Bristol Family Medicine Residency Program

Program Overview

The Bristol Family Medicine Program is an 8-8-8 program located at a community hospital in the Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Tennessee. Our community-based program is part of the ETSU Health system. This gives us the support and resources of a university program in a community setting. 

Our program is known for its rural flavor, team spirit, and strength in key areas such as hospital care, obstetrics, and outpatient care in a patient-centered medical home. If you are a medical student looking for a residency program that provides excellent training in a scenic and friendly environment, this may be the place for you!

Our residents pursue careers in outpatient medicine, as hospitalists, in teaching, in urgent care, ER’s, sports medicine and as full-spectrum physicians whose practice includes OB.

The common theme is their pursuit of excellence and the support they give each other through the training years. If you believe that Family Medicine is more than a career, that it is an attitude, then take some time to look at our resident testimonials.

Why ETSU? Application Requirements Benefits

Give to Bristol Family Medicine Residency Program

• Video Transcript: Quillen College of Medicine Family Medicine Bristol Program Director: Elizabeth White

  [Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth White]
  Hi. I'm Dr. Liz white with Bristol Family Medicine Residency is a part of ETSU Quillen College of Medicine we are an 888 program in Northeast Tennessee I'm glad you're here let me tell you a little bit more about our program.

  We are a community- based program with all the resources of a university program we are affiliated with ETSU in Johnson City. Our clinic is located in Bristol Tennessee and we work with Bristol Regional Medical Center.

  This is a small 300 bed community hospital. Because of this we know all of the staff and attendees. In fact, in the hospital we are known as family practice among them all.

  We offer broad-spectrum Family Medicine training we have graduated residents who've gone on to practice a variety of fields including outpatient medicine, inpatient medicine, obstetrics, and academic medicine.

  We also have some residents who go on to do fellowship in things such as sports medicine and obstetrics.

  The training we offer provides a strong experience in not only outpatient medicine and inpatient medicine, but also obstetrics, pediatrics, and newborn care.

  Our residents say they enjoy the autonomy they received during their training and feel it helps prepare them for their future practice.

  Our presence at the hospital ensures that our patients have great continuity of care, both while they are hospitalized, and when they follow up in the clinic.

  We provide an interprofessional team that includes our in-house clinical pharmacist our psychologist and our social worker in addition to the education we provide one of our biggest strength include the people we work with.

  We have a great team of providers and staff that really prioritize resident education and patient care. We all work well together and in to help each other when needed.

  We value wellness here. Our residents routinely participate in Wellness activities to include bicycling on a local Trail, the Creeper Trail, or team building activities such as field day.

  We have a great team here at Bristol and we live in a beautiful region. We invite you to take a look and reach out if you have any questions.

  [Music]

• Video Transcript: Bristol Family Medicine Resident Testimony Miranda Cox

  [Music]
  

  [Speaker: Dr. Miranda Cox] My name is Miranda Cox. I am a PGY-1 here at ETSU Bristol. A normal day for us, one of the reasons that I went into the program, can really vary by rotation. I'm currently on pediatrics, so this morning I actually had the opportunity to wake up and go see all the babies in the nursery. Typically, then I will go to clinic after that, and then I'll head over to the ER in the afternoon. I think we have an awesome work-life balance. One of the reasons for that is probably how the residents work together.

  So we run two essential 24-hour services. We have a 24-hour family medicine inpatient service and a 24-hour obstetrics inpatient service, which I think makes us a pretty unique program. However, that's split among the residents. Intern year, you work a few more hours than the others; however, I think it's still very reasonable. It's a great opportunity for learning.

  I just switched a call with a colleague a few minutes ago. If you have an important life event, colleagues are always willing to help you out and switch calls. I think the training is excellent here. People really look up to Bristol and the other Tri-Cities hospitals. I'm from southwest Virginia. I think that we see a lot of diversity. We see a lot of underserved people, and I think that in the program here you get a lot of experience in OB and just about anything that you want to see, you can probably find at Bristol.

  I love how my apartment is just located across the street, so it's pretty cool. You're still in a rural area, you're surrounded by the mountains, you can drive just a few minutes down the road and be on the Appalachian Trail, but at the same time, as we kind of start to open back up during pandemic times, you have The Pinnacle right across the road. So you have lots of shops and restaurants to be able to go and hang out with your fellow residents after hours.

  I think that they should rank Bristol as their number one. I think that being in the Appalachian area, you're able to see a lot of underserved patients, and even though we're a larger hospital than some of the small acute care hospitals, it's kind of the Goldilocks program, not too big, not too small. So you can come here and get lots of experience whether you want to work as a hospitalist afterwards in a rural primary care clinic or do a little bit of women's health. I think that in any sector of medicine, you'd be able to practice in a broad field as a family medicine doctor.

  [Music]

Curriculum

• PGY-1

  Per ABFM Policy (includes procedure clinics)

  Orientation	0.5 months
  Family Medicine Service	4.5 months
  Obstetrics	1.5 months
  Outpatient Pediatrics	1 month
  Emergency Room	1 month
  PEDS ER	0.5 months
  Gynecology	0.5 months
  General Surgery	0.5 months
  Elective	1.5 months
  Family Medicine Clinic	1 half-day per week
  Vacation: 15 days, Educational Leave: 5 days

   

• PGY-2

  Per ABFM Policy (includes procedure clinics)

  Family Medicine Service	0.5 months
  Inpatient Hospitalist	0.5 months
  Outpatient Pediatrics	1.0 month
  Inpatient Pediatrics	1.0 month
  Obstetrics	1.5 months
  ICU	1 month
  Night Float	1 month
  Outpatient Clinic	4 months
  Subspecialties	0.5 months
  Elective	1 month
  Longitudinal Rotation	Dermantology
  Longitudinal Rotation	Community Medicine
  Longitudinal Rotation	Practice Management
  Nursing Home	1 half-day per month
  Family Medicine Clinic	1 half-day per week
  Vacation: 15 days, Educational Leave: 5 days

• PGY-3

  Per ABFM Policy (includes procedure clinics)

  Family Medicine Inpatient Service	1.5 months
  Night Float	0.5 months
  Family Medicine Outpatient	4.5 months
  Geriatrics	1 month
  MSK	0.5 months
  Gynecology	0.5 months
  Electives	3.5 months
  Longitudinal Rotation	Dermatology
  Longitudinal Rotation	Behaviorial Health
  Longitudinal Rotation	Community Medicine
  Longitudinal Rotation	Practice Management
  Nursing Home	1 half-day per month
  Family Medicine Clinic	1 half-day per week
  Vacation: 15 days, Educational Leave: 5 days

   

Clinic

Our family medicine office serves as the continuity site for our residents and faculty. It is located across the parking lot from Bristol Regional Medical Center. We have an on-site lab with phlebotomy services for send-out labs. In our office, we work as part of a team with our psychologist, our social worker and our Pharm-D. In addition, we have a chronic care coordinator and a dedicated referral clerk. All these folks help to ensure that we have the resources to meet the needs of our patients.   

ETSU Health Family Medicine Bristol

Hospital

The Ballad Health Bristol Regional Medical Center is an integrated health care system serving 29 counties in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, Northwest North Carolina and Southeast Kentucky. The hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Health Care Organization. 

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