Thank you for your interest in The University of South Florida-Morton Plant Mease (USF/MPM) Family Medicine Residency Program.  This is a fantastic time to be in Family Medicine, and we are so excited that you’ve chosen this path of caring for patients of all ages and from all walks of life.  Our residency aims to create compassionate, innovative, full-spectrum Family Medicine physicians through fostering a collaborative, research-oriented environment that allows the flexibility for you to create individual experiences that will allow you to thrive in your future practice.  As an unopposed program with an academic affiliation, we provide a foundation for residents to pursue a variety of paths, as evidenced by the diverse job positions held by our graduates. Whether your goals are to pursue fellowship, practice outpatient medicine, become a hospitalist, or more, our program will provide you with opportunities to achieve your goals. Through our core curriculum, versatile elective opportunities, extracurricular tracks, and nationally recognized academic and community faculty, at the USF MPM Family Medicine Residency Program you will train to become the family medicine physician you want to be. 

Our curriculum is composed of a core curriculum consisting of a variety of inpatient and outpatient experiences and ample elective time for you to explore your interests.  Being an unopposed program, we provide one-on-one teaching with outstanding faculty both at our flagship hospital, Morton Plant Mease, and at our continuity clinic, the Turley Family Health Center.  Regardless of location, you will be surrounded by astute and patient attending physicians who are dedicated to teaching you how to navigate through today’s constantly changing medical landscape.  Our elective opportunities include a myriad of clinical rotations that are available to you, and many of these tracks have been developed by previous residents.  Whatever your interests, if you have a passion our program will allow you to create an elective that suits your future career goals. 

We have a variety of tracks that interested residents can pursue including Wilderness Medicine, Integrative Medicine, Leadership in Medicine, as well as curriculums focusing on LGBTQ health and Advocacy.  In Wilderness Medicine, residents have the opportunity to develop their skills in recognizing, treating, and preventing common injuries and illnesses that are encountered outdoors.  In Integrative Medicine, our faculty teaches residents medical therapies that fuse traditional, conventional therapies with complementary medicine practices to maximize wellness for patients with complex chronic diseases.  Leadership Medicine fosters the development of physicians as leaders within their clinic and in their community as well as providing education on how to best communicate and teach the future generation of medicine. The Advocacy curriculum ties into this track by emphasizing the effects that physicians can have on patients’ lives both on a local and national level and provides education on how physicians can impact change.  Our LGBTQ curriculum provides guidance on how to approach the healthcare disparities facing this community as well as how best to serve our local LGBTQ patient population.  In addition, medical students rotate through our clinic and inpatient service providing ample opportunity for our residents to grow as educators and mentors. 

Additionally, our didactics also provide us with critical-learning experiences by an exceptional community faculty.  We have integrated point-of-care ultrasound technology into our clinical learning though a variety of didactics and hands-on learning.  USF also offers ultrasound symposiums and boot camps that allow residents to learn techniques for performing ultrasounds for common pathologies.  Our program also provides us with the opportunity to master procedural training in ultrasound-guided musculoskeletal injections, casting and splinting, dermatologic procedures, and women’s health procedures like IUD/Nexplanon placement and colposcopies. There is also the opportunity to learn inpatient procedures such as central line placement, rapid sequence intubation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, paracentesis, and thoracentesis.

In light of the COVID pandemic our clinic has adjusted by including telemedicine as a common option for our patients.  We have integrated telemedicine in our day-to-day clinic with the mentorship of faculty who have provided educational materials to other physicians through the Family Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP). Our program also provides us with the opportunity to master procedural training in ultrasound-guided musculoskeletal injections, casting and splinting, dermatologic procedures, and women’s health procedures like IUD/Nexplanon placement and colposcopies. There is also the opportunity to learn inpatient procedures such as central line placement, rapid sequence intubation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, paracentesis, and thoracentesis.

We have the honor of being a part of an in-house sports medicine fellowship program which provides us with a well-rounded musculoskeletal curriculum. We are actively mentored by nationally renowned faculty who provide us with longitudinal education in sports medicine. We work with local professional and high school sport teams providing them sideline coverage and medical care. The University of South Florida also offers additional opportunities for fellowships, including Hospice and Palliative Care, and Sleep Medicine.

Finally, residents not only come to our residency program to obtain an incredible education, they come here to enjoy all that the Tampa Bay area has to offer. With the proximity of Clearwater to both Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, it is easy for residents to enjoy a wide variety of activities. Here, we spend weekends in the sun at the stunning Clearwater Beach, which continues to be ranked one of the top beaches in the United States by TripAdvisor. Several of the bicycling and running enthusiasts within the program ride to work along the 38-mile long Pinellas Trail. Sports enthusiasts will enjoy our local sports teams such as the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team, the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the MLB Tampa Bay Rays, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team. The Tampa Bay area boasts stunning food, music, festivals, and art. Although there is plenty to keep us occupied on this side of the coast, the Orlando theme parks are only a 2-hour drive away. With a moonlighting opportunity already established, you can earn some extra cash to enjoy Tampa Bay to the fullest!

Thank you again for considering us in your journey to becoming a family physician. We consider our residency to be one of the best as it affords us the opportunity to have a great relationship with our faculty, community, fellow residents, and medical students. We believe that our residency program protects and cherishes our work-life balance. We hope that our program meets both your professional and personal needs so we can be part of your journey. At the USF-MPM Family Medicine Residency Program, we will help you unlock your potential and become the best family medicine physician you can be!

Sincerely,

Katie Grayson, MD

Joshua Son, MD