Conferences and Meetings

A weekly schedule of formal teaching events will be posted on the website (see bottom of the main page for a link to our residency Google calendar). Your prompt attendance is required at educational meetings, unless a commitment of higher priority takes precedence. The relative priority can be changed by prerogative of the chief of the department to which you are assigned. The priorities are usually ordered as follows:

1. Emergent Care (Codes, etc.)

2. Clinic

3. Family Medicine Conferences

4. Own Service Conferences

5. In-House Patient Care

6. Other Conferences

Attendance at Conferences: When residents are assigned to a specific service, they will be expected to invest themselves in that service and to attend related conferences, i.e., while on surgery service, residents are expected to attend Surgical Grand Rounds. All residents are required to attend the Family Medicine Didactics, Balint Group, Residents' Round Table, Team Meetings, and M&M. Punctuality at rounds and conferences is mandatory out of respect for the persons who organize and speak at these functions. Pagers and cell phones should be set to vibrate mode. Laptops, smart phones, etc should not be used while at the conference, didactic, or rounds.

Each year the residency will send resident leadership to the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents & Students. The trip will be funded by the residency and time away will not be taken out of CME or vacation time. In addition, the R3 Talks in Family Medicine will not be counted against resident's CME allowance.

Round Table and Team Meetings

While not a didactic lecture, the Residents' Round Table is one of the most important resident meetings. Round Table is an open forum for proposals, criticisms, and evaluations by residents, faculty, and residency staff - and is where most ideas get their initial airing. This is the time that the entire program sits down together to communicate ideas, feelings, achievements and frustrations. The chief residents run these meetings and are responsible for setting the agenda. On alternate Tuesdays, each of the Clinic teams, including nurse and clinic staff, meet individually to discuss team patient problems, charts, practice management issues, and family medicine topics. The clinic chief residents run these meetings with input from the clinic manager. The clinic manager is responsible for taking minutes and distributing them to the residents and faculty of their clinic's team, as well as the clinic staff. The second Tuesday of the month teams meet individually, and on the fourth Tuesday the three Swedish Family Medicine teams meet as a group (Group Teams). Residents learn group practice dynamics and leadership skills at these meetings.

M&M (Morbidity & Mortality) - this is a protected, peer-reviewed meeting

The Swedish Family Medicine Clinic M&M conference is held on the first Friday of each month. This conference is intended to be an opportunity for residents and faculty to learn from Family Medicine Clinic patients (outcomes listed below). The conference is run by a Family Medicine faculty attending(s) who will review the cases for the previous month. Residents and faculty responsible for the patient will present cases; if the primary resident is not present, the resident or faculty most familiar with the case will present it. An informal discussion of each patient expands everyone's understanding of patient management. Pertinent papers directed at specific problems may be provided. All incidents involving M&M to patients are to be given to the faculty attending running the meeting so they can be added to the agenda. M&M is a required conference for residents to attend.

Morbidity & Mortality Outcomes

Wednesday Morning Case Conference

Held each Wednesday, this conference features a case presentation of interesting family medicine scenarios. An actual case history is presented and residents and faculty generate a differential diagnosis, review EKGs, lab tests, imaging studies, and outline management options in a relaxed atmosphere. Cases cover internal medicine, pediatrics, and OB/GYN, and often specialists consulting on the case will attend the latter part of the conference for additional teaching and questions.

R-1 Group - this is a protected, peer-reviewed meeting

On Tuesdays at 1:40 p.m., the R-1's will meet for an hour to talk about current and on-going personal and professional issues. Developing good communication skills is seen as an important goal. R-1 Groups vary in their preferences for how to best use this weekly meeting. A variety of possibilities exist. Since R-1 group is a formal part of the curriculum, regular attendance is required. R-1's are paired during their Seattle Children's rotation to allow one person to leave and one to stay behind (if necessary).

Balint Group - this is a protected, peer-reviewed meeting

R-2's and R-3's participate in a Tuesday meeting that is known as Balint Group. Balint was a British psychiatrist who developed the concept that physician self-awareness is an important aspect of medical training, development, and practice. Residents gather to discuss and share their perceptions of and feelings about their patients, especially those patients who tend to evoke strong positive or negative emotions. Case presentations are often used to illustrate the physician's role in the doctor-patient relationship. Ethical issues are frequently addressed.

Meetings with the Program Director - these are protected, peer-reviewed meetings

One-on-one meetings between the Program Director and either residents, fellows, or faculty are protected meetings.