Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency

Core Values

There are so many great family medicine programs, but ultimately students need to find the place where they feel the right fit. Our values support us as a bedrock of who we are as a program, and we want to meet people that share in these values.

Community-Centered Hospital, schools, health campaigns, migrant farmworker camps, educational programs... We are involved and we lead.

Continuous Full-Spectrum Care Throughout residency, we deliver babies, care for children, manage critical care patients, and provide acute care. We care for all, all the time.

Leadership and Advocacy To make change, you have to lead change. Our residents are our colleagues and we provide the ability, tools, and avenues for our residents. Our residents make a difference from day one.

At-Risk Populations Our patient population is more than 85% uninsured or Medicaid insured. We provide outreach services to the migrant farmworker population, sit on the board of the free clinic, provide care at the health department, and manage a clinic to support individuals experiencing homelessness. We give access to care to everyone.

Dynamic Being a smaller program allows us to push the standards of medical education to provide customized education at the highest quality. We constantly evaluate our program and our residents. We make sure every physician leaves having the heart, skills, and knowledge to bring lasting change to their community.

Unique Features

On top of these values and the great people here, we have many unique features that we hope align with the vision for your future.

Community Medicine

During their second and third years, residents work on a community project, which is often their main scholarly activity. They collaborate with local organizations to develop a project that has a lasting impact on their community.

Examples of prior projects:

• Changing hospital protocols for alcohol detoxification
• Creating an online database of community resources
• Managing a chronic pain group
• Building a community garden in a low-wealth area
• Installing additional sinks in the hospital to reduce C.diff infections
• Creating a mobile health clinic for migrant farmworkers
• Supervising epinephrine trainings at local camps
• Developing prenatal cards
• Improving bicycle safety and education
• Improving diabetic care with an information kiosk at a grocery store

Rural Extension Project

Our program has been developing full-spectrum rural physicians for over two decades, and have been very successful in placing our graduates in Western North Carolina. As Hendersonville has grown, however, we have seen a rising challenge of continuing to develop rural physicians in a town that has become more vibrant and less rural. Through multiple sites affiliated with Blue Ridge Health, our residents establish themselves at rural clinics in multiple mountain towns outside Henderson County. In their second and third year, residents spend 1-2 days per month at these smaller clinics to develop their own patient panel and improve their skills in rural medicine.

The Ultrasound Revolution

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is used in our hospital and continuity clinics with handheld Butterfly devices. Ultrasound is taught in formal courses as well as in didactics, typically 6-7 times per year. Residents are encouraged to use these skills daily in their continuity clinics but further hands-on training is incorporated into our procedural skills rotation. Furthermore, residents can choose to use elective time dedicated to additional POCUS training.

Commitment to Full-Spectrum Training

Despite the national reduction in scope of practice in family medicine, our program has remained committed to full-spectrum training. Our goal is to train a generation of physicians who are ready to practice anywhere in the world and tackle whatever community needs they encounter. We continue to work with our local health systems to expand the scope of practice of family doctors and to improve the health of Western North Carolina.

Flexible Curriculum

Our residents are a diverse group of learners with a diverse number of interests, and our curriculum can be individualized for residents based on their anticipated needs. With maximal elective time built into the curriculum and an away month in second and third year, our residents have the opportunity to shape their own experiences to match their interests. Some residents have spent this time to gain expertise in alternative medicine, medical Spanish, curriculum development, innovative practice models, surgical obstetrics, and much more. Our small size allows residents the flexibility to work on their interests and to mold a personalized curriculum around their goals.