Hunterdon Family Medicine Residency
Mission Statement
Our mission states our commitment to our residents during their three years at Hunterdon Medical Center:
The primary mission of the Hunterdon Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program is to educate residents utilizing the values and precepts which are fundamental to the way medicine is practiced by family physicians in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, so that they themselves may graduate as family physicians who can provide this model of exemplary primary care to their patients, their patients' families and the communities which they serve.
Because of the respect that family medicine enjoys in Hunterdon County, residents have a unique opportunity to see how effective a family physician can be. Every facet of Hunterdon's integrated delivery system is utilized to enhance the resident's understanding of the full impact of family practice in this country. Our mission allows us to move toward our ultimate vision in family medicine education. This vision is to create a humanistic and compassionate form of education which models completely the humanism and compassion that we teach in the doctor-patient relationship. Our competency-based curriculum is central to both our mission and our vision.
Hunterdon Medical Center
Hunterdon Medical Center was created in 1953 with the vision of an integrated health care delivery system in mind: namely, that primary care would be delivered by family physicians in the community, that consultative and specialty care would be hospital-based with patients returned to their primary care physicians and finally, that the hospital would be a training center for family physicians. This system has worked remarkably well with Hunterdon Medical Center currently enjoying one of the best physician/patient ratios in the country, as well as having one of the lowest per capita costs for hospitalization in the nation. Family medicine is REAL in Hunterdon County.
The centerpiece of the Hunterdon Healthcare System is Hunterdon Medical Center. The Medical Center has 178 beds, including advanced medical and surgical units, a 12 bed Intensive Care/Coronary Care Unit, a 20-bed Same Day Surgery Center, a 20-bed Maternity and Newborn Care Center which was one of the first single-room maternity centers in New Jersey, a 10-bed Pediatric unit and a 14-bed Behavioral Health wing.
The Best Call Schedule in the Nation! Hunterdon led the nation by implementing the first, year-round Night Float system for Family Medicine Residency programs. This system alleviates resident fatigue and eliminates the exhaustion which can be detrimental to the residents, their families and patient care. A second or third year resident covers the hospital from 10:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. in a designed Night Float rotation. This allows a first year resident to sleep from midnight until 7:00 a.m. and allows the second year resident to sleep in the comfort of his/her own home from midnight until the next morning.
First year residents are scheduled to be on call one night in four; the second year call schedule is one night in five. This guarantees an adequate volume and experience to develop mastery in common problem management. Third year residents have no hospital call and take only outpatient call for the family health centers. We believe that the combination of Night Float and the appropriate frequency of night call combines to create the best possible call schedule.
Radiology and lab services are state-of-the-art. A hospital-wide fiber-optic computer network system was installed in 1996.
Specialty Staff. Most of the members of the specialty medical staff have offices in the Hunterdon Doctors' Office Building adjacent to the Medical Center. The building is also the site of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR) facility.
Community Health Services. Hunterdon Medical Center has achieved widespread recognition for its role as a provider of community health services beyond those normally associated with a hospital. Patient and community health education programs, public health screening and detection services, a certified home health agency and behavioral health services complement the Medical Center's comprehensive in-hospital services.
Child Care Faciltiy. On the grounds of the Medical Center is a child care facility available to children of employees and staff as well as to other members of the community.
Geriatrics. Hunterdon Medical Center has made Geriatrics one of its major initiatives, with a full time director, comprehensive hospital and ambulatory services, and leadership in the development of a 15,000 person Planned Adult Community. Four of our faculty physicians hold the Certificate of Added Qualifications in Geriatrics and one has completed a fellowship
Competency-Based Curriculum
A unique experience available at Hunterdon Medical Center is the participation of residents in the competency-based curriculum. It is our philosophical belief that the training of the complete family physician must encompass three separate realms: the content of family medicine (pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, behavioral sciences, and all the other required elements of the family medicine curriculum), the process (clinical acumen skills, interpersonal skills, organizational skills, business practice skills, personal and professional growth and development skills) and the professionalism (the physical, intellectual, psychological and emotional experiences of practicing family medicine).
High Quality Teaching. Specific teaching on the process and the professionalism supplement the high quality content teaching that occurs throughout the three years of residency. In addition to focusing on the knowledge that family physicians must acquire in order to effectively practice family medicine, residents receive specific training on the application of that knowledge and how to use their own experiential development as a tool for enhancing their effectiveness as family physicians.
Training. Training on process and professionalism is based on three broad principles. The first principle clarifies for the learner the processes which are used by effective family physicians. The competencies are taught using group-based activities as well as individual discussions with the residents. The 26 identified competencies include such processes as recognizing the primacy of the patient's needs and developing a healthcare partnership with the patient.
Evaluation System. The second principle acknowledges that the traditional evaluation system is limited in effectiveness and that learners must become effective self-evaluators if they are to continue to grow after they finish their formal training. To that end, all of the rotations at Hunterdon Medical Center employ a comprehensive self-evaluation methodology which uses the competencies as a framework. Using the system, a resident can develop the clarity necessary to identify specific educational needs. With this degree of clarity, educational strategies and opportunities become evident. The high faculty to resident ratio at Hunterdon Medical Center facilitates development of individual educational plans for each learner.
Teacher-Resident Relationship. The third principle addresses the teacher-resident relationship. Residents meet with the program director or the associate program director on a regular schedule to discuss and explore their experience of becoming a family physician. Elements of a compassionate doctor-patient relationship are modeled through the teacher-resident relationship.
The training of
the complete family physician must encompass three separate realms: the content..., the process...., and professionalism.
Educational Programs
At Hunterdon Medical Center, the family physicians and specialists on the staff participate in the residents' education. In addition to daily formal rounds and conferences, much of the training derives from the direct relationship of the resident with the attending physician in the care of patients. This constitutes a refined preceptorship in which the resident assists the physician in the care of patients and gains the knowledge and skills appropriate to patient care through repetitive practice, example and discussion.
These opportunities are presented in the in-patient and out-patient services of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and psychiatry. In addition, the first-year resident spends two months as the primary physician in the Emergency Department, supervised by full-time board certified or board eligible physicians. Responsibility for patient care increases as the resident's training and capabilities increase and is sharpened by participation in the teaching of medical students and junior residents.
The material unique to the specialty of family medicine is incorporated into the teaching program over the entire three-year period. Since the Family Medicine Residency is the only residency offered at Hunterdon Medical Center, the emphasis in teaching in all disciplines is upon family medicine.
Conferences. There are regular in-hospital family medicine conferences designed to cover serious problems encountered in the hospital, such as the multiple injured patient or cardiac arrests. Forty hours of such conferences are scheduled the first two months of each academic year. During the remainder of the year, daily noon conferences are scheduled with substantial resident input. Weekly half-day third year resident conferences are held with a focus on topics pertinent to the incorporation of behavioral sciences into office practice.
University Affiliation
Hunterdon Medical Center has enjoyed a major teaching affiliation with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School since 1972 and has been involved with the teaching of medical students in physical diagnosis, office preceptorships, third-year clinical rotations and fourth-year electives and sub-internships.
The program director of Hunterdon Medical Center, as well as those of John F. Kennedy Medical Center, Somerset Medical Center, St. Joseph's Hospital, Warren Hospital, St. Peter's Medical Center, Mountainside Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, West Jersey Hospital and Helene Fuld Medical Center meet with the Department of Family Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School on a bi-monthly basis to discuss programs, problems, solutions and joint activities to preserve and expand the role of family medicine in New Jersey. Also, a research network, associate directors' network, behavioral science network and chief residents' network provide major input into conferences and programs for the entire network.
The university network facilitates the sharing of electives among programs...
Contact Information
Stanley M. Kozakowski, M.D., Director, Family Medicine Residency
Kelly Zengel, Administrative Assistant
Hunterdon Medical Center
2100 Wescott Drive
Flemington, NJ 08822
Telephone: 908-788-6160
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