Family Medicine Residency

The mission of the Bayhealth Family Medicine Residency Program is to prepare future family medicine physicians for a life and career dedicated to serving their patients, the community, and the profession. To accomplish this mission, Bayhealth aims to ensure that the residents feel connected with and invested in the Kent, Sussex, and the overall Delaware community throughout each year of the residency. By placing a focus on serving the needs of the community, Bayhealth hopes to ensure that the residents continually feel inspired by their role in the medical profession and are reminded frequently that they are making a difference in the lives of people in their community. To put this mission into action, the family medicine residency will focus on a three-year longitudinal community medicine experience which prepares physician leaders to be the best possible advocates for their patients. In their first year (PGY1), residents will spend a month of community medicine rotating through many of the health-based community organizations (homeless shelters, free clinics, a migrant farm workers clinic, etc.) that exist within our community. This early exposure allows them to identify a passion project that they can continue to engage with for the next three years. In year two (PGY2), they will spend a month engaging on deeper level with their selected organization, including developing a research project that addresses health equity. In the third year (PGY3), they spend a month focused on community leadership and advocacy, answering the question, “What role do physicians have in improving the health of the community?” Through this longitudinal experience, we hope the residents develop a passion for serving the underserved, learn how to be an effective voice to continue to advocate for improved health equity throughout their careers, and effect real change in improving the health of this community. The Bayhealth system’s mission is to “strengthen the health of our community, one life at a time”. The focus of the residency program aligns with that mission of community and making a difference in the local area by focusing on the provision of care and opportunity for those in the Delaware community.