Roseburg Residency Connects With Applicants Virtually

The Roseburg Family Medicine Residency recently participated in a virtual conference hosted by the Oregon Residency Collaborative Alliance for Family Medicine (ORCA-FM). This inaugural, week-long event (Sep. 28-Oct.2) featured Oregon’s seven family medicine residencies who spoke with over 200 interested medical students and graduates from around the world. These types of conferences allow interested applicants an opportunity to get to know a residency program on a more personal level before applying in the fall through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). While this season may look and feel a little different with all interviews being virtual instead of in-person, the Roseburg Family Medicine Residency program still expects to receive over 500 applications again this season. (Last year, RFMR received over 600 applications from which they selected their eight current family medicine residents.) The RFMR recruitment season for the next class of residents will start the first week of November and run through the end of January. In February, the residency will rank their applicants, and in March they will find out who will be part of their second cohort. On September 28th, the ORCA-FM Kick-Off Event was well attended with each residency and medical school in Oregon speaking to the participants about their program and offering tips for interviewing during this unprecedented virtual interview season. As part of the Kick-Off Event, the RFMR program shared their new video highlighting their program and first class of family medicine interns. (Watch it here: https://youtu.be/yY1FHeD8ZLw) Some highlights from the conference include RFMR hosting a “Meet the Faculty” visit in which the residency highlighted several unique aspects of the program including: - Roseburg Family Medicine Residency program is a partnership between our sole-community hospital, Mercy Medical Center and federally qualified health center, Aviva Health. Working together to train exceptional family physicians - Situated in Douglas County, a rural community with a need for primary care - Blue Zones Project Demonstration Site - Partnership with the local Roseburg VA Medical Center for continuity clinic during their second and third year of residency training - Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum and opportunity to become dual boarded in Lifestyle Medicine and Family Medicine upon graduation from RFMR - Integrated Behavioral Health in the primary care clinic, monthly didactics and Balint group - Substance Use Disorder and Addition Medicine training during the second and third year of residency, allowing residents to be come more familiar with outpatient chronic pain management, alcohol use disorder, sedative use disorder, stimulant use disorders and other dependencies. The RFMR had 38 interested applicants visit with the faculty, ask questions and learn more about the program, community and exciting things happening locally. On Thursday, October 1st about 20 interested applicants had the chance to visit with the eight current Roseburg residents. Each resident shared a little about themselves, why they chose to complete their residency training in Roseburg and their rotation experiences thus far. “In the past during interview season, applicants would get an opportunity to visit Roseburg in person, check out the area and have dinner with the residents or faculty the evening prior to their interview.” RFMR Operations Director Desiree Inglis said. “With many schools and residency programs placing travel restrictions due to COVID-19, the applicants are looking for new avenues for ‘visiting’ with programs.” The ORCA-FM conference is an example of how the process to find residents for a program has changed to keep it safe and affordable while also highlighting each of the family medicine residency programs in Oregon. “Overall, each of our faculty and residents were in unanimous agreement that the conference was a success and we enjoyed each of the applicants that visited with us,” Inglis said. “While each of the family medicine programs across Oregon might look and feel a little different, we all have one goal in common – training the next group of family physicians.” Picture of residents enjoying a birthday cake for residency director Dr. Chip Taylor during didactics just before zoom calls with applicants.