At UNM Family Medicine you will be ready for full-spectrum care anywhere.
We are so happy to share what we love about our residency program with you!
New Mexico is a unique and amazing state where you can go hiking in the Sandia mountains in the morning, float along the Rio Grande in the afternoon and have an amazing dinner in a lavender field in the evening. There are so many things to explore- deserts of white sands, slot canyons, world-renown ski resorts, ancient archeological sites and the biggest sky you've ever seen.
New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the country, and only has 2 million residents. So, we have a lot of rural areas and many healthcare shortage areas. The communities that have lived in New Mexico for centuries including Pueblo, Navajo and Apache as well as Hispanic, Latin(x) create a complex and rich environment where the necessity of learning about the ongoing health effects of coloniality and minoritization are vital.
Our residency program was created in 1971 and is one of the oldest (and largest) academic Family Medicine residency programs in the country. We are honored to have some of the founders of Family Medicine among our faculty. Their original hope was to train folks who wanted to be the most helpful in the most settings to the most people, and this is still among the core values of our residency and of our department of Family and Community Medicine.
Although we are part of a large academic hospital system, our residents are well known as amazing clinicians and leaders across our institution. Through our rigorous clinical curriculum, we hope to support our residents on their continued journey of clinical excellence paired with the skill set to partner with individuals and communities toward increased health and wellness. When our graduates leave our program, they are well equipped to move into any clinical role they are interested in- whether that be full-spectrum rural medicine, urban underserved outpatient medicine, complex obstetrics, or family planning (just to name a few options).
Our program attracts people who are already catalysts for change. University of New Mexico's Family Medicine residency program is engaged in an iterative process of embedding transformative justice in everything that we do. Our Population Health curriculum is based in the constructs of Community-Based Participatory Research. The intent is to learn how to engage in individual and community work not from a charity perspective, or a perspective that we are the experts "here to save the day". Rather we recognize that we have a lot to learn from communities and individuals that have agency, autonomy, and a lot more knowledge about what they need than we do. And only through true accompaniment, curiosity, and long-term investment in relationship do we have the potential to become truly helpful. These aren't the easiest constructs to internalize and operationalize in our world, but we sure hope to keep trying.
All the best to you on your own journey of clinical development and discovery,
Molly
Dr. Aragón has a deep commitment to caring for her community in New Mexico. She has special interests in sexual and reproductive health, including abortion care, addiction medicine, and medical education.
Dr. Chang's clinical interests include global health, practice management, lifestyle medicine, and integrative holistic care. Dr. Chang enjoys the challenge of inpatient and outpatient clinical care, working with residents and students across different settings, and having the opportunity to improve systems.
I chose this program because of its emphasis on community health, diverse patient-population, dedicated faculty, and supportive environment. UNM stood out to me as it truly strives to make a positive impact on the population it serves.
