Depending upon where you see your self in practice after residency training the skill set that you need to develop in training as an “Advanced Family Physician will vary.

Procedural Training should be a part of every Family Medicine resident’s training.

Foundational Skill Set for Standard Family Medicine Practices:

• Basic Maternal Care and Deliveries
• D&C (post-miscarriage)
• Colposcopy, cervical biopsy, and endometrial sampling (pipelle)
• Newborn Procedures: Circumcision and Frenulectomy
• Hospital Procedures (“lines, tubes, and needles”)
• Basic Airway and BiPAP management
• Biopsy, I&D, and nail procedures
• Arthrocentesis and trigger point injections
• Interosseous Access (Emergent Pediatrics)
• Bone Marrow Biopsy
• Nasal Packing and Indirect Laryngoscopy
• Thrombosed Hemorrhoid treatment

Suburban Practice Skill Set:

• Foundational Skill Set
• Hospital Procedural Skills (if desired)
• GI Endoscopy Skills (if desired)

Advanced Family Medicine Skill Set:

• Foundational Skill Set
• Operative OB (C-Sections, Assisted Delivery)
• GI Endoscopy (EGD and Colonoscopy)
• OB ultrasound, Abdominal ultrasound, and the ‘FAST’ exam for trauma assessments in the emergency room
• Stress testing
• LEEP (advanced dysplasia skills)
• All hospital-based skills (including ventilator management)
• Closed reduction of fractures
• Emergency Room Procedures (basic and advanced)
• Facial and Oral nerve blocks
• Spinal and Epidural anesthesia

Rural Practice Skill Set:

• Foundational Skill Set
• Advanced Family Medicine Skill Set (to include operative OB)
• Basic and Advanced Emergency Room skill set
• Basic General Surgery skill set
• Basic Gynecology skill set

Urban Practice/Inner City Skill Set:

Knowing that the patients that we will serve often have access issues even with available specialists in the community, we must become trained in advanced skills so that our patients will not go without the needed care that they deserve.

• Foundational Skill Set
• Advanced Family Medicine Skill Set (including operative OB)
• Hospital-Based Skill Set
• GI Endoscopy

International Practice Skill Set (unlimited):

• Foundational Skill Set
• Advanced Family Medicine Skill Set (requiring operative OB skills at a high level of expertice)
• Full Spectrum General Surgery skills (without these skills they are otherwise unavailable to these populations)
• General Urology
• Orthopedics
• Diagnostic Procedures:
  • Echocardiography
  • Ultrasound (OB, Abdominal, and Pelvis)

Are you cut out for “Advanced Family Medicine”?

• It’s a mindset.
• It’s a philosophy.
• It requires courage and hard work.

http://wichita.kumc.edu/kuwichita/kuwichita-winter2010.pdf

Residents of New Hampton, Iowa, will get a unique package deal in healthcare next year.

Six doctors who recently completed their residency at Via Christi Regional Medical Center will join the town’s Mercy Medical Center — which serves 17,000 residents in and around Chickasaw County — and its new family clinic in August 2010, after completing missions in Zimbabwe.

John and Shea Epperly, Jack Kline, Rick Moberly, and Paul and April McQuillen met in 2006 during their residencies and became close friends through their interest in full-spectrum family practice, international medicine and a strong faith in God.

Last year, the group started a nationwide search for a rural, faith-based hospital where they could all practice together and do medical mission work overseas. New Hampton, a town of about 3,750 residents in northeastern Iowa, was one of six communities who recruited the group.

“After visiting the community of New Hampton, we were assured that this was the answer to our prayer in finding a place where we could serve people stateside, as well as abroad,” said April McQuillen.

Helping underserved areas is a driving force for this group. Todd Stephens, MD, Via Christi International Family Medicine Fellowship director, credits them with helping develop the IFMF concept.

“These physicians were unwavering in seeing it develop, get funded and become established as the nation’s first such formal program,” he said.

All six physicians will do mission work in Zimbabwe, with four of them doing so as part of the IFMF program. Kline and Moberly are at Karanda Mission Hospital until December. Fellows Paul McQuillen and John Epperly, along with their wives, will start there in January.

When not in Zimbabwe, the fellows will do rotations in trauma, orthopedics, burn, anesthesia, ultrasound and dental work, said John Epperly.

Their desire to serve appears to be infectious. According to Stephens, another husband-wife team of Via Christi residents, Jared and Melissa Cardwell, plans to join the group following Melissa’s graduation in 2011.

To find out more about Via Christi International Family Medicine Fellowship, visit www.vcfm.net/fellowships/international-medicine-fellowship.

To donate to Via Christi International Family Medicine Fellowship, contact Jim Barber, president of Via Christi Foundation, 946-5020.

http://fmignet.aafp.org/online/fmig/index/resources/fmigvideos/globalhealth/video1.html

Via Christi residents spoke to dozens of students and residents about our residency program and international fellowship.  Our booth was always buzzing with activity.  We demonstrated vaginal delivery with forceps, endoscopy, and OB ultrasound.  We also had a booth dedicated to the international fellowship.

Overall we were able to get the good word out about Via Christi Family Medicine and we made some great connections with students and residents.

During the conference our own Jen Bacani was elected as the resident member on the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).  This is the highest position available for family medicine residents.  Bacani was elected to a one-year term by the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents. The AAFP represents nearly 94,000 physicians and medical students nationwide.

As the resident member of the board of directors, Jen is responsible for representing the interests and opinions of the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents to the AAFP board and Congress of Delegates.

from http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20060400/news.html