Our Advanced Obstetrics Track provides interested residents with an enhanced foundation in obstetric skills to provide high quality care in rural and underserved areas. In addition to our core obstetrics curriculum, track residents:

• Are assigned additional continuity obstetric patients in clinic
• Do at least one core rural rotation at a site with an obstetric experience
• Pursue an additional 4 weeks of an obstetric-specific elective (ie: Perinatology, Rural OB, etc)
• Participate in and deliver dedicated didactic teaching on maternal and child health topics
• Pursue additional procedural training pertinent to obstetric care

Our Rural Intensive Track (RIT) provides expanded experience beyond our already strong core curriculum in rural Family Medicine. In addition to our requirements for all residents, RIT residents:

• Have 8 weeks of rural experience per academic year between core, elective, pediatric, and surgery rotations
• Complete a scholarly activity project focused on rural health
• Attend and submit proposals for regional and/or national meetings focused on rural health
• Expanded leadership and CME conference opportunities

Our newest curricular track, the American Indian Health Track, provides residents with enhanced experience in the care and service of Indigenous people in Montana to reduce significant gaps in health equity. In addition to core program curriculum, residents in the American Indian Health Track:

• Participate in focused rotations with local partners including Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Health, Indian Health Service Browning Community Hospital, and All Nations Urban Indian Clinic. FMRWM will continue to further relationships and collaborate with additional tribal health systems throughout the state.
• Have the unique opportunity to deliver care in various types of health care settings dedicated to serving Indigenous populations.
• Have access to Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors.
• Explore and identify ways to weave traditional healing into Western medicine.
• Complete an American Indian/Alaska Native-focused curriculum that is tailored to individual needs and backgrounds.
• Engage in scholarly activity, leadership, and policy focused on American Indian health.
• Attend education and recruiting events, including conferences of the Association of American Indian Physicians.

In the Rocky Mountain West, reproductive healthcare is often far from where patients live.  Patients drive great distances in order to have an abortion, to have colposcopy and LEEP procedures, to have LARC placed and to have miscarriages medically and surgically managed.  There is a need to train more providers who will integrate these services into their practices to serve these communities.

In light of the recent US Supreme Court Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, FMRWM endorses the statements of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Board of Family Medicine.  We also acknowledge that our faculty and residents hold a diversity of beliefs on abortion and we respect each other in those beliefs.  Abortion remains legal in Montana and has been recognized as a protected right under the Montana State Constitution.  An overview of the legal status of abortion in Montana is available here.   

FMRWM received a RHEDI (Reproductive Health Education in Family Medicine) grant in 2019 to develop abortion training.  FMRWM is committed to providing residents with the training needed to serve rural communities, and to sustain a full spectrum reproductive health curriculum, including abortion training for interested residents.  

FMRWM Reproductive Health Curriculum for all Residents:

The FMRWM Reproductive Health Curriculum spans all years of training.  Experiences include time in clinic, procedural workshops, didactics and a dedicated Gynecology rotation in the PGY1 year.  Goals of the curriculum include:

• Expose all residents to pregnancy dating using ultrasound long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) insertion and removal; and  medical and procedural first trimester abortion care (as an opt-out experience).
• Train residents to provide supportive, non-judgmental pregnancy options counseling to pregnant patients/couples/families.
• Conduct didactic and experiential training around various reproductive health topics, including integrating medication abortion (MedAB) and medical and surgical management of early pregnancy loss.

FMRWM Reproductive Health Track Curriculum: 

Residents opt-in to this track early in the PGY2 year and training is longitudinal throughout the PGY2 and PGY3 year.  Goals of the RHT curriculum include:   

• Training residents to competency in:
  • Safe provision of medical abortion up to 11 weeks, and aspiration abortion up to 12 weeks;
  • Early pregnancy dating with US;
  • LARC insertion, removal, and management.
• Support and empower graduating residents to integrate abortion care into future practice in a provider shortage area through a “Bridging to Practice” curriculum

The Osteopathic track is an opt-in curriculum, starting in the PGY1 year, and nearly all of our DO residents complete the track. Residents may opt out at any time if they do not plan to pursue further OMM training. Allopathic residents are also invited to participate in the track. Residents receive dedicated didactic introductions to Osteopathic Manual Medicine and participate in osteopathic skills assessment during the orientation month. Going forward, residents attend Osteopathic Didactics and dedicated Osteopathic Clinics with 2:1 or 1:1 precepting throughout the duration of training. Allopathic residents receive some additional training and support depending on their experience and skills, including elective time to participate in 1-2 additional 4-week Osteopathic rotations. Residents in the track may choose to become board-certified by either the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians (AOBFP) or the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM).