Rotation Specific Overview

​Family medicine provides broad exposure to outpatient care, preventive medicine, chronic disease management, and acute presentations. Unlike other rotations, FM emphasizes continuity of care, patient education, and long-term relationship-building. Students are expected to quickly shift gears between different patient populations and conditions. Structuring study time around preventive guidelines, commonly encountered outpatient conditions, and patient counseling strategies is crucial for excelling in FM.

 

Core Principles and Focus Areas

• Comprehensive and Preventive Care:

  • Focus on routine health maintenance, preventive screenings, immunizations, and lifestyle counseling.

  • Understand guidelines from sources like USPSTF, CDC vaccine schedules, and cancer screening recommendations.

• Chronic Disease Management:

  • Master management of common chronic conditions (hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, obesity, asthma, COPD, and depression/anxiety).

  • Know first-line therapies, monitoring parameters, side effects, and medication adjustments.

• Acute and Ambulatory Conditions:

  • Familiarize yourself with common outpatient acute issues such as respiratory infections, musculoskeletal complaints, rashes, UTIs, and gastrointestinal conditions.

  • Understand decision-making for outpatient management versus urgent/emergency referral.

• Patient-Centered Communication:

  • Practice motivational interviewing, shared decision-making, and addressing social determinants of health.

  • Emphasize patient education, health literacy, and cultural sensitivity in counseling.

• Health Maintenance Across Lifespan:

  • ​Know pediatric growth and developmental milestones, adolescent preventive health, adult screenings, women's health (including contraception and prenatal basics), and geriatric care considerations.

 

Core Resources (Resources, Links, and More Detailed Descriptions Listed Below) 

• UWorld/Amboss Qbanks – The cornerstones of practicing rotation-specific knowledge 

  • Approach questions systematically, identify key phrases and concepts, differentiate critical information from distractors, analyze all answer choices (why they’re right or wrong), and hypothesize how changes in the vignette could alter correct answers.

• Case Files: Family Medicine

  • ​Excellent for practice questions, scenario-based learning, and real-world case discussions.

• USPSTF Reccomendations/AAFP Guidelines

  • ​Essential resource for health screening and preventive care guidelines.

• Step Up to Medicine/Blueprints/First Aid (Prep-book resources) 

  • Important resources for structured review to pair with practice questions and for diving deeper into material. ​

• NBME Practice Exams 

  • Pivotal for evaluating progress throughout the rotation. Target your first NBME for the mid-point of the rotation followed by a NBME every 1-1.5 weeks following​

 

Maximizing UWorld Effectiveness

• Active Learning: UWorld Notebook

  • Write down one or more key takeaways per question (new fact, forgotten detail, high-yield point).

    • Option: Convert notes into Anki flashcards for spaced repetition.

  • UWorld is for learning, NOT assessment – Read explanations in detail, even for correct answers.

• Question Block Strategies

  • Random Question, Timed Blocks = Best for self-assessment and tracking progress.

  • Subject-Specific, Tutor Mode Blocks = Useful for targeted content mastery. This should be the focus for the majority of your rotation

  • Quality > Quantity – A thoughtful review of a few questions beats rushing through many.

 

General Approach to Studying on the Wards

• Weekly Topics: Dedicate each week to core family medicine topics (e.g., preventive care, chronic diseases, acute ambulatory issues, pediatric and geriatric concerns). Align these with your clinic rotations.

• Daily Integration/Practice: Allocate daily review sessions to UWorld practice questions and corresponding Anki reviews for spaced repetition. Recommended to break down the total number of Uworld questions for the rotation and schedule a set number a day that will put you on pace to finish by 1 week before the shelf exam. 

• Longitudinal Learning: Regularly revisit health maintenance guidelines (USPSTF) and chronic disease management recommendations throughout the rotation as patients present to the clinic/on the wards. 

• Pre-Clinic Preparation: Briefly review common outpatient presentations before seeing patients to solidify clinical reasoning and differential diagnoses.

• Post-Clinic Reflection: Identify at least one learning point daily from your patient encounters to reinforce real-world application.