Clinical Rotations
Samaritan Internal Medicine Residency Program

Clinical rotations are designed to balance resident autonomy with strong support. Through a structured X+Y schedule, residents alternate between inpatient or elective blocks and dedicated outpatient clinic weeks, allowing full engagement in each setting. This intentional design provides exposure to complex inpatient care, continuity‑focused outpatient practice, and longitudinal learning that prepares residents for a wide range of internal medicine careers.

As a community-based program, Samaritan provides early autonomy and strong continuity of care. Residents work closely with faculty and subspecialists, managing a wide range of medical conditions while developing procedural skills and clinical decision-making in real-world settings. Training includes a balanced foundation of inpatient medicine, intensive care, outpatient continuity clinic, and elective rotations, ensuring graduates are well prepared for careers in hospital medicine, primary care, or subspecialty training.

Residents gain broad, hands-on clinical experience caring for diverse patient populations across inpatient, outpatient, and subspecialty settings in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. As a regional referral center, Samaritan offers all required rotations and a broad range of electives within the Corvallis area, with the exception of neurology.

• Neurology Rotation at OHSU: Completed through a long-standing partnership with OHSU in Portland, with housing fully provided by the program.
• External Electives: Residents may also pursue additional electives outside the Samaritan system, including approved international electives, to tailor their education to their career options.

Clinical Rotations & Training Highlights

Residents complete a broad range of clinical rotations across inpatient medicine, ambulatory care, critical care, cardiology, subspecialties and electives. These experiences are designed to build progressive responsibility while providing ample opportunities to tailor training to each resident’s specific career goals.

Residency Curriculum Overview

• Robust Inpatient Training: Residents build strong inpatient experience on the Inpatient Care Service (ICS), completing approximately 16 to 18 weeks during PGY-1 year and seven to eight weeks annually during PGY-2 and PGY-3 years.
• Dedicated Continuity Clinic: Integrated throughout all three years of training, providing approximately 10 to 12 weeks of ambulatory experience each year and helps residents build long-term relationships with patients.
• Progressive Critical Care Experience: Residents complete approximately four to six weeks of ICU training each year, taking on increasing clinical responsibility as they advance through the program.
• Comprehensive Cardiology Training: Residents gain practical cardiology experience throughout residency, ranging from two to three weeks during PGY-1 year to four to six weeks per year during PGY-2 and PGY-3 years.

Subspecialty & Elective Customization

• Senior Year Flexibility: More than half of all PGY-2 and PGY-3 training is completely dedicated to subspecialty and elective experiences, allowing residents to explore areas of interest in greater depth.
• Individualized Elective Tracks: Residents have flexibility to pursue additional electives both within and outside the Samaritan system, including unique experiences specifically aligned with their post-residency career goals.

Outpatient Training & Our X+Y Scheduling Model

Our program uses a structured X+Y scheduling model, meaning residents participate in clinic every four to five weeks. During clinic weeks, residents spend four out of five days caring for their own continuity clinic (CC) patients in the outpatient clinic.

The fifth day is dedicated to a longitudinal experience in geriatrics or rheumatology subspecialty clinics, board study, or scholarly activity work. This allows for focused learning in subspecialities where continuity of care is critical for disease management, scholarly exploration and board preparation.

Longitudinal Clinic Structure by PGY Year

The longitudinal experience varies by PGY year:

• PGY-1: Geriatrics Longitudinal Rotation
• PGY-2: Rheumatology Clinic AND Dedicated Scholarly Activity
• PGY-3: Individualized Board Preparation

In addition, PGY‑2 residents participate in a Friday morning Pain Lecture series during designated clinic weeks.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Seeing CC Patients	Longitudinal Clinic Day PGY1: Geriatrics PGY2: Rheumatology/ Scholarly Activity PGY3: Board Prep	A.M. – Seeing CC Patients P.M. – Didactics	Seeing CC Patients	Seeing CC Patients

Specialized Outpatient Clinic Experiences

During each assigned clinic week, residents spend one full day in their designated longitudinal experience:

Geriatrics (PGY-1)

PGY‑1 residents learn to navigate outpatient visits with a board‑certified geriatrician. Residents gain experience managing memory disorders, polypharmacy, functional decline, and prioritizing patient goals and values, including end‑of‑life decision‑making.

Rheumatology (PGY-2)

PGY‑2 residents manage their own panel of patients with autoimmune and rheumatologic diseases. This experience emphasizes diagnostic reasoning and allows residents to see how rheumatologic conditions evolve over time.

Scholarly Activity (PGY-2)

Residents have protected time to work with our research team, receiving guidance on developing, conducting, and completing scholarly projects. A CME stipend is provided that can be put toward publications and conferences, with additional support provided on a case-by-case basis.

Board Study (PGY-3)

As residents prepare for the ABIM board examination, PGY‑3s participate in an individualized board study curriculum:

• Meeting with a dedicated faculty coach to assess test‑taking strengths and challenges
• Designing a personalized board study plan based on Make It Stick learning principles
• Working with a co‑resident and faculty mentor on “discordant questions,” focusing on peer teaching and explanation
• Creating and delivering a board review lecture for co‑residents

Team-Based Continuity Clinic Infrastructure

Our clinic emphasizes team‑based care, with residents working closely alongside care coordinators, dedicated medical assistants, and triage LPNs to provide high‑quality, comprehensive care.

• Campus Location: Our outpatient clinic, Samaritan Internal Medicine – Corvallis, is conveniently located right on the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center hospital campus. Building 2 on the campus map.
• Panel Ownership: Residents care for their own distinct patient panel, with a gradual, comfortable increase in patient volume as they progress through residency.
• High-Acuity Continuity: We prioritize hospital follow‑up visits to ensure residents care for patients with the greatest internal medicine needs.