Curriculum and rotation schedule

Our program

Affiliated with Grand Strand Medical Center in scenic Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the Grand Strand Family Medicine Residency Program first opened its doors in 2017. As a fully-accredited program by the ACGME, our goal is to train well-rounded, clinically competent family physicians who are capable of balancing the demands of medical practice with healthy personal lifestyles.

Primary care physicians are the foundation for quality healthcare, and Family Medicine can provide services unique to any other medical specialty. Our emphasis on treating the entire family, from birth to senescence, and involving a wide range of acute and chronic medical conditions as well as preventative care, gives patients unparalleled continuity of care. The patient-physician relationship becomes strengthened by the services that family physicians can provide. For this reason, our curriculum emphasizes a strong grounding in the full scope of Family Medicine while at the same time providing the flexibility for residents to focus on their own particular clinical interests and needs. We strive to balance the needs of residents to be proficient in managing a wide range of pathology seen in the inpatient and outpatient settings, in performing procedures, and in addressing the psychosocial aspects of patient care. We want our graduates to have the skills and compassion that will help build our program’s reputation as a leader in the nation.

Residents have the opportunity to train at Grand Strand Medical Center, a 369-bed acute care regional hospital providing medical services for Horry and Georgetown counties. The hospital features one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in the state of South Carolina; Critical Care Units for medical, cardiac, neurology, surgical and pediatric patients; as well as a large obstetrics unit and a Level II newborn nursery. Many of the medical staff are involved in teaching residents. Residents see continuity patients in a modern, spacious outpatient clinic which opened its doors in 2020. The continuity experience is supervised by our excellent Family Medicine faculty.

In addition to the clinical facilities, residents participate in case scenarios in our state-of-the-art simulation training lab. This allows the resident to learn and perfect clinical skills and procedures in a safe, nonthreatening environment. In these experiences, residents work in groups to treat common medical emergencies as well as practice procedures such as Central Line Placement, Difficult Airway Management, Lumbar Punctures, Joint Injections, and Obstetric and Gynecologic procedures.

We strive to be innovators in the training of Family Medicine residents. One such example is the opportunity that residents have to recognize, evaluate and manage children who have been sexually or physically abused. This may include the performance of forensic medical exams, in collaboration with the Children’s Recovery Center, a local nonprofit Children’s Advocacy Center dedicated to the protection of child victims. Additionally, our residents have exposure to medical humanities throughout their training. This approach utilizes various art forms in order to foster physician empathy, thereby enhancing the patient-physician relationship and improving the quality of care as well as patient satisfaction, and hopefully serving as the basis for lifelong self-reflection and physician wellness.

For additional information regarding our program or the application process, please contact our Program Coordinator, Kathleen McCloskey, by email or call (843) 692-3497.

Conference schedule

Family Medicine residents have the opportunity to enhance their educational experience through weekly half-day didactic sessions. These sessions help fulfill the GME requirements for specialty training in Family Medicine, and residents are expected to participate unless their clinical duties prevent them from doing so. The curriculum includes a mixture of lectures, simulation, board review sessions, M&M conferences, and practice management sessions. All didactics are focused on core Family Medicine topics and are taught by faculty familiar with those topics.

• Medical Grand Rounds are generally held one afternoon monthly, in conjunction with the Internal Medicine program. Faculty and guest speakers discuss a broad range of topics relevant to clinical practice and graduate medical education.
• Morbidity and Mortality Improvement Conferences are held periodically as part of the Family Medicine Didactic schedule. Residents present case-based discussion of cases from the inpatient or outpatient experience, with faculty assistance. Emphasis is placed on resident-driven quality improvement.
• Journal Club Conferences take place once monthly. These conferences are presented by an assigned resident who chooses the article, distributes it prior to the conference and leads the discussion.
• Case Conferences are held monthly. Residents present evidence-based reviews of interesting cases from the outpatient clinic or the inpatient service.
• Board Review Conference occurs monthly and will cover the expansive range of medical topics expected for competency to be a family physician. Online board review questions may be utilized to generate discussion and learning.
• General Lecture Series occur weekly in the Family Medicine Didactic series. These lectures cover topics pertinent to the practice of Family Medicine, ranging from obstetrics to geriatrics, consistent with the training requirements mandated by the ACGME. Each month is currently devoted to a specific theme.
• Business of Medicine/Practice Management Series focuses on practical and relevant management skills, understanding insurance, coding and billing, financial planning, contract negotiation, and overview of healthcare policy. Residents also attend practice business meetings, in which financial details of the Family Medicine Center are discussed and physician productivity is reviewed.
• Simulation is held during the didactic session at least one afternoon monthly and covers topics in more detail, utilizing a variety of formats. In addition to traditional clinical scenarios such as ACLS and BLS protocols and the unstable patient, simulation sessions also focus on issues such as physician wellness, patient communication skills, and procedural skills.