Clinical Training and Education

Clinical Training

Boston Medical Center

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not for profit, 496-licensed bed academic medical center located in Boston’s historic South End. The hospital is the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine. BMC was created in 1996 by the merger of Boston City Hospital, a famous charity hospital with a long history of community service and of training physicians, and Boston University Medical Center, a private teaching hospital. Boston Medical Center, with its mission to provide consistently accessible health services to all, is the largest safety net hospital in New England. With an emphasis on community-based care and a network of affiliated community health centers, Boston Medical Center provides a full spectrum of health care services, from primary care to advanced specialty care.

Consistent with the mission of community service, Boston Medical Center has provided abortion services since legalization. All services are provided at Boston Medical Center. The medical campus includes the hospitals, the School of Medicine, biomedical research buildings, and the School of Public Health, which allows almost all activities to take place within a several block radius.

Our BEACON clinical services practice a collaborative model with physicians, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses engaged in a team-based approach to clinical care.

Abortion and Miscarriage Training for the CFP Fellow

Fellows participate in all aspects of first and second trimester surgical and medical abortion training, through the legal limit in the state of Massachusetts. We see about 6500 patients a year, and care for a complex and diverse population. We’re the primary referral location for the MA Abortion Sharing Agreement, and take enormous pride in the provision of compassionate, patient centered care for complex patients.

The vast majority of services are provided through our ambulatory procedure center, staffed with skilled registered nurses, medical assistants, and anesthesiologists. This efficient, patient-centered space allows for right-sized care for complex patients, without the routine need for the operating room. All of our pregnancy management services occur in the same space, with expectation to develop expertise in D&C, D&E, transvaginal and transabdominal ultrasound, management of early pregnancy loss and mid-trimester fetal demise, and medical abortion provision. We specialize in patients with a variety of comorbidities including substance use and substance use disorder, obesity and related illness, complex cardiac or vascular histories, and morbid placentation. We are particularly well equipped for patients who are transgender or gender diverse, have histories of trauma, are refugees, and other complex social situations shaping clinical care.

Complex Contraception

Fellows run a complex contraception clinic, managing referrals and providing consultative services in the outpatient setting. They will gain experience in management of difficult LARC insertion and removal,  patient-centered contraception counseling and shared decision making.

Structured Educational Curriculum

Fellows’ School

Fellows school is a two-year curriculum following the ACGME milestones and the CFP guide to learning. It runs weekly and is a mix of didactics, case based discussions and webinars. Fellows are responsible for reading ahead of time and participating in the structured didactic. The goal of fellows school is to ensure the education required to be an expert in the field, providing consults to our colleagues and  excelling in your post-fellowship life. Other learners rotating with us also attend fellows’ school.

The reading is grounded in sentinel articles, guidelines, textbooks, and other evidence based articles and research.

REAL Curriculum (Research Education Advocacy Leadership)

The REAL Curriculum is a supplement to the traditional fellows’ school curriculum, grounded in the other content required to be an effective leader in the field, but not clinical in nature. Some examples of content within the REAL Curriculum are below:

Research: qualitative research methods, grant seeking, race and racism research methodology

Education: leading values clarification, writing a letter of recommendation, teaching theory, providing evaluations of learners

Advocacy: using social media, written advocacy workshops, traveling abortion provider panels

Leadership: Fundamental of leading and leading theory, post-fellowship financial planning, mentoring and being mentored, running and setting up a clinic