Curriculum
Curriculum Highlights
Inpatient Medicine and OB
As a full-spectrum family medicine program, we believe good inpatient doctors make even better outpatient doctors. Forty percent of our rotations are inpatient, and mostly on our residency’s dedicated Family Medicine Service (FMS) and on obstetrics.
Residents spend nine blocks on FMS, which is our residency’s inpatient service at Swedish’s First Hill hospital. Our service is run exclusively by our residents and attendings from our five Seattle clinics, and our patients are from our clinics. Because of FMS, we say that even though each resident matches and has continuity clinic at one site, they still get to know and care for patients from all five of our Seattle sites. Our patients have incredible cultural, language, and disease process diversity.
Sunset views from our FMS team room. Photo Credit: Dr. Al Ogawa, Class of 2026
On FMS, residents care for medicine, obstetric, and pediatric patients concurrently, just as a community physician would. Procedural opportunities on FMS include lumbar puncture, central lines, arterial lines, peritoneal tap, pleural tap, chest tube, running codes, and obstetrics. We also have formal curriculum during FMS through daily scheduled teaching in medicine, pediatrics, radiology, and pharmacology.
Each block, our daytime FMS team is made up of four R1s, two R2s, and one R3, along with one sub-I student for most parts of the year.
For OB training outside of FMS, residents spend four blocks at three different labor services. Seniors have the option to work “buddy shifts” with interns on their first OB blocks. We also offer elective opportunities for more deliveries, C-sections, and other experiences and an Area of Concentration in Birth and Family Health.
FMI and BH/PM
In each year of residency, we have one block when the whole class is pulled into a special seminar rotation. Interns have Family Medicine Intensive (FMI) in block 1, and seniors have Behavioral Health & Practice Management (BH/PM) in January and March. These rotations bring the classes together for valuable workshops and rejuvenating community building. You can learn more on each year's rotations page.
Reproductive Justice
Cherry Hill is a RHEDI program. All our residents train in and provide options counseling in their daily clinical practice. Our residency is an "opt out" residency, meaning that all residents will get basic training in abortion as part of their required curriculum unless they choose to opt out of the experience (uncommon). Training to proficiency is possible by completing the popular Reproductive Health Area of Concentration. While Swedish is owned by Providence St. Joseph Health, Swedish is a separate subsidiary and fully secular.
Learn about our rotations by visiting the pages below:
Longitudinal Curriculum
Education and practice over time is often a more effective way to learn new skills. Our longitudinal curriculum gives you another snapshot of our values, with our long-term training and projects on community medicine, anti-racism, geriatrics, behavioral health, and more.