days of clinical administrative time for residents to complete inter-visit patient care tasks, documentation, and other administrative tasks. Residents are fully incorporated into multidisciplinary teams who meet regularly to focus on improving the quality of care for the patients we serve. Both sites have on-site care managers, behavioral health specialists, social workers, and pharmacists. There are dedicated staff to obtain medication prior authorizations, manage referrals, and aid with form completion. Both sites also have dedicated procedure clinics for residents to learn Derm, GYN, and MSK procedures.
Adult Inpatient Medicine – A total of 6 months of inpatient medicine, 3 weeks of night float, and one month of ICU. Supervision is provided by Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Geriatrics attendings to provide a variety of clinical perspectives. Morning Report and Noon Conference (lunch provided) occur five days per week. Caps help ensure a balance between work and learning and help with better life-work balance, yet the experience is robust enough that some residents take jobs as hospitalists after graduation. Our program offers an Area of Concentration in Hospital Medicine.
Obstetrics – With about 3000 deliveries per year, Highland Hospital is the busiest maternity unit in the Rochester area. Residents routinely get 40-60 deliveries in their 2-month intern OB rotation, and have the opportunity to train with family physicians, obstetricians, and nurse midwives. Family medicine Maternal and Child Health fellows add to the educational experience, with the fellowship’s recent expansion from 2 to 4 fellows per year. There are opportunities for interested residents to do additional rotations on OB during their 2nd and 3rd years. This includes supervisory experience, management of more serious complications of pregnancy and labor, and additional ultrasound training. Residents interested in practicing maternity care after residency routinely get over 100 deliveries. Continuity prenatal care experience and continuity patient deliveries begin in the R-1 year. Our program offers an Area of Concentration in Maternal Child Health.
Pediatrics – 6 months of high volume experiences which include pediatric emergency department, inpatient, outpatient and community-based programs.

Community Hospital in a University Setting

“The best of both worlds” truly describes Highland Hospital. Highland Hospital is a 319-bed hospital with a newly completed $70 million renovation and expansion just completed, providing state-of-the-art facilities for your training. It is tucked into the edge of Highland Park, approximately one mile from the large university hospital, Strong Memorial Hospital. Family Medicine has been an integral part of Highland since the founding of the specialty in 1969.

It is a hospital with a rich history of collaboration, where family physicians, internists, and subspecialists greet each other warmly and curbside consult each other over coffee at Primary Care Grand Rounds every Tuesday morning; where family physician attendings have C-section privileges, attend every resident continuity delivery, and attend on our busy adult medicine inpatient service.

It is a hospital large enough to have excellent services, yet small enough where you get to know all the cardiologists, nephrologists, OB/GYNs, and surgeons, and they get to know you. They become invested in your education, in you personally.

Emphasis on Psychosocial Medicine

This aspect of our training truly makes us unique. The goal of psychosocial medicine (PSM) is the development of personal and professional skills. A Family Physician's ability to communicate with patients and to think on a systems level is what sets us apart and allows us to function as excellent clinicians. A few highlights of this rotation:

40% of residents’ time is spent in their outpatient practice, providing an opportunity to implement many of their PSM skills and truly experience continuity with their patients.
All residents are trained and certified in Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) with Suboxone.
Residents participate in a Family Systems Medicine Practicum co-taught by a family physician and a family therapist
Short-term primary care counseling, core seminars and educational experiences in alcoholism and chemical dependency, parent counseling, eating disorders, psychopharmacology, and child psychiatry
Intensive small group experience with an analytically oriented psychiatrist, providing an opportunity for self-reflection and education about the dynamics of small groups.
In total, the Psychosocial Medicine rotation is generally considered pivotal in the development of every family physician. Read more detailed information.