February 22, 2024
On Feb. 16 and Feb. 17, NCAFP members at all levels of training and practice joined together at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Durham to learn and train together. On Friday evening and Saturday morning, guests attended the 2024 NC Family Medicine Academic Summit, while Saturday brought medical students and representatives from NC Family Medicine Residency programs from around the state who arrived for the 2024 Family Medicine Day. The attendees enjoyed themselves at both events, as did the NCAFP staff: “It was a wonderful two days!” said Kathryn Atkinson, CMP, NCAFP Director of CME & Events.
During the Academic Summit, Residency Program and Medical School leaders and faculty from around North Carolina gathered to learn about Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) under the direction of program co-chairs Dr. Aaron Lambert and Dr. Regina Bray Brown. During her opening session, “What is CBME and Why Do We Need to Know About It?”, Dr. Bray Brown explained that CBME has become a “hot topic” to medical residencies and that their leaders need “to find a way to develop physicians who can make a difference” using CBME standards. All the CME offerings at the Academic Summit centered on what these guidelines are, how they will change by 2025, and how medical training can better incorporate them to develop well-rounded and experienced family physicians.
During Family Medicine Day, 87 medical students attended workshops hosted by North Carolina Family Medicine Residency faculty and residents to experience the entire scope of medicine that family physicians provide each day. The workshops included joint injections, suturing, triaging in the field, clinical de-escalation techniques, and many more hands-on skills to help interested medical students understand what they can do for their patients as family physicians. “It was definitely interesting to see all this,” said one student attendee. “I wouldn’t have learned that without coming to an event like this.”
Both the Academic Summit and Family Medicine Day succeeded because the attendees brought the full extent of their knowledge to work alongside others. Speakers like Dr. Bray Brown, Dr. Aaron Lambert, and Dr. Grant Hoekzema spoke at length about CBME and its usefulness for Summit attendees. “This year’s Academic Summit was an insightful platform for learning about CBME, sharing knowledge, and fostering collaboration,” said Atkinson. “It was great to have so many of NC’s finest Family Medicine residency programs join us for the important discussions.”
Meanwhile, the residents and faculty from 16 North Carolina residencies brought their daily experiences and clinical skills to the students during the four workshop tracks at Family Medicine Day. The students themselves brought their own passion for learning new care to those sessions and picked up the new procedures they wanted to learn.
“The students here are really good,” said Dr. Matthew Ammons, a resident at the Sampson Regional Family Medicine Residency Program. “They really got into our session.”
Attendees’ knowledge certainly increased thanks to the events. “I learned things that aren’t really in my curriculum,” said Zoe Greene, MS-3 at Eastern Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine. “I attended the wound-healing session and learned a lot. They taught us how to apply wound care, including looking at the wound to see what it actually needs. It was very cool to have so much hands-on work.”
This clinical learning wasn't all: some medical students at Family Medicine Day attended a workshop for mock residency interviews and the annual Residency Fair, which both exposed them to the strategies and people they will need to know for applying to Family Medicine residencies in North Carolina. For the students preparing for residency applications, meeting directly with residents and faculty through the workshops and the Residency Fair came at the perfect time. “It’s my third year, so being here really matters,” said Aryanna Thuraisingham, OMS-3 at Campbell. “And I want to stay in North Carolina.”
Another shorter event during the weekend also demonstrated the passion for Family Medicine that NCAFP members practice: the NCAFP Foundation Board Meeting, where Duke medical student Andrea Augustine joined with NCAFP president Dr. Garrett Franklin, Foundation President Dr. Maureen Murphy, and other members to discuss fundraising for the $6 million endowment that will support medical students pursuing careers in Family Medicine in North Carolina.
The campaign has already collected almost $1 million toward that goal, and the Foundation’s team knows that increased funding will bolster our specialty here in our state by yielding a larger permanent source of funds from which to build a stronger pathway to Family Medicine in our state. “These funds will add significantly to the existing $1.7M endowment,” said Perry Price, Manager of Workforce Initiatives. “The Foundation offers direct financial support, hands-on learning experiences, and other opportunities for medical students to learn about the practice of Family Medicine and the community of patients these physicians serve. These opportunities ultimately lead to more medical students choosing to pursue Family Medicine!”
The discussions that they had in their workshops and the Q&A sections of their lectures often went well beyond the initial teachings. During the discussion portion of Dr. Hoekzema’s keynote lecture on Feb. 16, Dr. Lambert said, “This is an amazing discussion, which is exactly why we’re all here in person.” The lecture that Dr. Bray Brown led earlier in the evening included an opportunity for small-group discussions of CBME and how residency faculty were already implementing it.
And during Family Medicine Day, students gathered and chatted over coffee, cookies, and apples between their workshops, comparing their workshop notes and meeting fellow medical students from around North Carolina. “It’s so nice to see so many people who care so much about Family Medicine,” said one medical student after the event.
NCAFP staff see this camaraderie as one of the most important parts of Family Medicine Day (and all other events we put on throughout the year). “Talk about passion!” said Atkinson. “It’s too bad we can’t bottle the excitement and enthusiasm that Family Medicine Day brings us every year. I always enjoy catching up with the students at the end of the day to ask them about their favorite workshop, and they name all four of the sessions they attended because they can’t pick just one. But I really love the ones that say, ‘This was the best day! I love Family Medicine!’”
We’d like to thank all the guests who joined us this past weekend for your insights, expertise, and great company. We hope to see you again at a future NCAFP event — learn more about the events coming in 2024!
We’d also like to thank the residency programs who hosted workshops this year: Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center Family Medicine Residency, Atrium Health Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency, Cone Family Medicine Residency Program, Duke Family Medicine Residency Program, Duke Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, ECU Family Medicine Residency Program, Harnett Health Family Medicine Residency Program, MAHEC-Asheville Family Medicine Residency Program, MAHEC-Boone Family Medicine Residency Program, MAHEC-Hendersonville Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, Novant Health Family Medicine Residency Program Cornelius, Novant Health NHRMC Family Medicine Residency Program, Sampson Regional Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program, Southern Regional AHEC Family Medicine Residency Program, UNC Family Medicine Residency Program, Wake Forest University Family Medicine Residency Program, and NC’s newest program that joined us for the Recruitment Fair, Hugh Chatham Health Family Medicine Residency Program.
The North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, Inc. (NCAFP) is a nonprofit professional association headquartered in Raleigh which represents over 4,300 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students across the state. It is the largest medical specialty association in North Carolina and is a constituent chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, based in Leadwood, KS.