Residency in Family Medicine at UNM

Roswell
One-Plus-Two Program

Roswell UFO Festival

The Community

Roswell, 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque, is located on the Pecos River in the heart of the southeast quadrant of New Mexico. Chaves County, in which Roswell is found, is the third largest county in New Mexico with a population of 57,849. The entire county is designated rural, medically underserved, and experiencing a healthcare provider shortage. Chaves County has a large bilingual English-Spanish population. Approximately 40 percent of the county's population is Hispanic with a high number of children living in poverty.

Roswell offers a variety of multicultural activities such as New Mexico Dairy Days, Summer Biathlon Competition, "Alien Chase" Fun Run, Piñatafest, Eastern New Mexico State Fair, and the New Mexico Spectacular Air Show. Roswell area businesses annually sponsor the GusMacker 3-on-3 National Basketball Tournament and the Sun Classic Charity Pro-Am Golf Tournament.

The Roswell Museum and Art Center houses the Peter Hurd collection, the Native American and Hispanic collections, sculptures by Luis Jiminez, and the Robert H. Goddard collection. The museum also sponsors community activities, studio classes, and special exhibitions, including the Artist in Residence Program.

Nearby attractions in the Pecos Valley include Ruidoso (quarterhorse racing, skiing, camping, hiking, and fishing), Carlsbad Caverns, Living Desert State Park, Bitter Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, and White Sands National Monument and Missile Range.

The Curriculum

All residents are trained to provide inpatient and outpatient care for a group of patients in all life cycles, including obstetrics, with an understanding that physicians-in-training have different needs and expectations. The residency program endeavors to fulfill its mission to train family practice physicians to provide high quality community-oriented primary care while helping to meet the needs of the undeserved population of Roswell and surrounding communities.

Residents receive their first year of training in Albuquerque in the University of New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program. The intensive first year provides a sound beginning base and experience. Residents spend a one-month surgery rotation Roswell in their first year. The experience initiates a tie to the Roswell community and begins the development of a patient base from which to work during the next two years.

A wide range of clinical and educational experiences are available in Roswell and the outlying rural areas of southeast New Mexico where the second and third year of training occurs. The curriculum is designed as a longitudinal and block-based experiences similar to those of practicing family physicians. Longitudinal rotations provide residents with hands-on experience; block rotations permit the resident an intensive one-month experience with the specialists.

The program fosters communication between patients, staff, and peers as a fundamental skill required to function effectively as a competent physician. As a part of the philosophy, the curriculum reelects the principles of problem-based learning and evidence-based medicine. As professionals, physicians are expected to maintain satisfactory levels of knowledge and skills through their careers. The process by which the residents learn this skill is referred to as self-directed, lifelong learning. Residents will be taught the ability to continue learning beyond their residency training through problem-based learning activities. These activities are centered around specific case material provided by the program staff or drawn from the practice experiences of the group members.

The block rotation and longitudinal experiences for the second and third year are outlined below:

Block Rotations

Community Medicine
Internal Medicine
Urology
Behavioral Health
Pediatrics
Orthopedics
Family Practice
Cardiology
Ophthalmology
Otolaryngology
Dermatology
Geriatrics
Sports Medicine
Pulmonology

Longitudinal Rotations

In-patient Hospital Service on Family Practice Residency Team
Family Practice Clinic
Nursing Home Patients
Obstetrics Continuity patients
Community Medicine
Gynecology
Practice Management
Diagnostic Imaging
Emergency Medicine

The resident will also gain valuable community experience in the following settings:

Chaves County Community Health Center
Individual practitioners’ offices
New Mexico Rehabilitation Center
Counseling Associates
Roswell Public Health Office
Various rural health facilities throughout southeastern New Mexico

The Family Practice Center

The Family Practice Center, which opened in October of 1997, was built by Eastern New Mexico Medical Center exclusively for use by the Eastern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program. There are six exam rooms, one procedure room, and one triage room. Under normal circumstances, there is a maximum of three providers seeing patients at one time. There will generally be one support staff per resident in each clinic half day. Residents can expect to experience several out patient procedures in the clinic such as; OB ultrasound, colposcopy splinting, wart removal, and many other procedures.

Obstetrics

ENMFPRP offers full service maternity care including an indigent clinic with care offered in Spanish and English. The Family Practice Clinic offers care in normal deliveries, C/sections, ultrasound and colposcopy, with resident having "hands on" responsibility for patients. Precepting attendings are from the departments of Family Practice and Obstetrics. ENMFPRP currently does approximately 150 deliveries per year.

Gynecology/ Women’s Health Clinic

A women’s health clinic involving residents of the Eastern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program (ENMFPRP) started about a year and a half ago in cooperation with the Public Health office in Roswell. The Public Health office houses programs such as WIC, Children’s Medical Services, family planning, breast and cervical program, and Maternal Child Health services among others. The women’s health clinic allows residents the opportunity to expand their experience and to provide care to a different population of patients; namely those undeserved because of financial difficulties and lack of insurance. It provides residents the opportunity to work with precepting obstetric-gynecologist physicians from RIO PECOS Medical Group to learn and perform procedures such as IUD placement and removal, and Norplant insertion and removal. The clinic sees an average number of 10 to 15 patients one afternoon a week. Residents are scheduled to be in the Women’s Health Clinic on Tuesday afternoons.

Application Process

PGY-I family practice resident applicants should apply through ERAS, the Electronic Residency Application Service through your medical school.

Applications are reviewed by the Program Director and Faculty. The following materials are required to complete your file.

Common Application Form
Personal Statement
Two or more Letters of Recommendation
Dean’s Letter
Medical School Transcripts
USMLE Score(s)

Interviews will begin the first of November and end in January. If selected to interview you will be contacted by mail.

We look forward to having you interview at our program.

Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401 K Plan
Vacation/ Holiday Leave
Sick Leave
Educational Leave and allowance
Meals while on duty
Internet access
EAP (Employee Assistance Program)

Faculty

Karen Vaillant, MD
Director

Dr. Vaillant graduated from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Then, completed her residency in Family Practice at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She has extensive experience in both family practice residency education and primary care for the underserved. Dr. Vaillant is Board Certified in Family Practice and maintains many professional memberships as well as volunteer positions. She is currently President of the New Mexico Academy of Family Practice, Director of Hospice in Roswell, and Director of the SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners) Program in Roswell.

Larry Linnell, MD
Faculty

Dr. Linnell attended Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and the Allegheny Family Physicians residency in Altoona, Pa. He did NHSC/PPO solo practice for nine years in rural Maine and then joined a multi-specialty group in Towanda, PA for six years. In 1999 Dr. Linnell joined the ENMFPRP. His special interests are in obstetrics, surgical obstetrics, prenatal ultrasound and colposcopy.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Eastern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program is to train family practice physicians to provide high quality community oriented primary care while helping to meet the primary care needs of the under served population of Roswell and surrounding communities. The residents’ experience in Roswell will also help develop familiarity and ties to the community for future practice development.

Purpose of the Program

The purpose of the ENMFPRP is to prepare family practice doctors for providing high quality evidence-based health care, especially to rural under served populations. ENMFPRP endeavors to provide a balanced experience between academic excellence and the mission for training primary care for under served rural areas. The ENMFPRP is designed to facilitate the resident’s transition from trainee to physician by promoting professional maturity and competence. Residents participating in this program are expected to aggressively pursue a "take charge" and "hands on" responsibility for direct patient care. Family Practice is the only residency at ENMMC. Residents care for and manage their FPC patients at the FPC clinic, at the hospital and on-call with appropriate and available family practice and specialist supervision and consultation. Training is resident oriented with one-on-one and small group teaching, telemedicine and academic days. The program emphasizes patients’ care responsibility with broad based training in office procedures, maternity care, computer resources, and community health. ENMFPRP intends to address rural health issues and the needs of rural family practice residents at the training level, using up to date evidence-based medicine to assist the residents’ personal development in the comfortable, complete and compassionate care of their own patients.

For more information about our program please contact:

Alisa Cannon, Program Coordinator
603 W. Country Club Road
Roswell, New Mexico 88201
(505) 624-5625
(505) 624-5603 fax
E-mail: familypractice_residency@chs.net

Karen Vaillant, M.D., Director
Alicia Cannon, Residency Coordinator
Eastern New Mexico Family Practice
Residency Program
Eastern New Mexico Medical Center
405 W. Country Club Road
Roswell, NM 88201
Ph: (505) 624-5625
Fax: (505) 624-5603
E-mail: familypractice_residency@chs.net