Our Curriculum

Spending more than half of their PGY2 and PGY3 time on ambulatory blocks, residents are cohorted together by year (R2s on block together, R3s on block together) and form a tight-knit learning community. While on ambulatory blocks, residents provide direct clinical care in a diversity of outpatient settings and engage in small-group learning seminars with expert faculty building knowledge and skills in core and advanced topics in general medicine.

Clinical Care in a Diversity of Settings:

• In addition to providing primary care for their own panel of diverse patients in our integrated resident-faculty practice and learning core skills in housecalls, panel management and systems-based practice, residents choose from over 100 different elective clinic sites to further refine and develop their knowledge and skills in ambulatory medicine. 
• Residents also can choose to have a second primary care practice at a community-based clinic caring for a specific patient population.

Social and Behavioral Medicine:

• Residents meet weekly in a small-group setting co-facilitated by a Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) faculty member and our on-site psychiatry faculty member. Through this interactive curriculum, residents gain knowledge and develop skills in patient-provider communication, treatment of psychiatric illness and substance use disorders, behavior change, addressing social determinants of health (including interpersonal and structural racism) and provider well-being.

Research and Scholarship: 

• All residents participate in monthly Journal Clubs facilitated by a DGIM faculty member.
• Residents can also elect to participate in the Resident Scholarship Program (RSP). The RSP curriculum includes twice-monthly interactive sessions on research methods and works-in-progress coupled with weekly protected time to do individual project work. 
• Residents are funded to attend the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting and are mentored to submit their scholarly work.

General Medicine Core Clinical Seminars:

• Weekly core clinical seminars round out the curriculum providing opportunities for learning together by resident year cohort on core internal medicine clinical topics and skills in a small group, case-based format with expert clinical faculty providing instruction.

GME Pathways:

• PGY2 and PGY3 residents may elect to participate in one of the UCSF GME Pathways.