What an exciting time to explore the many facets of primary care! The complexity of our patients’ medical comorbidities, their socioeconomic backgrounds, and our innovative healthcare system makes each day in primary care truly an adventure and a lifelong learning experience. Our Primary Care track residents are well- prepared to provide high-quality, empathetic, and evidence-based care that puts our patients, their stories, and their lives at the center of every conversation.  The Wake Forest Primary Care track has a long history of preparing residents to become leaders in the future career of their choosing, whether that includes academic general medicine, community-based medicine, hospital medicine, or even subspecialty careers with an ambulatory focus. Beyond the clinical training, our Primary Care track equally values community. You will find a like-minded, passionate primary care family of mentors and co-residents who will enthusiastically support you every step of the way during your training and beyond.

Track Curriculum

The Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Track (PC Track) at Wake Forest School of Medicine is committed to training experts in the practice of general internal medicine. It was established as a separate training program in 1986. A unique feature of our Primary Care Track is the Strickland Scholars Program, which offers residents the opportunity to be paired with a Strickland Scholar faculty mentor.

Networking

  • Quarterly journal club events with general medicine faculty and Strickland Scholar mentors
  • Quarterly socials

Scholarship

  • Protected time and funding support to attend the National Society of General Medicine (SGIM) meeting along with General Internal Medicine faculty.
  • Mentored clinical vignette poster presentation at Internal Medicine Research Day in the spring of intern year
  • Opportunities to submit/present vignettes or research at regional or national meetings in subsequent years

In addition to the planned curriculum, interns and residents in the Primary Care Track are encouraged to identify individual learning objectives and pursue special topics (e.g., health services research, studying decision analysis or examining health policy questions) during their block rotations.

Rotations

Throughout the program, primary care residents gain exposure to the breadth of primary care combined with the strengths of the categorical program. Upon completion of their training, primary care residents have a strong foundation in inpatient medicine with an added focus on ambulatory rotations.

How does the Primary Care schedule differ from the Categorical Residency?

 

Primary Care

Categorical

Intern Ambulatory Months

4

3-4

Continuity Clinic Site

2 clinic sites: Downtown Health Plaza AND University Internal Medicine Country Club

1 clinic site: Downtown Health Plaza OR Outpatient Department (Hospital Clinic)

Core Internal Medicine Ambulatory Subspecialty Rotation

2

0

Community-Based Outpatient General Medicine

1

0

Additional Ambulatory Medicine Rotation

2

0

Subspeciality Selective Months

3

5

Primary Care Seminar Series

Yes

No

Primary Care and General Internal Medicine Faculty Joint Conference

Yes

No

Continuity Clinic Model

PC Track residents spend time at two different continuity clinic sites during their training to get a broad exposure to the practice of outpatient general internal medicine. The two clinic sites are the Downtown Health Plaza Clinic (underserved patient population) and the University Internal Medicine Country Club Clinic (community private practice). At both sites, you will work with core faculty who will provide mentorship and support during and in-between patient visits.

 

Since the COVID pandemic, telehealth has been integrated into our primary care clinics. You will learn skills to successfully navigate video visits and telephone management. Recognizing that ambulatory medicine requires a team-based approach, you will also learn to work with key clinic staff such as community health workers, behavioral health clinicians, clinical pharmacists, and more!

By caring for patients at these two sites, residents experience the breadth of primary care with exposure to a variety of patient populations and clinic workflows.

Learn more about our clinic sites:

Intern Year (PGY1):

The PGY1 year follows the same X+Y scheduling as interns in the Categorical Track. Please refer to the X +Y scheduling guide under the Categorical Curriculum. During the Y week, interns in the Primary Care track will have two half-days of continuity clinic at the Downtown Health Plaza—which is an underserved clinic—and one half-day of clinic at the University Internal Medicine at Country Club Road practice. They will participate in the Primary Care conference series detailed below. 

Residency (PGY2 and PGY3):

After getting a strong Internal Medicine foundation in the intern year, residents in the PC Track gain additional exposure to ambulatory medicine, with five main ambulatory PC Track requirements to complete. During their non-ward blocks, residents will have a fixed half-day of their continuity practice at Downtown Health Plaza and a fixed half-day at the University Internal Medicine at Country Club Road practice. They will have the same faculty mentor at University Internal Medicine for all three years to strengthen and build the one-to-one mentoring relationship.

Ambulatory Experiences

PC Track residents can choose from a wide variety of ambulatory experiences as they craft a curriculum to meet their educational needs. In the schedule, “PC*” indicates rotation options. Residents complete one community medicine month, two ambulatory consult months in subspecialty core medicine rotations and two additional ambulatory experiences. This complements their inpatient ward rotations and inpatient consult rotations.

Conferences and Didactics

PC Track residents attend the same conferences offered to the categorical residents but also have a few conferences specific to the practice of ambulatory medicine.

Monthly Primary Care Track Conference Series

Hosted once a month on Fridays, the Primary Care track conference focuses on topics useful for practicing ambulatory medicine. Speakers consist of subspecialty faculty, pharmacists or general internal medicine faculty. Past conference topics and speakers have included:

  • Outpatient Care of Patients Surviving COVID-19 (Pulmonary faculty)
  • Pearls for Post-Hospital Discharge Visits (GIM faculty)
  • Trauma-Informed Care (Behavioral Health Clinician)
  • Continuous Glucose Monitors – Indications & Interpretation (Clinical Pharmacist)

Joint General Internal Medicine/PC Track Conference

Occurring the third Wednesday of every month at 12:15 pm, this is part of the General Internal Medicine Faculty Conference Series. In this conference, PC Track residents co-present with a general internal medicine faculty member on bread-and-butter issues that are typically seen in the clinic. They pick a case and discuss three to four clinical questions, searching the literature for evidence-based practices. It’s a rich discussion among physicians from different practice sites and a great learning opportunity for the residents.

Quarterly Journal Club

Once per quarter, the residents and providers from the University Internal Medicine practice come together in a relaxed, low-key setting to discuss issues that are faced by primary care providers in the community. Topics such as communication skills, job search, agenda setting and personal finance are addressed at this unique conference.