Program rotations offered through the McKay-Dee Family Practice Residency provide residents with unique learning opportunities throughout the award-winning McKay-Dee Hospital campus.
Residency Rotations
First Year Residents
- Inpatient Service – 3 or 4 blocks
- Night float and outpatient pediatrics – 4 blocks
- Hospitalist Medicine – 1 block
- Community Medicine - 1 block
- Gynecology - 1 block
- Emergency Medicine – 1 block
- Obstetrics - 1 block
Second Year Residents
- Inpatient Service – 2 blocks Night float and elective – 3 or 4 blocks
- Obstetrics – 1 or 2 blocks
- Sports Medicine - 1 block
- Intensive Care Unit – 1 block
- Emergency Medicine - 1 block
- Rural Medicine - 1 block
- Psychiatry – 1 block
- Elective - 1 or 2 blocks
Third Year Residents
- Inpatient Service – 2 blocks
- Hospitalist Medicine – 1 block
- Obstetrics – dependent on interest, up to 3 blocks
- Surgery - 1 block
- Orthopedics – 1 block
- Elective – 7 or 8 blocks
Rotation Details
Inpatient Service (7-8 blocks total)
This service exposes residents to inpatient family medicine including adult and pediatric care. Our core faculty or a local family physician from Layton Clinic serves as the attending each week. The residents admit patients of Porter and Layton Clinic, as well as pediatric patients with the pediatric hospitalists. Residents are expected to direct all codes alongside hospitalists. Generally, you are on call for two days with a partner from 7 am to 6 pm, then round the next day (with afternoon time available for longitudinal activities or your area of concentration), then you will be in outpatient clinic the following day. You get one to two days off each week during this rotation.
Night Float (7-8 blocks total)
While on night float, an intern and upper-level resident are paired each week to manage the full spectrum of family medicine. You will stay busy with new admissions, taking calls from nurses, and managing labor overnight. You are responsible for the patients from Inpatient Service, Obstetrics, and Hospitalist. After completing a night float week, you get Monday off, then split time between outpatient clinic and ambulatory pediatrics as an intern and elective time as an upper level.
Obstetrics (2-6 blocks according to interest)
Two resident’s alternate weeks on the labor and delivery floor during the obstetrics rotation. From Monday to Sunday, you are responsible for managing labor, interpreting fetal heart tones, participating in deliveries both vaginal and cesarean, as well as rounding on postpartum mothers and newborns and triaging prenatal patients. You will work closely with our obstetrical laborists, community obstetricians, family physicians, pediatricians, and nurses to learn routine procedures. On the alternate weeks, you will split time between outpatient clinic and electives.
All residents must deliver at least 20 babies during their residency, however those who are driven to gain more obstetric skills can graduate with somewhere between 50 to 100 vaginal births. For those interested in gaining surgical obstetric skills, there is a dedicated track with OBGYN mentorship. Many of our residents on this track graduate with 70 or more c-sections as primary surgeon.
Approximately 2 half-day clinics per month, residents provide prenatal care at a local community health center with a primarily underserved and low-income patient population. It is there that residents gain significant ultrasound skills to date pregnancies and perform non-stress tests with a local obstetrician who oversees high-risk pregnancy care.
Pediatrics
Pediatric experience is gained longitudinally throughout several rotations. Newborn and pediatric inpatient care is within the obstetrics and inpatient services, respectively, both under the supervision of the pediatric hospitalists. Dedicated outpatient pediatrics teaching occurs during the “off” weeks of the night float blocks during intern year with community pediatricians, but also occurs day-to-day within residents’ continuity clinic at Porter Family Medicine Clinic.
Sports Medicine (1 block) and Orthopedics (1 block)
During these rotations, residents work with orthopedists, primary care sports medicine physicians, physical therapists and various other specialists learning advanced musculoskeletal medicine. Throughout residency, there is a multitude of various sports medicine clinics, events, and other opportunities to practice sports medicine skills under the supervision of our two sports medicine fellowship-trained core faculty members, Drs. Scharmann and Madsen. In second year, residents are assigned to a local high school football team or local hockey team and attend all games to provide coverage on the field and sidelines. A sports medicine bag with appropriate supplies is provided to each resident. Some examples of events that we routinely cover include marathons, mountain biking competitions, Snowbasin Ski Resort Clinic, among others. Residents feel the sports medicine training at McKay-Dee Hospital is one of the best programs in the country, and they enjoy not having to compete with fellows for training.
Surgery (1 block)
The surgery rotation provides residents a broad range of training and experience from the handling of major trauma to "lump and bump" office procedures. The resident gains experience in the delivery of pre- and post-operative care, as well as experience in operating room procedures. Competency in minor surgical techniques and outpatient surgery is stressed. The program may be tailored to meet special demands of the resident expecting to practice in a rural area. Graduates practicing in rural areas have graduated with the ability to perform procedures such as: hernia repairs, cholecystectomies, upper and lower endoscopies, carpal tunnel release, appendectomies, tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, and tympanostomy tube placement.
Rural Medicine (1 block)
Every second-year resident spends two weeks in a rural community learning small town family medicine. The resident participates in outpatient, inpatient, obstetrical, and emergency care while on this rotation. Housing is provided. Residents are also encouraged to explore community resources and the differences between rural, suburban, and urban medicine. This is usually done within rural Utah, however the resident may arrange at a facility of their choice. Previous residents have gone as far as Alaska!
Psychiatry (1 block)
The behavioral health training consists of longitudinal training, as well as a one-block rotation based on a combination of hospital and community experiences. Residents treat a variety of patients with psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. There is ongoing collaboration and consultation on selected cases during each year of the residency. The training can be tailored to fit the needs of the individual resident.
Emergency Medicine (2 blocks)
The emergency medicine rotation is completed at McKay-Dee Hospital, which is a Level II Trauma Center serving Northern Utah and Southern Idaho through the busiest Emergency Department in the state. Residents receive training in the management of a wide range of medical and surgical emergencies and acquire competency in ACLS, endotracheal intubation, and the initial management of both major and minor trauma victims. This is often the resident's highest-rated experience.
Community Medicine (1 block)
During the first year, each resident spends one month visiting and learning about the various community health care resources and completing a community needs assessment. Residents also complete their training for prescribing suboxone during this time.
Geriatrics (longitudinal)
During their second and third year, residents follow a panel of patients at a local nursing home where the medical director provides oversight and some didactic teaching in geriatric care.
Gynecology (1 block)
Gynecological training is gained longitudinally throughout the three years, but is emphasized during one block of the first year. Time is spent with community gynecologists and, local colposcopy and LEEP clinics, including one at Porter Family Medicine Clinic.
Intensive Care Unit (1 block)
A formal one-block rotation is spent in the Intensive Care Unit at McKay-Dee Hospital during the second year. Residents admit patients with intensivists and follow these patients daily. Formal rounds are held by the multidisciplinary intensive care team, and residents present their patient at these rounds. Daily didactic lectures are given by the intensivists to the residents.
Electives (8-10 blocks total)
A wide variety of electives are available at McKay-Dee Hospital or with community physicians in Ogden and surrounding areas. Residents spend time learning from cardiologists, gastroenterologists, otolaryngologists, urologists, neurologists, ophthalmologists, and dermatologists, among others. Residents expecting to practice in a rural setting generally spend a number of blocks obtaining experience in operative obstetrics, procedures, surgical techniques, endoscopy, and emergency medicine. Electives are easily tailored to the resident’s future practice needs.
Quality Improvement (longitudinal)
Intermountain Health has been recognized as a worldwide leader in clinical quality improvement initiatives. Our second-year residents at McKay-Dee Hospital receive training on quality improvement processes, outcomes measurement, statistical process and analysis. They each complete a Quality Improvement project during their second year, which is presented at the annual Ogden Surgical Medical Society Conference each Spring. In the third year, residents choose between continuing their second-year project or doing a literature review on a topic of interest.