Family Medicine Curriculum

Our Family Medicine Clinic consists of 60% clinic, 20% research, 10% practice management and 10% community health/osteopathic principles. You’ll have 6 months dedicated to care in the ambulatory setting. Longitudinal care is also provided during core rotations. Focus will be on maximizing the doctor-patient relationship in functional contextual interviewing and providing high-quality longitudinal care across all ages. There will be an integration of wellness, disease management, pharmacy and behavioral health in the clinic. During these months, you'll have dedicated time to explore scholarly projects, quality improvement and practice management skills.

You’ll spend two months in emergency rooms during your residency — one month in La Crosse and one month in Tomah, WI. Emergency Services cares for more than 40,000 visits per year, and when in Tomah, you will experience the rural side of emergency care. Our hospital in La Crosse is the only Level 2 Trauma Center in the area, receiving complex medical and surgical emergencies.

For two weeks during the PGY1, you’ll care for critically ill adult patients in our state-of-the-art ICU.

During this PGY1, two-week rotation, you’ll gain experience caring for patients with acute and chronic cardiac illnesses under the care of board-certified cardiologists. This includes patients with ACS, STEMI, CHF exacerbations and rhythm disturbances.

The inpatient internal medicine training comprises two months per year for all three years. The PGY1 year includes two months on an academic teaching service that emphasizes a slower pace within a highly academic environment focusing on complex cases. In the PGY2 and PGY3 years, you will rotate onto a hospitalist service staffed by internal medicine and family physician hospitalists. You'll be part of a fast-paced, high-volume service with problems common to a community hospital. 

This one-month rotation in PGY2 will include experiences in the General Surgery clinic evaluating common surgical problems and performing common ambulatory procedures such as anoscopy, lesion removals and preoperative evaluation of common surgical problems.

During this one-month rotation, you will work at one of Gundersen's rural community clinics to learn about the opportunities and challenges of practicing in a rural community. Most rural clinical site locations allow you to commute back and forth from La Crosse each day. All clinical sites are within a two-hour drive. Housing may be available if you select a clinic further away, allowing you to return home for weekends if there are no call responsibilities.

Spend one month caring for geriatric patients with a board-certified geriatrician, performing geriatric assessments on frail, elderly patients. This experience includes caring for patients with gait dysfunction, polypharmacy and dementia-related illness in an integrated team.

You will participate in a Sports Medicine Clinic for one month, supervised by a fellowship-trained family physician with an added qualification in sports medicine. You will learn about pre-participation sports evaluations and treatment of common sports-related injuries, with an added focus on concussion care. You will also attend sporting events and participate as a team physician.

There are two months of required obstetrical inpatient care during the first year, which allows you to care for pregnant patients in prenatal, labor and delivery and postpartum settings. Additional obstetrical rotations are offered for residents on our OB Track. This additional training emphasizes advanced skills and high-risk obstetrics.

This one-month musculoskeletal rotation involves providing care with orthopedic physicians in the ambulatory setting. Common joint examinations will be mastered along with management of common problems of the hip, shoulder and hand. Fracture care, splinting and casting will be integrated into this experience.

Gundersen has a pediatric hospitalist program, which includes pediatric inpatient, newborn and consultative services. You will provide pediatric inpatient care for one rotation each training year with progressive responsibility. After these rotations, you will be competent to care for common pediatric diseases.

You will spend one month during PGY1 and PGY2 in the pediatric clinic caring for children with common ambulatory problems. This experience includes the full spectrum of pediatric practice, emphasizing well care, anticipatory guidance, common infectious diseases, asthma, GI disorders and other common neurobehavioral issues such as ADHD.

Work one-on-one with our pediatric emergency medicine physician for an outstanding two-week rotation strengthening your skills in providing urgent and emergent care to kids.

Provide care to patients with board-certified gynecologists during this one-month experience and master common gynecologic procedures. You will also experience with consults in the ER for issues such as evaluation of heavy vaginal bleeding, ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. 

This residency focuses not only on improving medical skills but also on the personal wellness of staff and residents. Gundersen has a long history of providing an excellent life balance. Our curriculum has longitudinal time carved out regularly for wellness activities. Our resident-led wellness committee organizes fun activities throughout the year. These resident-inspired activities range from ropes courses, kayaking, hiking, snow shoeing, and curling to visiting art museums, river picnics, meditation and yoga. Our annual all-day resident and faculty retreat is held in July to welcome our incoming class.

You will be required to participate in both a research and a quality improvement project during your time with us. Our faculty have extensive experience in quality improvement and patient safety. Gundersen Medical Foundation has staff, including biostatisticians and research navigators, with expertise in designing, performing, presenting and publishing scholarly work.

Gundersen offers a number of high-quality electives to round out the resident experience so you can tailor your educational experience. Many of these are available on the La Crosse Campus including most of the surgical, medical, neurologic and pediatric subspecialties.