Graduate Medical Education Support

NC AHEC Residency Programs

Residency teaching programs are central to the reason that NC AHEC was established in the early 1970s: to create a statewide infrastructure to expand the number, the diversity, and the training of primary care physicians.

Today, the NC AHEC Program supports 19 community residency programs in family medicine, general surgery, psychiatry, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. These community-based residency programs help provide care to poor and vulnerable populations in rural and underserved areas.

An NC AHEC Residency Offers

One-on-one training. An NC AHEC residency is just the right size – large enough to feel part of a team, but small enough to get individual attention. AHEC residents train in community-based and university settings with an appointed faculty member who is available for advice and consultation. Intensive, comprehensive clinical and didactic education is offered to AHEC residents in a highly respected and supportive learning environment.

Diverse learning experiences. Clinical rotations offer opportunities to work with community preceptors, regional health departments, university clinics, correctional institutions, outreach clinics and in other community partnerships. These environments provide residents an opportunity of working with populations with diverse ages, classes, ethnic backgrounds and with health issues that range from simple to the most complex.

Continuity of practice. One of the strengths of the NC AHEC resident experience is its focus on community-based learning. Whether in a university program or a hospital-based program, residents see the same patients over the three-year period of their residency.Ā Over 1,500 residents have graduated from NC AHEC primary care residencies, and two-thirds of them have remained in North Carolina to practice.

Customized curriculums. NC AHEC residency programs allow residents to work with faculty and program directors to create learning approaches that are customized to the needs and special interests of the individual. Teaching faculty work with the resident to create a curriculum that will match his or her professional goals. They encourage residents to explore their interests in specialty or subspecialties while they develop the firm foundation to provide excellent patient care no matter what the circumstances.

Innovative technology. Learning to integrate the latest technology into the practice of medicine is at the forefront of every AHEC resident’s experience. The NC AHEC affiliation with our academic partners ensures access to the best in patient care technologies. The use of electronic devices for access to electronic medical records, lab results and prescription assistance allows learning to occur at the point of care. Life-long learning through evidence-based information technologies is supported by NC AHEC librarians and the AHEC Digital Library, providing residents, regardless of their practice setting, with access to thousands of electronic and print resources.

Making a difference. NC AHEC is committed to demonstrating first-hand the personal and professional rewards of working in primary care practice. NC AHEC residencies provide the ideal combination of academic education, hands-on-clinical experience, and expert support for personal decision-making that prepare physicians to have a positive impact on the health outcomes of their patients.

 

 

Impact

What We Do

NC AHEC supports graduate medical education

We improve the distribution and retention of primary care physiciansā€”and it all starts with graduate medical education support.

Supporting graduate medical education is at the core of NC AHECā€™s mission to meet the stateā€™s health and health workforce needs. We provide stipends to each of the teaching hospitals across the state, and we help supportā€”and in rural and underserved areas of the state, operateā€”the residency programs necessary for primary and community care, such as family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology.

We are drivers of graduate medical education reform and expansion.

We support graduate medical education by measuring and reporting outcomes and through support of the I3 Population Health Collaborative, a 12-year collaboration of primary care residencies across three states, driving transformation of residency clinical practices and education. Over the past 28 years, North Carolina’s 75 non-metropolitan counties have shown greater improvement in their physician/population ratios than the comparable, non-metropolitan counties in the rest of the United States.

We train the next generation of providers in our community-based residency programs.

NC AHEC provides stipends to university hospitals and supports community residency programs in general surgery, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. AHEC residents are more likely to stay in North Carolina than non-AHEC residents, helping to reverse the trend toward shortages and the uneven distribution of primary care physicians in the state’s rural areas.

 

GME is at the heart of what we do at NC AHEC, going all the way back to the beginning, in 1974, when the NC General Assembly approved and funded a plan by the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine to create a statewide network of nine AHEC regions.

The plan called for the establishment of 300 new primary care medical residency positions and the regular rotation of students to off-campus sites. Since 1974, 673 of these positions were actually created in North Carolinaā€”NC AHEC directly supports 339 of these. Of these 339, 220 are in family medicine. Four new family practice residency programs have been developed in underserved and rural areas of the state with NC AHEC support.

Encouraging Innovation

As part of our vision to lead the transformation of health care education and services in North Carolina, we have always encouraged innovation in residency training. NC AHEC is part of the I3 Population Health Collaborative, a learning collaborative of 27 academic primary care programs in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, whose goal is to create momentum for widespread ambulatory practice excellence. The I3 Population Health Collaborative focuses on improving patient experience; increasing access, quality, and cost effectiveness of care in populations taken care of by primary care residency practices; and training primary care residents in advanced models of primary care. The collaborative has given more than 100 national presentations and has released 30 publications; this work has driven many aspects of what NC AHEC is doing with other in-state collaborations.

A Research-informed Approach

NC AHEC also collaborates with and provides ongoing financial support to the North Carolina Health Professions Data System (HPDS), which collects and disseminates descriptive data on selected licensed health professionals in North Carolina. The HPDS is maintained by the Program on Health Workforce Research and Policy at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in collaboration with NC AHEC and the stateā€™s independent health professional licensing boards. Without the data collected by the Sheps Center, NC AHECā€”and other institutions and organizationsā€”would not be as equipped to improve the stateā€™s physician/population ratios, and the distribution of clinicians to rural and underserved communities.

Graduate Medical Education Support

We improve the distribution and retention of primary care physicians.

A primary part of the mission of NC AHECĀ  has been to improve the distribution and retention of primary care physicians in the state. Since 1974, 673 new primary care residency positions have been created in North Carolina. NC AHEC directly supports 339 of these.

Of the NC AHEC-supported primary care residency positions, 220 are in family practice. Four new family practice residency programs have been developed in underserved and rural areas of the state with NC AHEC support.

During the past 20 years, 67% of the graduates of NC AHEC family practice residencies have remained in the state to practice.

During the past 28 years, North Carolinaā€™s 75 non-metropolitan counties have shown greater improvement in their physician/population ratios than the comparable, non-metropolitan counties in the rest of the United States.

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