The Residency Training Program in Dermatology at University of Iowa Health Care spans three years. Within the training program, each trainee is exposed to immersive clinical and didactic experiences in a manner to promote skill development along a trajectory that culminates in the autonomous practice of dermatology. 

Clinical Experiences 

With regards to clinical rotations, our program utilizes an integrated block scheduling structure with active clinical experiences that vary over each week, each month, and each year of training. There are no dedicated block rotations longer than 10 weeks’ duration. In any given year of training, the clinical experiences are organized as a form of spaced education, where shorter educational encounters are spaced and repeated over time, with the goal of increased learning efficiency and improved retention. Moreover, the sequence of clinical experiences as organized over the three years of the program are designed as a spiral curriculum intended to produce graduates who have achieved competency in clinical practice of the four core areas of dermatology: (i) dermatologic surgery, (ii) Mohs, and cosmetics; dermatopathology; (iii) medical dermatology (adult and pediatric); and (iv) inpatient dermatology. The goals and objective for each of these four core clinical experiences are described in later sections of this handbook. 

Training Year #2

During the second year of training, residents continue rotating assignments to our general dermatology clinics, specialty clinics, continuity clinics, and procedure clinics as described for first-year residents. In promotion of their graduated autonomy, second-year residents now manage patients with indirect supervision while working in clinics at the Iowa City VAMC. Second-year residents also complete a dedicated 3- or 4-week rotation on the UI Health Care dermatopathology service. In addition to these core assignments, second-year residents further develop their skills by completing separate dedicated 5- to 7-week rotations on the UI Health Care inpatient consult service and a 10-week rotation on the Mohs surgery service. While rotating on the inpatient consult service, residents manage adult and pediatric patients in the various inpatient wards and emergency departments of the UI Health Care university hospital and the UI Health Care Medical Center Stead Family Children’s Hospital. The inpatient consult service resident is responsible for triaging inpatients and outpatients with acute dermatologic concerns via telephone consultations with external dermatology and non-dermatology providers, often aided by electronic images of the associated skin concerns. The inpatient consult service resident is responsible for night call coverage on Monday through Thursday nights. Weekend call and coverage of the inpatient consult service is assigned to the members of the second-year resident class on a rotating basis. The Mohs surgery experience includes excision of Mohs tissue layers, histopathologic review of frozen sections, and the design and execution of complex linear closures, flaps, and grafts. The consecutive 10-week experience provides residents with the longitudinal continuity to follow reconstruction outcomes until complete maturation. Mohs experiences occur in the UI Health Care Pomerantz Family Pavilion dermatology clinic, the Mohs clinic at the Iowa River Landing clinic, and the Iowa City VAMC.