Frequently Asked Questions

  • At our program, resident well-being is a core pillar. We promote a healthy work-life balance throughout your training through dedicated time off, work-life integration, and robust mental health services.

    Work-Life Integration and Time Off 

    We believe in the importance of rest and recharge. 

    • Residents receive 21 days of paid time off (PTO) and 5 CME days annually. 

    • We also offer a special "Breakout" week during the holidays, guaranteeing that every resident has either the week of Christmas or New Year's off. 

    • Our rotations are carefully designed to provide balance, so you'll rarely have back-to-back rigorous rotations. Faculty and staff help residents plan their time off to ensure you use it all and can mitigate the stressors inherent in proactive medicine. 

    • Additionally, several rotations in the PGY1 and PGY2 years include built-in wellness days.

    • Our faculty help residents develop the efficiency needed to leave work at work. We closely monitor work hours to ensure they stay well below the ACGME 80-hour cap, giving you ample time to enjoy your well-earned downtime.

    Mental Health and Wellness Support

    We provide comprehensive mental health and wellness support, including confidential counseling and a dedicated mindfulness curriculum.

    • Opt-Out Counseling: In partnership with the Duval County Medical Society, we've implemented an "opt-out" counseling program. Appointments are automatically scheduled for residents, and you can simply cancel if you choose not to attend. This system ensures easy, confidential access to services without the burden of seeking them out.

    • Mindfulness Curriculum: We offer a longitudinal mindfulness curriculum led by a certified community practitioner. The program includes both group and one-on-one sessions to help you manage stress and improve well-being.

    • Resident-Led Initiatives: Our resident-led wellness committee plans regular activities and has a dedicated time slot during didactics for resident wellness.

  • Yes! Across our classes we have a mixture of single, coupled, and married residents. We always have a strong contingent of residents with children of all ages, including fur-babies. We also host a very qualified group of baby sitters.

    Within the program, partners of residents often gather with-and-without their resident counterpart, and are always invited to program social events.

    The program also frequently hosts couples-matched residents. We have a long history of hosting couples both within the program, and those who are split between residency programs or specialties.

  • We employ a broad range of educational formats in order to accommodate different learning styles.

    • Noon Conference Series - Two to three times a week, a faculty member or guest speaker will present a lecture during our noon conference series. We also provide on-demand offerings in a Google Classroom, which include curated journal articles, podcasts, and other evidence-based resources that are relevant for both daily practice and board review.

    • Hands on Workshops: We offer hands-on OMT sessions twice a month, and monthly procedure or EKG tutorials. Additional hands-on training is provided in breakout sessions and in specialty clinics, such as our dermatology clinic.

    • Core Rotations: Each of our core rotations has a structured curriculum developed and organized by a coordinating faculty member. These curricula include small group and one-on-one teaching, as well as on-demand topics available in our multiple Google Classrooms..

    • Board Review: We provide a curated board review series during our noon conferences. All residents also have access to board review materials and can use their CME funds to attend in-person board review courses.

  • We are a true, traditional Family Medicine program which embraces the "womb to tomb" experience.

    • Our clinic has over 38,000 patient visits each year, with about 20% of those being pediatric encounters, almost all seen by the residents.

    • All residents are assigned continuity Obstetrics patients. Each resident will follow their patients from the beginning of the pregnancy to delivery. The infant will then become a continuity patient for that resident.

    • Our patients come from a diverse socioeconomic and cultural background, ranging from charity patients that lack insurance, privately insured, to Medicaid & Medicare patients.

    • The majority of our patients are native English speakers, but we also have many who speak other languages, including Spanish, French-Creole, and various Asian languages.

    • Beyond working with the diverse patients at our clinic and hospital, you'll also have the opportunity to engage in community outreach during your three years. These experiences often occur in underserved areas of Jacksonville and surrounding counties.

  • We offer residents numerous leadership opportunities, both within our program and throughout the wider medical community.

    • Residents can take on leadership roles such as Chief Resident (an elected position in the third year), rotation chiefs, or serve on various residency improvement committees. Residents can also develop and lead various didactic curriculums.

    • Our residents and faculty represent the program on key hospital committees, including the Medical Staff Executive Committee and the Medical Staff Performance Improvement Committee. We also have a strong legacy of involvement with the Duval County Medical Society, the oldest medical society in Florida.

    • Residents and faculty are actively involved with the American and Florida chapters of the Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP and FAFP). For years, our residents, faculty, and graduates have served on the boards of these and other family medicine organizations.

  • We actively engage in a wide range of community engagement and outreach activities. Our residents and faculty frequently participate in special events and serve at various local clinics.

    • We are Jacksonville's pioneer site for the Reach Out and Read initiative, a program that provides age-appropriate books to our pediatric patients to promote early literacy. We also partner with a local elementary and middle school for Operation HERO (Health Education Resources and Opportunities), where we host students at our Family Medicine Center to teach them about healthcare.

    • Our team regularly staffs the Ascension Mobile Health Unit buses and volunteers at special events, specifically providing back-to-school and school sports physicals. We have partnered with our hospital's emergency medicine group, Vituity, to volunteer at monthly community health events.

    • Residents have the opportunity to volunteer at various clinics, including Volunteers in Medicine, The Way Free Clinic, the Sulzbacher Center, and Hubbard House. Our residents also volunteer annually to staff the Medical Tent at the Ironman Florida and 70.3 Gulf Coast triathlons in Panama City Beach, where Dr. Carter serves as the Medical Director.

    • With over 50 years of graduates, our alumni network is vast and far-reaching.

    • Our graduating residents frequently secure their top-choice fellowships, with recent matches in sports medicine, palliative care, FM-OB, hospital medicine, and sleep medicine.

    • Graduates entering the workforce practice in a wide range of clinical settings, including:

      • Employed primary care practices

      • Independent primary care practices

      • Direct primary care practices

      • Hospital medicine

      • Emergency room/urgent care

      • Rural medicine clinics

      • Medical school and residency faculty positions

    • A significant number of our graduates choose to stay and practice in the Jacksonville area or elsewhere in Florida. However, our alumni can be found all across the country and even around the world.