Curriculum

Our residents have broad interests that inform their career decisions and professional identities. To support our residents’ professional goals, in addition to our Primary Care Track, our program is proud to offer starting AY 2027–2028 the WSU IMRP Distinctions program.

Our Distinctions are 2-year opt-in longitudinal curricula that residents apply for in PGY1 year. Each Distinction has unique requirements that residents must fulfill to graduate with a Distinction certificate.

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Health Equity and Community Organizing Distinction

The Health Equity and Community Organizing Distinction is an elective certificate program for residents who are interested in incorporating a focus on health equity into their future practice. Residents will have the opportunity for additional training and hands-on experience with community organizing methods to promote change as well as opportunities for deeper personal reflection on how they use their practice of medicine to advance equity. Activities in the distinction may include: being a leader for a resident project to advance health equity in our community, working on a larger community organizing campaign, attending community events focused on health justice, and meeting with peers and mentors to reflect on personal practices of medicine.

Directors

• Elizabeth Westling, MD
• Riley Irish

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Medical Education Distinction

The Medical Education Distinction (previously the medical education track started in 2024) is designed to equip residents with skills needed to be effective clinical teachers and future clinician educators. Residents receive practical training on applying adult learning theory to multiple teaching settings, effective inpatient and outpatient clinical teaching, giving and receiving feedback, teaching diagnostic and management reasoning, curriculum design, and medical education scholarship. To graduate with a Medical Education Distinction certificate, residents participate in a 2-week elective immersion block in their PGY2 year (or complete asynchronous online modules derived from the 2-week immersion block). Additionally, residents complete directly-observed classroom and clinical teaching assignments with immediate feedback from faculty, and engage in a medical education capstone project.

Additional details about the Medical Education Distinction activities can be found at Medical Education Track.

Director

Yihan Yang, MD, MHS-MedEd

Current Med Ed Distinction Candidates

View Resident Bios

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Women’s Health Distinction

The women’s health distinction provides residents with training to develop knowledge and skills necessary to care for women across the lifespan, particularly in the primary care setting. The Distinction offers longitudinal and elective clinical exposure to women’s health topics such as reproductive health, breast health, menopause management, screening and survivorship for women’s cancers, and outpatient gynecologic procedures. Residents complement this clinical training with focused didactic and workshop sessions. Completion of the Distinction includes a scholarly project in women’s health, which may take the form of research, quality improvement, medical education, or a patient-focused initiative.

Director

Tess King, MD, MPH

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Primary Care Track

PGY1s dedicated to pursuing a career in primary care can apply to join the WSU IMRP Primary Care Track in their PGY2 year. In addition to their ambulatory blocks at Providence or the VA, Primary Care Track PGY2s and PGY3s will have approximately 6 weeks each year of community-based primary care and ambulatory subspecialty rotations to gain broad exposure to the unique models of primary care practice and patient populations in Washington State. Current community-based offices include Community Health Center Everett (an FQHC), Providence Medical Group primary care, and PacMed primary care. Additionally, a track-specific structured learning series prepares our residents to successfully navigate early careers as primary care doctors. Primary care track residents remain eligible to participate in the Distinctions Programs above.

Director

Yihan Yang, MD, MHS-MedEd

Current Primary Care Track Residents

• Fatma Aboud, MBChB
• Caleb Ko, MD
• Calvin Vetter, DO

View Resident Bios

We believe in the importance of truly protected learning time.

WSU IM residents participate in the following structured learning curricula:

Academic Half Day

Clinical duties are suspended for all residents every Wednesday afternoon for Academic Half-Day (AHD). AHD content balances board-centric, core internal medicine content plus classroom elements necessary for success as well-rounded internal medicine physician including but not limited to medical economics, quality improvement (QI), point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) workshops, and code blue simulations.

Case Conference

Held at noon two days a week, all residents on inpatient services participate in these case-based discussions where they work through clinical unknowns and/or management dilemmas. PGY1s have a protected intern-only case conference on Mondays (no attendings allowed) to hone their clinical reasoning in a safe space with our chief residents. Regularly scheduled high-yield, highly curated Grand Rounds, and Morbidity and Mortality talks pepper the conference schedule throughout the year.

Ambulatory Didactics

In addition to the class-wide AHD, residents also experience a robust, protected outpatient structured learning curriculum during each of their ambulatory Y blocks. Held Wednesday mornings, ambulatory didactics include a combination of ambulatory morning report (case conference focused on outpatient chief concerns and management), 40-minute high-yield reviews of common outpatient chief concerns, as well as immersive Ambulatory Medicine Experiential (AMEx) sessions. AMEx mornings involve 2-3 hour experiential learning sessions on core outpatient skills. Recent examples include diabetes medication management and supplies, outpatient procedures training, IUD/Nexplanon insertion and removal, advanced communications training, office-based quality improvement, nutrition and social determinants-based grocery store scavenger hunt.

Serving our community in Everett is enhanced by getting to know the community and improving access to care outside our clinical walls. Throughout the year, residents have opportunities to participate in community service events with local service partners and to practice medicine in non-traditional settings to reach people who cannot easily access our clinics. These opportunities include working with free mobile clinics serving people who are uninsured, medical outreach to our neighbors experiencing homelessness, and home visits. 

To equip physicians with the necessary skills to improve access to care in our state’s rural and underserved communities, we incorporate health equity and advocacy training into all three years of the curriculum. Our residents learn how to be a voice for their patients, leaders in their local communities, and public experts for healthcare infrastructure and access. Our curriculum covers a wide array of topics. As a result, our graduates approach patients and communities with perspective taking and curiosity, assure that historical challenges are accounted for in whole person care, and partner with communities and legislators to enact change for healthier communities. Residents interested in more deeply engaging with health equity and advocacy can apply as a PGY1 to the Health Equity and Advocacy Distinction.

*We define health equity as the assurance of conditions for optimal health for all people. We pursue this work in service of all communities and all peoples of Washington.

Point Of Care Ultrasound

It’s not often that technology advancements bring us back to the bedside, rather than away from it. Primarily used in emergency medicine and intensive care, Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) has now transitioned to the medicine world at a rapid pace. The development of new ultrasound technologies, combined with artificial intelligence software implementation and mounting research showing POCUS is within the scope of practice of internists, has made POCUS an important skillset to master for future inpatient and outpatient internal medicine providers.

Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

As systems become more complex, pressure to address efficiency issues throughout our healthcare environment is increasing. As frontline healthcare professionals, residents have unique opportunities to contribute to quality improvement and patient safety initiatives at the clinical sites where they rotate. Through formal didactics, group projects and QI and PS committees, WSU internal medicine residents have many ways to contribute to the evolving quality landscape at Providence Medical Center and WSU.