Graduate medical education is continuing its growth spurt at the University of Florida College of Medicine—Jacksonville, with two newly accredited programs and several others in various stages of approval.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) signed off on a new rheumatology residency program this summer and last month approved a new transfusion medicine residency.
Decisions from the ACGME are expected in the coming months on two more programs and a third has a site visit scheduled for January.
The college also recently received a renewed four-year institutional accreditation, a key piece to maintaining and building future programs.
The college now has 30 accredited programs – the majority sanctioned by the ACGME. Eight of the new programs have been approved since 2006, said Constance K. Haan, M.D., M.S., senior associate dean for educational affairs and director of the Graduate Medical Education programs.
"Growth is always seen, not just by the trainees but by the faculty as well, as energy in building a stronger, brighter, better future," said Haan, also a surgery professor and program director of the Patient Safety Fellowship.
Haan became the college’s main contact with the ACGME – known as the designated institutional official – in 2006. Since them, the college has added residency or fellowship programs in:
Much of the recent development has been in subspecialty areas in internal medicine, surgery or pediatrics.
And when particular disciplines have a variety of subspecialties available in one place, it provides a richer learning experience that Haan said can be a significant tool in recruiting both residents and faculty.
Haan said the college has seen an increase in residents who stay here for a fellowship and also in those who end up being hired on as faculty. That’s important because it means the faculty are training people they want to have as partners, Haan said, and because it shows the residents and fellows value the institution as a quality education center and want to practice and teach here.
Residency programs are typically from three to five years and fellowships last from a year up to three years.
Haan said much of the success in building the programs can be tied back to the commitment from the top by Robert C. Nuss, M.D., associate vice president for health affairs and dean of the regional campus, Jacksonville.
"There’s a lot of growth here that we would have not been able to pull off without the vision and direction of Dr. Nuss," Haan said. "He’s been a huge facilitator and motivator and even driver for our growth in graduate medical education."
National manpower studies have shown there will be a physician shortage by 2015 and Nuss says academic health centers need to be engaged in training future doctors.
"It’s critical for societal and local needs that we provide a supply of quality individuals to replace the labor force," Nuss said.