Monument Health Rapid City Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program

PGY 1 residents are never on an overnight call shift. They can expect to work approximately every third weekend during the day to care for our busy inpatient service. PGY2 and PGY3 residents each have a month of Night Float during which they cover overnight shifts from Sunday through Thursday. The remaining 11 senior residents cover a rotating call schedule for Friday and Saturday shifts.

Yes. PGY 1 residents spend 1 month at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital for inpatient pediatrics. PGY2 residents return to Minneapolis Children’s Hospital for a pediatric ER experience. These are required rotations. The program provides a furnished apartment with internet access and cable close to shopping and restaurants. In addition, residents are provided with a stipend to help offset the costs and inconveniences of being away from home. Residents are also required to complete a rural rotation in their PGY2 year. This rotation must occur in South Dakota but can be anywhere in the state with the exception of Rapid City or Sioux Falls. Some residents select a community close to Rapid City and commute. Others will choose to move into their chosen town and pursue an immersion experience. The program also provides a stipend for the rural rotation.

Our Family Medicine Residency clinic is one of the most important parts of your job as a resident physician. We pride ourselves in knowing our patients personally and providing them with excellent care. As residents grow in skill and efficiency, we expand the number of clinics they have each week and the number of patients seen in each clinic session. On average, our PGY1 residents spend 1-3 half days in clinic per week, PGY2 residents spend 2-5 half days in clinic per week, and PGY3 residents are scheduled for 4-6 half days in clinic each week. At graduation, we expect our residents to have seen 1800 patients in our outpatient clinic.

The residency program has a full complement of faculty. A faculty member is available for consultation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Faculty physicians attend all deliveries, staff all admissions, and are present for all procedures performed by residents. In the clinic, there are generally 2 faculty physicians scheduled for residents to consult during business hours. In addition, there is a Clinical Pharmacist on staff who is in the clinic and attends inpatient rounds multiple days per week.

Yes. We have noon conferences on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, with a myriad of speakers scheduled from many different specialties. Our own Faculty also present topics on a regular basis. Each month residents on the inpatient service and OB service will select interesting cases and present them to the resident group. In addition, we have monthly All-Staff and QI meetings that residents participate in to improve their practice management skills.

Our program emphasizes obstetrics as part of resident training. All interns will have 2 months working exclusively on the Labor and Delivery floor, where they will deliver a minimum of 40 babies. Upper level residents will also have an additional 2 months on the labor deck, supervising PGY1 residents and obtaining further deliveries and experience. Each resident is required to perform at least 10 continuity deliveries prior to graduation, and for those who are interested, there are opportunities to partner with local obstetricians in order to complete additional C-section training. Many of our graduates are performing primary C-sections in their rural communities.

Our graduates practice anywhere and everywhere. Many are in rural settings, but there are other graduates practicing exclusively in the outpatient setting, in urgent cares and emergency rooms, in academic settings, as fellowship trained sports medicine physicians, and as hospitalists. To date, our program has graduated 148 residents. Of those, about 61 currently practice in South Dakota, and 33 practice in surrounding states (Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming).

Rapid City has a thriving downtown with great shopping, museums, and restaurants. The Black Hills are a mecca for all things outdoors including fishing, camping, boating, and hiking. We love the area because you can travel 15 minutes from the hospital and be out of town, enjoying nature. For more information about our community, please check out www.visitrapidcity.com, www.rapidcitychamber.com, and www.blackhillsbadlands.com.

Didactic and case presentation conferences are integrated into the educational experience and are a very important part of the residents’ overall training. A comprehensive conference schedule is developed and coordinated by the Chief Residents.

Ongoing clinical research is conducted by full-time faculty members. Residents contribute to current projects or work to develop and implement new projects. Residents may also contribute to the body of medical knowledge by conducting an extensive literature review and preparing a review article for submission for publication.