Primary Care Track
Our Aurora Health Care IM Primary Care Track was created to train physician leaders in general internal medicine who are deeply committed to community-based clinical care and public health. As a primary care resident you will graduate from the track as an expert in both adult primary care and inpatient general medicine and also with the skills to promote meaningful change in the health of the communities you serve.
Meet the Primary Care Program Director
Victoria Gillet, MD
I love resident education because I know it makes me a better physician for my patients, and it brings me joy to get to know our residents over my three years with them. I graduated from a Primary Care IM residency with amazing mentors that prepared me to be an excellent ambulatory physician. It is my privilege to do the same for you.
I have my own primary care practice at the Sinai resident continuity clinic site with a special interest in LGBTQ+ healthcare. My favorite things to teach about and advocate for are systems-level understanding of how health happens, fair access to care, and environmental health. I'm a full-year commuter cyclist and have a mischievous corgi named Pepperjack.
How We Spend Our Time: Overall Curriculum
As in our categorical track, your Medicine inpatient months are spent on the St. Luke’s and Sinai Hospital teaching services. You will have one fewer ward month per year than your categorical peers.
You will have your continuity clinic at Sinai Internal Medicine Center, which prides itself on caring for an urban medically and socially complex population of patients.
Primary Care | Categorical | |
|---|---|---|
Intern Ambulatory Months | 6 | 1 |
ICU Months During Residency | 3 | 5 |
Intern CCU Rotation | No | Yes |
Continuity Clinic Site | Sinai | Sinai or St. Luke's |
Physician as Advocate training | Integrated into training | Available as elective |
Rural Ambulatory Rotation | 10 weeks over training | No |
How We Spend Our Time: Primary Care Blocks
Our month-long Primary Care Blocks are the backbone of our curriculum. They provide you with an integrated clinical and didactic ambulatory care experience for an average of half of each 13-block year. As a PC resident, you will spend the majority of your training in the outpatient setting honing core primary care skills.
Most of a primary care block is spent in clinical outpatient rotations, where you learn and practice in varied settings, from urban free clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers to private practice centers and rural hospital-owned practices. You also learn from experts in ambulatory subspecialties such as women’s health, dermatology, psychiatry, and substance use disorders.
Example R1 Primary Care Block schedule
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AM | Continuity Clinic | Ophthalmology | Geriatric Home Visits | Free Clinic | Physician as Advocate Didactics |
PM | Sinai Primary Care | Ophthalmology | Women's Health | Free Clinic | Community Experience |
In the Physician as Advocate curriculum, you will explore the ways you can use your clinical expertise and trusted healthcare voice to improve the health of the populations we serve. This includes:
- Didactic introduction to how a community’s history, policies, built environment and local organizations impact health outcomes.
- Legislative advocacy trip in collaboration with other Wisconsin IM residencies
- Mentored longitudinal community health project
During training you will spend 10 weeks practicing ambulatory medicine providing care for Wisconsin’s rural population gaining experience that prepares you to meet the healthcare needs of rural communities.
- During R1 year you will spend 2 weeks at a rural referral center within easy driving of Milwaukee.
- During R2 and R3 year you will spend 4 weeks per year on a rural rotation. You can stay local in Milwaukee, or opt in to a residency-funded away rotation to a more remote rural Wisconsin clinic as far away as Ashland, WI.