This Curriculum Guideline defines a recommended training strategy for family medicine
residents. Attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills that are critical to family medicine
should be attained through longitudinal experience that promotes educational
competencies defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
(ACGME), www.acgme.org. The family medicine curriculum must include structured
experience in several specified areas. Much of the resident’s knowledge will be gained
by caring for ambulatory patients who visit the family medicine center, although
additional experience gained in various other settings (e.g., an inpatient setting, a
patient’s home, a long-term care facility, the emergency department, the community) is
critical for well-rounded residency training. The residents should be able to develop a
skillset and apply their skills appropriately to all patient care settings.
