Residency Program

Program Overview

Comprehensive training in general obstetrics and gynecology as well as the sub-specialties of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, maternal fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery (urogynecology), and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (MIGS) are offered in this close-knit, university-based program.

The OB/GYN Residency Program allows residents to have personal connection with faculty members for mentoring and to develop lifelong relationships. The utilization of a human patient simulator and other simulation models provides the resident physician experience with more complex or rarely seen situations. Five hours each week are protected from interruptions for Resident Didactics, intended to reinforce clinical experiences and to provide additional exposure to various topics. A research project is required by the end of the third year. 

Why ETSU? Application Requirements Benefits  

• Video Transcript: Quillen OBGYN Residency Program Director Overview

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  [Speaker: Dr. Mark Ransom] Hello, I'm Dr. Mark Ransom. I'm the residency program director here at East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

  I'm delighted that you're taking time to look at our website and become familiar with our program and perhaps consider applying to the program. We have a program that we're really quite proud of.

  Both our present enrollees, our residents, as well as our past graduates have demonstrated a wonderful ability to care for patients, particularly those in the East Appalachian area. We are currently fully accredited for a 13-resident complement for the four-year program. We take each year in our entering class three to four residents.

  We do participate with ERAS, as do most residency programs, and we'll be looking for a variety of strengths that each one of the resident applicants will have. For those who are being considered as applicants and hopefully ultimately get chosen to become residents in our program, we of course are looking for excellence in academic performance, but in addition to just academic excellence, we're also looking for those students who can bring the dimension of outside activities, outside activities involving volunteering, outside activities showing an interest and a real interest in women's health care and community service.

  So it's not just that we're looking for academic excellence to maintain our superlative program standards, but also those students who will bring personality to the residency program and promote the values that we hold dear here at the Quillen College of Medicine OB-GYN Department.

  The academic curriculum is going to, of course, include didactic sessions to give the basic understanding of OB-GYN and all of the subspecialties, but it also brings with it a very valuable and important clinical experience.

  Our largest of the clinics is located across from the main campus, where we see general OB and GYN patients. We also see, in that same large clinic, high-risk obstetrical patients. We are indeed a referral center for the area, where high-risk patients are referred in by their private physicians.

  We also have a number of clinics in private offices, including reproductive endocrinology and infertility, oncology, and urogynecology. All of those clinics are important and integral to the education of the residents as they go through their four years of training.

  Even though our campus is located in Johnson City, which by some measures may be a smaller city, we do have broad-reaching arms that go up into Kentucky, out into Virginia, and where we get a wide variety of patient referrals. We have patients who come from very urban settings. We have patients who come from various suburban and rural settings, and as you can imagine, that brings a great difference in experience and types of illnesses and medical problems and challenges for our residents to care for and to learn from.

  We're very proud to offer in our program state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology that's found in some of the larger programs. We offer the da Vinci robotic surgery, for example. Our IVF lab is state of the art. There are a number of absolutely cutting-edge, up-to-date technologies that are offered that the residents will experience and benefit from in their academic performance here.

  Among the things that we have every year, we offer a wellness week, which incorporates a week of daily different activities, including some physical activities, things devoted to emotional health, and it really is a great bonding experience for the residents.

  We also, this year, have adopted every five to six weeks giving the residents a half day off so that they can attend to whatever they would care to, whether it's personal meetings, whether it's appointments, whether it's just relaxing and exercising. We take it very seriously here.

  So Johnson City is a mid-sized town that's located in the southern Appalachian region, and it really has a lot of benefits. It has marvelous outdoor activities, including trails. It has fly fishing. It has hiking. It has biking. So there's a lot of things, if you're an outdoors person, to enjoy.

  There's a Boy Scout camp not too far from here that my son and I went to for the first couple of years that I lived here. Downtown Johnson City offers fine dining restaurants. They offer microbreweries where you can sit outside and eat. They also offer shops and stores. There are many downtown parks that you can access, and if you want to go beyond just the downtown immediate area, we have Charlotte, we have Knoxville, we have Asheville, all big tourist areas.

  But the advantage to being here in Johnson City is that you avoid having those headaches of the larger cities. Johnson City is extremely family-friendly, so it's wonderful for children. It's wonderful for families. It's really just a wonderful place to raise your family.

  You can find more information on our website and reach out to us for more information, and we look forward to meeting you and getting to know you as you get to know our program.

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• Video Transcript: Quillen OBGYN Testimonial Kara Weishaar

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  [Speaker: Dr. Kara Weishaar] Hi, I'm Kara Weishaar. I'm a second-year resident here at ETSU OB-GYN. I'm just finishing up my gynecology rotation and about to start my next obstetrics rotation with the high-risk OB team.

  We have a very high-risk population here. We also are the regional referral center, so we get all of the referrals in the region that are too high risk for the other hospitals. That makes us very prepared to handle high-risk situations in our future careers.

  Some of the other highlights of the program that I really like are our mock oral boards, which are unique to our program. Every year, for your second through fourth year, we have OSRO, which are mock oral boards with our attendings to get used to the format of the oral boards we take after graduation.

  We also have a great laparoscopic simulator that's a new addition in the last couple of years so that we can prepare for laparoscopic surgeries before we are in the OR.

  We also have a great team of attendings who genuinely care about their patients and about us as residents, and we have a really great team of labor and delivery nurses.

  My husband and I have really loved living in Johnson City. It's a beautiful town set on the edge of the mountains here. We love the many outdoor activities there are to do, including hiking and kayaking. We've really enjoyed doing outdoor activities with our dogs in our downtime.

  We also have a lot of activities with the other residents. We all get along really well and are good friends. Some things we do with the other residents include golfing, cooking dinners, and study groups.

  We're really excited that you're interested in Johnson City and the ETSU OB-GYN program, and we hope to see you here next year.

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