FAQ

What makes the program stand out?

Every family medicine residency program is different, so it is important to choose a residency that is a good match for your interests. We offer outstanding training from physicians who are considered leaders in family medicine and other fields. Our faculty and residents are committed to our community and its underserved patient population.

We are particularly proud of our Community Medicine curriculum. This begins with an optional pre-orientation week of Spanish language instruction and an introduction to our community. This Spanish curriculum continues through all three years of residency, with an option to use elective time for additional focused instruction. All of our first-year residents spend a month together learning about community medicine and our community in Washington Heights, including a one-week trip to the Dominican Republic. In 2020, we started a Community Medicine and Advocacy Track, which has become so popular that is now integrated into our longitudinal curriculum. On most outpatient rotations, residents have protected time on Friday morning for the Community Medicine Advocacy and Scholarship (CMAS) curriculum, which alternates with Quality Improvement. CMAS includes education and scholarship about the community and how to work with community-based organizations. We also have a robust quality improvement curriculum and residents lead QI projects within their family Health Center teams.

The Allen Hospital is a highlight of our program; we describe it as a community hospital within a large university medical center. Our Family Medicine Inpatient Service is mentioned by our graduates each year as a highlight of the curriculum. In 2014, we received a grant from the Weil Foundation to expand our curriculum in integrative medicine, and 2-4 residents each year participate in our Integrative Medicine Track.

With the increased elective time starting in the 203-2024 academic year, each resident will choose a concentration at the end of PGY1 year that will give them an area of focus as well as the broad family medicine curriculum. Residents can choose from a set concentration schedule or can self-design a concentration together with a faculty mentor.

What are your graduates doing?

Many of our graduates continue their work with underserved communities, both in the NYC area and nationally. Our program graduates are in demand and all are able to get jobs before they graduate–unless they choose to take more time off!

Class of 2023: 

  • Faculty at our program
  • Obstetrics fellowship
  • FQHC near Boston
  • One Medical urgent care in NYC
  • Adolescent Medicine fellowship

Class of 2022: 

  • Faculty development fellowship with us
  • Columbia Doctors practice in NYC
  • Sports Medicine fellowship
  • FQHC in Brooklyn
  • Moved to Austin TX to be closer to partner
  • Point of Care Ultrasound fellowship

Class of 2021:

  • FQHC in NYC
  • FQHC in Pittsburgh, abortion care in WV
  • Integrative Medicine fellowship
  • Palliative Care fellowship
  • Faculty development fellowship in our program
  • Delayed graduation due to parental leave

Class of 2020:

  • Faculty development fellowship in our program
  • Residency faculty in Poughkeepsie
  • Residency faculty in Ohio
  • Kaiser practice in California
  • Locum tenens work in Hawaii
  • Columbia Doctors practice in NYC

Which outpatient procedures will I learn?

Procedures residents learn include minor skin surgery in the Family Health Center (punch and shave biopsies, electrocautery); colposcopy; IUD and contraceptive implant insertions; endometrial biopsies; laceration repair, joint injections; incision and drainage; and trigger point injections. We also provide early medical and surgical abortion training.

Do you have to speak Spanish?

You do not need to know any Spanish at all, as long as you are excited about learning! Our patient population is 85% Latinx, mostly from the Dominican Republic, as well as from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Central and South America. We also have patients of African, Russian, Jewish, Arabic, and Irish origins, among others. Half of our patients are Spanish speaking only, and we provide support for residents who are learning Spanish. This includes formal classes and informal practice during our Community Medicine month, and the new immersion week prior to the start of residency, and longitudinal support throughout residency. An interpreter system is always available by phone, and there are speakerphones in all of our exam rooms. Best of all, our patients love to teach you Spanish. Whether or not you know Spanish at the beginning of your residency, you will have learned Spanish by the time you graduate. The Latinx population is the largest minority group in the United States, so fluency in Spanish will make you a desirable candidate for almost any job position.

What is the call schedule?

Different rotations have different call schedules. All of them strictly adhere to national and New York state work hours guidelines. On the inpatient family medicine service, first-year residents work during daytime hours only, while second- and third-year residents take turns supervising interns during the day or covering night float in two-week blocks. The Inpatient Pediatrics and ICU schedules have call every fourth night. The OB rotation has 2-3 weeks of day shifts and 1-2 weeks of night float.

Where do residents live?

The most popular areas for residents (and some faculty) to live are the neighborhoods which are closest to the hospital and our outpatient practice, both in the northern part of Manhattan. These neighborhoods are quite different from one another and include: Morningside Heights (home of Columbia University undergraduate campus with a fun, lively collegiate vibe), Fort George/Hudson Heights (has a quieter, more residential feel), the Upper West Side (slightly more expensive, but with an abundance of restaurants, cafes, bars, and nightlife) and Washington Heights/Inwood (closest to the hospital and outpatient practice with a predominantly Dominican population base). A few of us live across the river in the Riverdale area of the Bronx. This neighborhood has the advantages of being very easily accessible to Manhattan by subway while at the same time offering a quieter, more suburban lifestyle--ideal for residents with families or pets. Some of our residents live in NewYork-Presbyterian subsidized housing, which is convenient to the Family Health Center and the main hospital. Residents have also chosen to live further away in the Bronx or New Jersey. Regardless of where you live, almost all of us get to work by subway and end up having a 10-30 minute commute--just long enough to read a quick article!

Is your residency program opposed?

While NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital does sponsor other residency programs, we don't consider ourselves "opposed" by them! Seriously, we are fortunate to have most of our inpatient training (Family Medicine inpatient service, surgery, and obstetrics) at the Allen Hospital, which is a branch of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital with a smaller, community hospital feel. Internal medicine, surgery, and a few other programs do rotate through "the Allen" also, but our Family Medicine Inpatient Service has only family medicine residents and faculty, and gets unassigned patients from the emergency department in a rotation with the internal medicine resident services. On Labor and Delivery, our residents are supervised directly by family medicine and obstetrics faculty (although we do work with anesthesiology, emergency medicine, and obstetrics residents there).

Our residents also work with other NewYork-Presbyterian residents on the following inpatient rotations: ICU, surgery, and inpatient pediatrics (which we do at CHONY, the Children's Hospital of New York). This lets us take advantage of their world-class faculty and excellent teaching. It's also nice to have friends in other departments around the medical center. We really have the best of both worlds!