Three years is a long time. We want it to feel like a community, not a pipeline. That means small cohorts, faculty who actually teach, weekly continuity with your patients, and a city that's comfortable to live in while you train.
What the day-to-day looks like
Nine residents per class, twenty-eight total. Small enough that everyone knows everyone's name, big enough that you always have a near-peer to call. Cohorts share noon conference, retreats, and informal social time built into the week.
The curriculum spans three years with twenty weeks of electives in PGY-2 and PGY-3. Faculty work with you to shape rotations around the kind of practice you want — rural, OB-heavy, procedural, or specialty-flavored.
Autonomy is encouraged from intern year, but you are never alone. Faculty are family physicians first — they teach because they want to, and they're on the same hallway when you have a question.
Rotations move you across Avera McKennan, Sanford USD Medical Center, the Center for Family Medicine, and Falls Community Health. One residency, four buildings.
Hands-on, every week
Airway, chest tube, joint injection, suturing, slit lamp, casting — residents rehearse the procedures rural family medicine requires before performing them in clinic.
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Program rituals
Three days at an area resort, retreat, or activity, on the program's dime. Residents pick the destination. No agenda beyond actually being together away from clinic.
Monday through Thursday at noon with lunch provided. In-house teaching across disciplines, scheduled grand rounds, journal clubs, and quality-improvement sessions.
Our residents are involved in a number of community engagement activities including radio and television appearances, health fairs, and sports sideline medicine.
Where you'll live
Sioux Falls is South Dakota's largest city — 200,000 people, 80+ parks, 30 miles of bike trails, a stretch of restaurants downtown that residents are still working through three years in. Cost of living is lower than almost any comparable training city.
For residents who want a smaller footprint, there is also a separate program in Pierre — a 2-2-2 schedule with real small-city practice from your second year on.
See it for yourself
Residents will tell you the program reads the same in person as it does on paper. A rotation puts you in clinic, at noon conference, and in the resident workroom. Bring questions.
