• In the Office
• In the Hospital
• In the Community

First, there's life at the office.

During your first year, you'll have office hours in the family practice center one half-day per week. The idea is to begin building a panel of patients that you will follow for your entire three years.

Under the supervision of our multi-faceted, multi-talented faculty (board-certified family physicians), you'll find everything you need. Ask Dr. Bikowski almost anything about geriatrics and he'll have the answer, always delivered with compassion. Patient need a procedure? Dr. Brittman is your man. One of his favorite things is to scrub up and head for our procedure room. Have a renal question? Dr. Baumgarten can not only answer your question but give you 3 up-to-date articles to back it up!

Our "family" celebrates Thanksgiving

You'll also find time to stretch your brain and unwind at our afternoon academic conferences scheduled from 2 - 5 p.m. every Wednesday (lunch is provided). These conferences are taught by both Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) faculty and community faculty and cover everything from cardiology and gastroenterology to orthopedics and women's health. The format includes traditional lectures, friendly competitions (e.g., medical Jeopardy), and interactive exercises such as "Disease of the Month." Noontime is also when the monthly residents' meeting and residents' support group, happen. It's a great way to interact and stay in touch with your fellow residents.

One of the things you'll notice almost immediately is that you've become a part of a family. There’s Mari-Ann and Rita, who have followed our patients for a combined total of over 38 years; Laura, our office manager who can solve any problem; and Eleanor who is the "Scrubs Fashion Queen".

The office has a "pie in the face" fundraiser for March of Dimes. Dr. Britton was one of the willing recipients!

Whether it’s the best shopping malls, which local festivals are a “must see” or what restaurants you should visit, our faculty and residents are great resources for fun. If you enjoy sports, Dr. Smith is your man for high school football or NASCAR, and Dr. Ringler is hooked on Duke! And you can be sure that either Dr. Bikowski or Dr. Britton will try to recruit you for volleyball or golf.

Then, there's life at the hospital.

In no time at all you'll probably begin to think of it as home away from home - Maryview Medical Center, our teaching hospital. At this progressive, full service hospital (the only hospital serving our community of 100,000), our family practice residents are the only residents, so you won't have competition from other specialty residents. Which means as an intern you'll also be the house doctor - running codes and taking care of emergencies as they occur while on call. It's a great opportunity to learn about evaluating and treating the acute problems of hospitalized patients. You'll take approximately six calls a month and while you're there you'll get your own private call room and free meals.

You'll also spend two months on the Portsmouth Family Medicine's in-patient service at Maryview Hospital. As part of the in-patient team - consisting of a second- or third-year resident, one or two third-year medical students, a fourth-year medical student doing an acting internship, and a Portsmouth Family Medicine (PFM) faculty attending - you will care for our patients hospitalized with medical, surgical, and psychiatric conditions, including those who are critically ill in the ICU.

Maryview will also be home base during your four months on the Internal Medicine service. Working side by side with another intern, a second year resident, and supervised by our community faculty, you'll care for those critically-ill patients who are admitted to Maryview Hospital without a primary care physician. Your day might include everything from didactic teaching sessions and work rounds to Grand Rounds and review of radiographs and EKGs.

As an intern, you'll get two months of pediatrics. For one month, you will be doing in-patient pediatrics at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters; the other month is spent in the nursery at Maryview gaining experience in attending deliveries and stabilizing and caring for newborn infants.

Your two months of Ob/Gyn will focus on family-centered obstetrics and comprehensive women's health care. You will follow your patients at the family practice center and do your deliveries at the new birthing center at Maryview. You will also rotate the Portsmouth Health Department. We have a board certified OB/GYN physician as a member of our Family Residency Faculty. Dr. Obayuwana provides our residents with exceptional training in this area, both clinically and with didactic series.

Surgery is done with a community general surgeon - one month in the operating room, emergency room, hospital, and the surgeon's office. You'll get experience in the pre-op work-up, post-op follow-up, putting in central lines, and lots of minor surgery!

Then there's your month of Emergency Medicine and Radiology where you'll be seeing patients at Maryview Hospital's ER, one of the busiest emergency rooms in the region. Your early mornings are spent with radiologists reading Emergency Room X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. The rest of the day you'll work one-on-one with board-certified ER physicians who teach in the Emergency Medicine Residency program at EVMS. On Mondays you are given the opportunity to get a more in-depth understanding of the Radiology Dept. by rotating through the different areas such as ultrasound, CT, and MRI.

We think that being community-based, yet affiliated with Eastern Virginia Medical School, is the best of both worlds. So when it's your turn to do a morning report or literature search, just a quick phone call to the EVMS library and it's done. If research is your thing, there's plenty going on at the family practice center or in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, which is housed less than two miles from us.

Working At Our Homeless Clinic

Our community-based approach is where we really shine. A mid-size city with a small-town feel, Portsmouth is a community that depends on us for innovative health care.

As a first-year, many opportunities will be available to you for community involvement. We encourage as much participation as possible!