Interview Season

Posted on November 23, 2016 with 0 comments

We are well into the interview season and are enjoying meeting folks from all over the country. There is strong interest in our new Community Health Center sponsored/based Family Medicine Residency program. We are grateful for this as we continue the endeavor of making this a strong program. For example, we are prioritizing longitudinally weaving underserved curriculum into our rotations.

I have enjoyed interviewing everyone. A lot of candidates like the challenge of being a part of something new, where they can contribute ideas and give us feedback, making the program better. As pioneering residents, we will be actively soliciting you for feedback, so we can continuously improve the program. Our goal for the first resident class is to have them tell us upon graduating that they would have done this again. Certainly the ratio of 6 residents to 4 core faculty (including me) is robust.

Our core faculty meets regularly developing their roles and discussing curriculum development, this is essential for the upcoming first year. Dr. Mata is currently in the University of Washington Faculty Development Fellowship, which instills core faculty training. We will continue to have a core faculty member in this Fellowship over the next few years.

Recently, The Providence (Everett) Institute for Healthier Living (essentially out of the Providence hospital) sponsored a new annual event “The Edge of Amazing”, along with the nearby Tulalip tribe. It was an inspiring day, where people from our community came together to network and share ideas how to have a positive impact on the social determinants of health in Snohomish County. I made many connections which will help the residency.

Providence hospital is also gearing up for this new, unopposed residency. Our program will be explained to all new employees, as well as through ongoing education to the many existing employees. The hospital milieu is palpably excited. Providence is a great fit, with their mission to help the poor and vulnerable.

Thanks to everyone who has applied and is interviewing with us, it has been rewarding and we anticipate a mutually productive venture.