What Makes Our Program Unique?

"A program needs a behavioral science component to exist. I can't see doing Family Practice without the kind of strong background we get here." - Ronnie Pratt, MD, resident

Throughout the three years, your preparation as a family physician goes beyond the required rotations. This is mainly where residency programs differ. West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus' program distinguished itself by providing the following longitudinal experiences:

Behavioral Science
     Because family medicine will involve you in a therapeutic capacity in the lives of your patients and their families, your interpersonal skills are of primary importance. Moreover, it is likely that your patients will present you with a range of problems such as depression, stress-related illness and marital or sexual difficulties. To equip you to interact sensitively and to recognize, assess, and initiate treatment for such patients, behavioral science training experiences are incorporated throughout the program's three years.
     A full-time behavioral scientist is available to all residents for consultation, co-precepting, and demonstration of therapeutic techniques for use with patients. Twice weekly, the behavioral scientist participates in inpatient rounds with residents and faculty. A weekly Patient Care Seminar (Balint) will allow you to discuss your patients from a behavioral standpoint and consult with peers and faculty, among whom are a psychologist and a family physician. Monthly core curriculum conferences address common psychosocial problems and include workshops that focus on skills such as counseling, telephone medicine, and working with families.

Videotaping
     Videotape review of your patient sessions is designed to give useful feedback on your interviewing, counseling and problem-solving skills; nonverbal physician-patient/family interaction; and the efficiency with which you conduct office visits. These tapes are made in specially equipped exam rooms in the Family Health Center. You then review your session tapes with the behavioral scientist or a faculty member whose remarks can serve to heighten your ability to self-monitor and modify your approach as necessary.

Longitudinal Elective
     As a third-year resident, you will choose or design a nine-month elective, which is a continuing experience on a weekly basis. It may be divided between two longitudinal elective experiences. Some options include industrial medicine, family counseling, research, women's health, minor surgery, sports medicine, teaching, evidence-based medicine, and alternative medicine.

Faculty member Jack Nemec, MD, and resident Will Wakefield, MD examine a high school basketball player at practice.

Patient Education
     Educating patients and encouraging them to become active partners in their own health care are strongly supported by the program's emphasis on patient education. As a resident physician, you will be expected to identify the learning needs of your patients and tailor a specific teaching plan to guide them to the required information.
     Throughout the program's three years, a full-time nurse practitioner and patient educator coordinates the activities, assists you in developing patient teaching methods and materials, and serves as your resource for in-depth education with selected patients. Faculty and staff are also available to help you in your patient education duties.
     The many patient-teaching aids at the Family Health Center include printed materials, video and audio tapes, anatomical models, teaching posters, and computer-based programs. Waiting areas and exam rooms also contain these materials for patients' use.
     The West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus Residency has established a program of excellence with national recognition for its patient education efforts. In 1991, West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus was honored with the national Patient Care Award for Excellence in Patient Education, presented at the annual Patient Education Conference.

Community Medicine
     Residents are exposed to longitudinal experience in community medicine by observing and working with community groups, schools, community health resources, and sports medicine programs, as part of several required and elective rotations. You may become as involved as you wish in the Family Health Center's patient education and community outreach programs, or begin one of your own. You can work with faculty members who are involved with a variety of community activities including a freestanding birthing center, a school district and geriatric and HIV-related services.

Resident Support Group
     The program is sensitive to the unique stresses that new physicians sometimes encounter during their residency experience. To ease your transition into your new roles, the program begins resident support during the first-year orientation, when faculty confers with you on risk assessment and stress reduction, and addresses the fears and expectations of residents. A retreat for new residents further encourages supportive peer group cohesion, preparing the way for your future participation in the program's resident support group. This group is open to all residents and gives you the opportunity to develop effective communication and interpersonal skills while dealing with the positive and negative aspects of your residency in a supportive atmosphere.

Evaluations for Guidance
     Resident Evaluation - Objectives and evaluations are established to guide, assess, and document each resident's experiences in rotations and at the Family Health Center.  At the end of each rotation, the supervising attending physician evaluates you on a range of essential knowledge, skills and professional attributes. Family Health Center preceptors audit charts, directly observe your patient care, evaluate your specific clinical and practice management skills and document their observations monthly, using as their criteria numerous aspects of an ideal Family Health Center office visit.
     Development Staffings - Twice in the first year, and once in each of the second and third years, staffings are held for each resident. At these meetings, you complete a self-evaluation according to stated criteria and, with your advisor and a preceptor, review and discuss all rotation and office evaluations.  With the benefit of this feedback, you and your evaluators outline a written six-month or one-year plan for your continued development.
     Program Evaluation - Each resident is regularly requested to evaluate the teaching, rotations, and other learning experiences that comprise the program. Residents also participate in curriculum, patient education, research, and Family Health Center committees with faculty members and the residency director to plan and implement program modifications.

Family Centered Birthing
     Residents at West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus learn an approach to obstetrics which is quite different than that typically practiced by obstetricians. Family Centered Birthing is a high-touch, low-tech approach in which assumptions about practice are challenged by evidence-based medicine, and the needs and desires of the laboring woman are supported when possible. Family Practice faculty members back up most of the deliveries and serve as role models. They and our obstetrician faculty member support the residents as they work directly with their patients. We also have nurse midwives who participate in precepting of prenatal visits and deliveries. You will learn to practice a safe and satisfying approach to the prenatal and birthing process that is consistent with the philosophy of Family Practice.

Resident Ed Garofolo, MD examines a newborn as faculty member Janice Anderson, MD, observes.

Women's Health
     West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus has more than a 15-year history of actively teaching women's health and offering an elective or longitudinal experience to senior residents in that area. In 1994, we received a U.S. Health and Human Services Grant to develop a comprehensive curriculum in women's health for the residency. The curriculum is informed by input from women patient focus groups, by evolving biomedical knowledge, and by attention to specific areas affecting women, such as violence and awareness of barriers to access which include financial need, multiple roles and communication problems.

Family Practice Conferences
     Core curriculum conferences are presented for one hour, four days per week, with occasional additional times. These conferences provide an effective means for supplementing your knowledge of patient care and problem solving. We have a well-organized conference curriculum that includes all the key areas of family practice. Conferences are conducted by West Penn - Forbes Regional Campus Medical Staff physicians, faculty, residents, and contributing faculty from local institutions.