Abortion training at multiple sites: an unexpected curriculum for teaching systems-based practice.

Background: In 1999, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education endorsed systems-based practice as one of six general competencies.

Objective: The objective is to explore the paradigm of teaching residents systems-based practice during a women's health rotation that included abortion training in multiple settings.

Methods: During a routine women's health rotation, residents from two urban family medicine residency programs received early abortion training at a high-volume abortion clinic and their continuity clinic. Thirty-min semistructured interviews were conducted with all 26 residents who rotated between July 2005 and August 2006. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic codes.

Results: Through exposure to different healthcare delivery systems, residents learned about systems-based practice, including understanding the failure of the larger system to meet patients' reproductive healthcare needs, differences between two systems, and potential systems barriers they might face as providers.

Conclusions: Abortion training in multiple settings may serve as a paradigm for teaching systems-based practice during other rotations that include training in multiple sites.