Family Medicine Residency: FAQs

The greatest strength of our residency program is that it produces superb family physicians who are well qualified to assume a wide range of practice opportunities.  This is due to our ability to combine the best attributes of a community hospital-based program with an academic focus.  In doing so, we attract highly self-directed residents who also benefit from the guidance of our dedicated faculty with its varied clinical and research interests.  We pride ourselves on innovation in clinical care and teaching, and we are known for helping our residents develop their own areas of interest.

Due to our success in recruiting high quality medical students, our residents and graduates have fared well on all quality indicators.  Our residents score well above the national average on the annual in-service training exam.  This results in a consistently high rate in passing the Family Medicine Board Exam.

Our program has consistently filled with highly competitive applicants from our program Match List, several of whom perform Acting Internships during their fourth year of medical school.  Successful candidates to our program often have distinguished themselves in academics and other achievements that have helped them build the character of an excellent family physician.  Our residents also tend to be internally driven and self-directed in their learning.

Which NRMP code do I use for the Match?

For candidates interested in the categorical match for Family Medicine, please use NRMP code 1943120C0. 

Greensboro is a GREAT place to live!  It is small enough to not have traffic, but large enough to offer a variety of recreational activities and education/job opportunities for significant others.  It is located just over an hour from Durham and Raleigh, a three to four-hour drive from the beach and two hours from the mountains.  Greensboro is full of parks and provides lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation. 

Cost of living here is very affordable, and typically about half of our residents purchase homes in the area.  The public education system is well regarded, and there are also private and religious-based education options.  We have had residents from all over the country, many of whom choose to stay in North Carolina after completing residency.

Greensboro is a city of 290,201 people (2017). It is nestled between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast, in a region of gently rolling terrain called the Piedmont.  With lengthy fall and spring seasons and generally mild winters, outdoor activities are popular among residents.

The city has several colleges and universities, including the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC A&T University, Greensboro College, Guilford College, Bennett College and Elon University - all within 20 minutes of the Moses Cone Hospital campus.

Because Greensboro is such an attractive city, we have been able to recruit residents from all parts of the country.  So many of them choose to stay in North Carolina once they graduate because it is such a great place to live.

To find out more information on the many activities and events that make Greensboro a great place to live, please check out:  www.visitgreensboronc.com   or   www.visitnc.com.

We support technology and in fact, offer a technology stipend to each resident as they enter the program.  Our EMR is EPIC for both inpatient and outpatient charting.  Many residents use smartphones, tablets and laptops to access the EMR, creating a more efficient work flow.  In addition to UpToDate, we have access to the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) digital library.  We also use an online web resource where residents can find clinical and curricular information such as handouts, lectures, goals and objectives for each rotation, article reviews and other tools. 

The Family Practice Residency Program is the largest residency in our health system, with eight residents per class.  The hospital is also home to an Internal Medicine residency program and the primary care track of the UNC pediatric residency.  There is not an OB-GYN residency.  Overall, there are no concerns about access to patient experiences or specialty teaching.  In many ways, the other residencies contribute to our learning as they draw additional faculty who are interested in teaching residents. This is particularly true of pediatrics where you will work closely with UNC pediatric attending physicians in both the inpatient and clinic settings. 

The Family Medicine Center (FMC) is a stand-alone facility on the campus of the main teaching hospital of the Cone Health System.  We care for patients of all ages, and our patients represent the breadth of diversity of the Greensboro area.  Roughly 15% of our patient panel is of limited English proficiency (LEP); the top five languages represented among this segment of our patients are Spanish (50%), Arabic (12%), Swahili or Kiswahili (5%), Vietnamese (6%) and Kinyarwanda (3%).

Most of our in-hospital rotations take place at our main facility, the 675-bed Moses Cone Hospital.  We also use private practitioners' offices and other outpatient facilities in our training.  Approximately 80% of the training of our first-year residents is in hospital-based rotations.  By the time a resident reaches the third year, 85% of the training is ambulatory-based experiences.  The best thing about our training sites is that they are all very close to each other, which allows residents on almost every rotation to come back to our “base” at the FMC for noon conferences and to reconnect with their fellow residents regularly.

Our program has a wealth of clinical opportunities to learn low-risk obstetrics. The required experience consists of 1.5 months during the intern year and another two weeks in the second year.  

For those with a strong interest in obstetrics, we have developed an Obstetrics/Women's Health Area of Concentration.  This track is designed to offer additional guidance to residents who may be interested in incorporating a focus on women’s health issues or maternity care into their future practice.   We encourage residents to carefully consider their future practice goals with regard to obstetrics, and to consider the Obstetrics Area of Concentration as they plan to augment their obstetrical training during residency. 

Since the residents spend so much time working together, the program places an emphasis on recruiting people who will work well together.   Each class has residents who choose to spend time together outside of work, whether is it is going to dinner or having an evening of bowling.   We have several activities every year to help facilitate these relationships, including our resident retreat every September and intern appreciation dinner in the spring.   These relationships are one of the reasons we attract such excellent applicants, and one of the reasons why current residents have input into the selection of future classes.