Our program seeks these attributes in our applicants in order to create the patient centered medical home of the future and to insure the health of the community.

 

Patient Focus

Clinical Skill

Problem Solving

Team Player

Efficient

Productive

Leader Potential


Brochure

click here for printable Residency Brochure

 

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1. How many residents do you accept each year and what are you looking for in residents?
We accept 14 residents per year. We are looking for applicants with a strong academic background and a demonstrated commitment to family practice. Good interpersonal skills and a strong work ethic are equally important. Finally, we look for applicants who we feel will “fit” with our team concept of learning and practicing family medicine.

2. Where do you do your rotations, and outpatient family medicine clinic?
Hospital rotations are primarily at Truman Medical Centers, rated by the University Healthcare Consortiumin in 2005 as one of the top 5 academic medical centers in the United States for delivering the highest quality care . TMC Lakewood offers a total healing environment. We are the only residents in the hospital. We do our inpatient pediatric rotation at nearby Children’s Mercy Hospital. When doing other community rotations in private clinics we may go to other area hospitals with our community attendings. Family Medicine residents receive training at the Bess Truman Family Medicine Center inside TMC-Lakewood. There we have over 12,000 out patient visits annually. Residents are organized into 4 teams supported by attendings and nursing, funtioning as group practices, led by a faculty mentor. We are on track to complete our Patient Centered Medical Home certification in 2013.

3. How frequently are you on call?
As an RES1 you are on call six rotations out of 13, throughout the year. These are the only blocks when you are on call. For Inpatient Pediatrics, you go into the call schedule at Children's Mercy. When you are at Lakewood taking call from Mon-Thurs, the faculty for the night is in-house with you. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday they are available to be paged, ready to answer any questions or come in whenever you need them. There is also a RES2 or RES3 on backup who remains in house with you 7 days a week to help and answer questions.

4. Do you work with residents from other specialties during residency?
We are primarily an unopposed residency program, which allows our residents to experience first-hand education and training in all the relevant subspecialties. We do work with Pediatric residents during our one-month inpatient pediatrics rotation at Children's Mercy Hospital. Our Inpatient Medicine team also includes psychiatry interns and residents from our Podiatric Surgery program.

5. Why might this program not be a good fit for me?
This is a program designed for people who want to experience some independence in their care of patients. If you are looking for a program where someone is always double and triple checking you, then we probably are not right for you. While we always have faculty or a senior resident around to ask questions and help us manage patients, this is definitely a place where we all take responsibility for patient care and have a lot of freedom in that process.

6. What procedures will I learn during residency?
You will be trained in outpatient procedures such as colposcopy, exercise stress tests, circumcisions/neonatal procedures, IUD insertion, skin biopsies, toenail removals, joint injections/aspirations, etc. Other opportunities are available to receive training in procedures such as central line placement, intubation, thoracentesis and C-Sections. Outpatient procedures are emphasized following the nature of a typical outpatient family practice. If you are interested in getting extra experience for inpatient procedures, there are plenty of opportunities for further training with an elective in procedure clinic or simply asking an attending if they would allow you to join in on procedures in their private clinics.  Our current residents are also working on creating a vasectomy clinic, demonstrating our program's commitment to the implementation of suggestions for improvement.

7. What is the inpatient medicine experience like?
Inpatient Medicine consists of a team that includes two RICs that are RESIII residents in charge who split coverage each day.  There are two RESII residents who function to help the team with admissions and help teach and guide RES1s.  There are also four RES1 residents. One psychiatry intern from TMC Hospital Hil functions as a full member of the team.  This structure part of a continuous improvement process based directly on resident feedback and suggestions. There is one Family Medicine and an Internal Medicine attending. Each morning we pre-round, then do walk rounds starting in the ICU at 0830. We end rounding in Radiology to review any new films. At bedside, residents present their patient, the team sees the patient and as a team we create our plan of care. Patient care & management is a collaborative effort that is headed by the resident. The afternoons are for following up on tests, radiology, consults, discharging patients or clinic. New admissions are accepted throughout the day.

The census is often in the mid 20s and occasionally increases into the mid 30s.  Each member of the team has a completely different schedule based on RES level. RES1s generally have one week of nights during each month of Inpatient Medicine. The daily schedule is generally from 6am to 430pm.

8. Is the program family friendly?
Absolutely! We all work hard while we are here, but the goal is to leave work at work so we can go home and enjoy our families in our off time. Our program is a good mix of single and married residents. Most of our gatherings are designed to include families and we all work together to help out when family emergencies arise. Residents are able to stay active in their children's lives, get married, have babies (we average 2-5 new babies a year) and a full life outside of residency while still learning. The program even offers a Maternity/Paternity Care Rotation so new parents can take time bonding with new additions to the family. We put the "Family" in Family Medicine!