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I went to college in Florida where I graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree with a Major in Biology/Chemistry and a Minor in
English. While in college I met my now husband, who was also a premed major. He
is currently in residency as well at PSU/Hershey Medical Center in the Urology
Department. We went to medical school together in Toledo and then moved to
Hershey 2 ½ years ago for residency.
It was difficult making the decision
on residency programs that we both felt comfortable with, but the Penn State
system has been a great fit. Since coming to Penn State/Good Samaritan, I have
seen myself grow from an eager medical student into a competent resident with
the help of supportive attendings, fellow residents, and ancillary staff.
Working out of both the Good Samaritan community hospital where we are an
unopposed residency program and out of Hershey Medical Center (a large tertiary
care center) has provided a comprehensive educational experience. It took the
question out of which is better, small unopposed community or large tertiary
care center, by providing both experiences.
I can’t imagine taking one
away from the other during training. I have been able to first assist on many
surgical cases including numerous C-sections in our community hospital. I have
also learned how to help manage a busy trauma/emergency surgery while at Hershey
Med Center. Working with community attendings in private practice has helped me
better understand practice management and the importance of the doctor patient
relationship, while working with specialists at Hershey has exposed me to the
numerous resources available in a university setting.
I can say without
reservation that our faculty is amazingly supportive. They want to see you
succeed and will do everything in their power to help you reach your potential.
It is a great feeling to have people behind you during such a crucial and at
times stressful training period. Although our program strives for excellence in
education and patient care, it also looks out for the wellbeing of its
residents.
Our faculty encourage balance in life. We do work hard, but we
also enjoy times with our families and friends. This is partially possible
because of our great call system. We do have a nightfloat which helps to make
call very minimal. I find this very helpful especially having a husband who
works as many hours as I do.
In addition our program looks for resident
input, which I find very refreshing. They are always reevaluating rotations and
resident experiences so that our education does not become stagnant. Even when
things are good, they look for ways to make things better.
Overall, I
think that our program is great because it offers comprehensive training. Anyone
who graduates from our program will feel very comfortable with all of the
aspects of family medicine including inpatient care, ICU care, obstetrical care,
procedures, and outpatient care. Whatever type of family doctor you think that
you might want to be, our program will help define and foster your interests
making you into something better than you expected. I am not sure what more I
could have asked for in a program.
Sukhjeet Kamboj, MD
I
grew up and received my medical training in India. After completing my residency
in India, I worked in a variety of settings which included working as a House
Physician in Neurology, Lecturer in a University affiliated Medical School and
Medical Officer in a rural setting in India. After emigrating to Canada, I
started to seek re-entry in my profession and eventually found the perfect
residency spot in Family and Community Medicine in Penn State/Good Samaritan
Hospital Residency Program.
Things I like about my program are friendly
faculty, strong outpatient exposure, quality training in OB (where we get
training from attending physicians directly), dedicated teaching/conference
sessions, Family Support involvement and the quiet drive to ELCO. I like the
geographical location of my program as well. There are plenty of locations
around Lebanon for us to travel.
I live in Lebanon with my husband Bikram
and two school-going sons. In my spare time, I like to spend time leisurely
around the house, go for a small one day trip to NY, NJ or the Washington DC
area .
In the future, I would like to work in an area where people really
need family physicians, as in federally under-serviced areas. I like to work
with diverse populations and I am particularly sensitive to new immigrants’
problems.
Zohair Mapara, MD
My
wife and I graduated from Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan
where we were fortunate to gain guidance from our alumni, who had returned after
training in a superior medical system, namely the US. The desire to train better
and ultimately contribute to the health system of our country was our impetus to
come here. Armed with two scoops of hard work, topped with a lot of prayers and
a sprinkle of good luck, we couples matched at Penn State; I in Family Medicine
and she in Emergency Medicine, both obtaining our first choice.
Since the
roller coaster ride began we have been enjoying nearly every minute. Note I
didn’t say every minute as there is nothing absolute in medicine. What made us
keep Penn State and in my case Penn State/ Good Samaritan Hospital Family
Medicine Program amongst the top choices was the ambience of care and genuine
concern that we felt as soon as we met the faculty, residents and staff. That
spirit has been maintained till now and was not a temporary phase during
interview season. There are countless examples to give but I know you are not on
this web site for leisurely reading :) and it would seem I would have too much
time at hand... In short come and feel the love yourself!
There are a lot
of exciting changes being made with regards to greater collaboration to obtain
the “best of both worlds” experience between a Community and a University
hospital setting. Being the exclusive residency program in the hospital has its
own benefits and pitfalls; therefore we do get a chance to experience the piece
of the action with other residents at Hershey Med with the challenges it offers.
There is an overall well balanced curriculum which gives one diversity of
knowledge and exposure to various specialties in order to prepare for the future
when YOU WILL BE ALONE as an attending. In the spectrum of patient care, we care
for our patients beginning in the womb, through different stages of their life,
at times at their homes, to their end stages in the nursing home. Beware! If you
think family medicine is for the ones who cannot get into other fields, it is a
challenge and requires versatility to the highest grade.
I will not say
our program is perfect as you may be getting that sense but it is certainly good
and on its way up as we have committed faculty and support staff dedicated to
making it a great learning opportunity for us. Our opinion is asked at regular
faculty meetings and change is instituted. The torch of teaching is carried by
all in their due capacity and the fuel to keep it alight is provided by mini
lectures, journal clubs, conferences, grand rounds, morning report, ward
teaching, teaching students in clinical sessions and on and on.
On the
social aspect, Lebanon may not score highly on its downtown aesthetics, however
the surrounding suburbs are pretty classy. In short if you are a person who
enjoys the big city life this may not be the place for you, but those who like
moderation will like the area. Apart from the beautiful landscape, there are
cultural activities and fun events happening very often. The thrilling Hershey
Park is here for those who need the adrenaline rush. There are good places to
dine, outdoor enthusiasts can have plenty to do, and if all of this isn't enough
you do have major cities around in proximity.
Life is not always hectic;
there are busy rotations which keep you on your toes and there some in which you
can catch your breath and devote time to family and personal interests. In short
this is my slice of the residency cake... wanna bite?
Charito B. Santos, MD
I
was born and grew up in the Philippines, where the sky is always blue, and the
beaches are beautiful with sands that feel like sugar beneath your feet. I
studied Medical School in the very first university of the Philippines, the
Royal Pontifical Catholic University of Santo Tomas.
When I came for my
interview here in this program, I knew that this was the program I had wanted to
go into. The very first day, all the attendings and the residents were so kind
and helpful. There was a very good esprit de corps in the group that I had not
noticed in my other interviews. I remember what the resident who had interviewed
me said, “You know how in interviews, people usually put their best foot
forward, but later on you discover that things were not what you had thought?
Here it is different, the way they treat you during your interview is the way
they will treat you during the rest of your residency. This program is made of
genuinely nice people.”
And I must attest to the truth in that statement.
When I first arrived, I knew there was so much to learn, especially as an
intern. But all the attendings and the senior residents then seemed to see only
the best in me, and gently corrected me when I was wrong. Over the past 2 years
I slowly developed confidence in myself as well. Now in my third year, I feel
pretty confident to face whatever clinical situation might arise, and I know
that having mentors who believed in my potential molded me into the doctor that
I am now.
Here, you will have the privilege of working as the only
residents in a 220- bed community hospital. You will learn how to manage the ER,
regular patients, IMCU, and have good ICU experience. You will be the only
residents responding to a code situation in the hospital. We deliver our own OB
patients, but also are the only residents who help out with deliveries of the
OB-GYN specialists in the community. We also have good number of outpatient
cases and have procedure clinic where we can do multiple procedures from
excisions, dermatologic procedures, orthopedic injections, and
colposcopies.
On top of all these, we also do rotations in the Hershey
Medical Center and have University Hospital exposure. We do Trauma Surgery,
Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine, Newborn Nursery, Dermatology, Subspecialty
Pediatrics in Hershey. Some in-patient months are also spent in the Hershey
Medical Center. I would say our training definitely has the best of both worlds:
community and university exposure.
When choosing a residency, the training is
of primary importance, and I believe the training in our program is among the
best in training for family medicine. However, you may also want to consider,
where would you like to spend the next 3 years of your life in? Who would you
like to work with? I invite you to apply to our program, get to know us, and see
if we would be a good match for you. During my stay here, I have developed
friendships and relationships with my co-residents, attendings, staff, and
patients, that I will value for the rest of my life. I have enjoyed all of my 2
1/2 years of stay here! And maybe, so will you!
SECOND YEAR RESIDENTS
Joyce Buliyat, MD
I was
born in Baguio City, a city in the northern part of the Philippines that was
actually established by the Americans in the early 1900’s. It is where I spent
my childhood years and finished grade school and high school. I then finished a
bachelor’s degree of Psychology in the University of the Philippines and my
medical degree in the University of the East, both of which are in Manila, the
capital of the Philippines. I have consistently been in the top 10% of my class,
and I have supportive parents and a husband to be thankful for.
A few years
after finishing medical school, I decided to have my training here in the U.S.
I am lucky to have family here, my mom and 2 brothers in New Jersey and another
brother in California. Before applying for residency, I worked with two doctors
in New Jersey. I have worked as a medical assistant, a medical biller and an
office manager. I was also able to shadow one of the doctors in his office and
in a few hospitals. All of these experiences helped me understand the medical
system here in the US and helped me prepare for my training.
I remember looking forward to becoming part of this
residency program. I am glad to have chosen this program because it really
promotes an environment of academic superiority and it is a program that allows
pursuit of other aspects of my personal growth. The faculty listens to the
residents and they have demonstrated that they are willing to modify certain
things to benefit not only our wellbeing but also to improve patient care. I
am, beyond doubt, happy to be in this program.
Wilkie Madarang, MD
I
grew up in the busiest metropolis in the Philippines and I have always liked the
city. I studied grade school from a school that had emphasized its motto above
all things--Virtus et Scientia, cultivating my love of the humanities, science
and the arts. I do love action; I enjoyed going out at night as well as working
in an attractive area of Manila. I also come from a close-knit family and never
thought I would separate from them until I got into residency here in the United
States.
While I miss home, I have come to love the place
where I am working now. The people of Hershey and Lebanon are nice, the climate
is just right and I never get into traffic going to work. I like the
educational exposure I get from the program as both the community-feel and the
university atmosphere are satisfied here. I like the fact that I am given the
chance to be the community physician of our patients and given the ample freedom
to manage their diseases while still being supervised by excellent faculty
members. Plus, the call system is designed to give us a chance to balance time
for work and relaxation. If you like a place to raise a family, this is also
the ideal place for you. Cost of living is not high, safety is noteworthy and
there are many good schools to choose from. The big cities are also not very
far. I find it now more exciting to visit them from time to time than being in
the city daily and experiencing the hassles. I really do miss my family back
home, but I have found family here as well--through the persons I work with
daily.
Marium Tariq, MD
I am
Marium, friends call me Maya. I graduated from Pakistan, got married when I was
in my 2nd year of med school. My husband was in Canada and could hardly wait for
me to finish med school, so I came to Canada soon after graduation. In Canada I
took the Canadian Licensing exams and USMLE’s one after the other. While
preparing for my exams I was working as a Physician Assistant in an outpatient
setting, but then there was the first ever government-sponsored program in
Ontario to introduce Physician Assistants in hospitals of Ontario, so after some
additional exam and government-funded training, I started to work as a PA in an
inpatient setting. I applied for the US Match in the meantime and during the
interview season came to know Penn State/Good Samaritan Hospital. I realized
this is what I was looking for. A very family-oriented program, very helpful and
polite faculty, bunch of friendly residents, and a program that offers a taste
of everything (soul of Family Medicine), which is rich in experience of
inpatient and outpatient both, hands-on Ob/Gyn and essentials of Emergency
Medicine and also provides a good number of Pediatrics patients. I was lucky
enough that program wanted me as well, so here I am currently in my 2nd year,
enjoying my time here, love to work here and am learning something new everyday.
Welcome to the world of residency.
FIRST YEAR RESIDENTS
Odera Dale Echeazu, MD
I
was born and breed in Nigeria, a country in West Africa. This is like a 13 hour
flight from Penn State. I graduated from University of Portharcourt Medical
School and did a year internship plus a year Youth service program. I married my
classmate and presently have a son and a baby on the way. We decided to leave
the country for residency program and moved to the United Kingdom where I worked
in the fields of Urology, Surgery and Orthopedics. Due to my desire to be a
family physician, I had to move to the US for a residency program. The decision
to move to a different country is a very tough one, especially with a family,
and will be the first obstacle one has to conquer. I had to decide on the part
of and state of America, which program etc.
The name of this program was a
sign of good things to come, but I got first-hand info when I came for my
interview. Now, as everyone will tell you, the quality of our program is second
to none, but it is not all about the program.
Starting with the
community: this is where you will ask someone for directions and the person will
take you to your destination rather than pointing out the direction. This is
where people will always smile and you wonder if anyone is actually unhappy.
This is where you go to a shop and a sales person advises you to check out the
other shop as it may be cheaper because you cannot afford to buy from
him.
How about the hospital? Well we have at least 3 hospitals and 3
clinics for training. This is a training program where an attending takes the
junior’s pager so the junior can take some time off to eat and rest. Our program
allows 1 month for orientation so as to get the residents well grounded with
things - can't touch this.
The faculty take the residents as equal and at
the same time as brothers/sisters/parents. Resident wellbeing is the second
priority after patient care.
Anyway, I think that I am lucky to be here
and will ask everyone applying to consider this program. I wish you all the best
of LUCK.
Sorry, the only disadvantage is that you may not have enough time to
enjoy all that the area can offer as 3 years is a very short period.
Donn Tiu Tong, MD
I’m
Donn B Tiu Tong, originally from Manila, Philippines. Since high school I liked
nature, the outdoors, and biology. The way the human body works fascinates me.
For my pre-med course, I studied 4 years of physical therapy in the University
of Santo Tomas and then did a 1 year internship. I took and passed the
Philippine PT boards the same year I entered medical school, also in that same
university. After 3 years of medical study, I did 1 year of clinical clerkship
and then graduated. Then I had another year of medical internship at the UST
hospital. After passing the Philippine boards, I decided to go for the
USMLE’s. I then applied for US residency.
The GSH family medicine
program is unique from different perspectives. One, it is richly diverse in
that patients and healthcare providers all come from different cultural
backgrounds. Second, it is soundly integrated in that the residents get to
experience training in an unopposed, community-based family medicine program in
the only hospital in Lebanon city, as well as rotate/work in Hershey Medical
Center. We also get pediatrics rotations in Harrisburg, the state capital, as
well as in the more rural settings of our satellite clinics.
While there
may be hospital residency programs that are closing down, this year the number
of residents accepted into the program was expanded from 6 to 8, another
satellite clinic was added (Fishburn Road in Hershey), and we also get patients
dedicated to the family medicine service at the Hershey Medical Center! Also,
the electronic medical record systems (Medent, Paragon) was launched.
The
faculty, residents and nurses are all very helpful, supportive, warm and
friendly. We have a support group for residents where each one can share his/her
own experiences (yes, even frustrations) in an environment that is very
confidential and non-threatening. Also, the hospital program is also very
considerate of our moving-in adjustment here in Lebanon. While other residency
programs give their new interns very minimal time to adjust (one day
orientation), ours gave us the month of July to do certification training like
cardiac life support courses (BLS, ACLS, ALSO, ATLS, NALS) to better prepare
ourselves before we actually see patients. We were also given a good amount of
time to familiarize with the EMRs we will be working with. These “preparations”
were done on a schedule with enough free time for us to take care of the usual
things that concern new residents.
For an IMG like me who did not have
any credit history, the hospital program was very supportive when I was settling
in an apartment, getting an SS number and driver exam/license, buying a car,
setting up a savings account. I am sure my fellow first year residents will
agree that we all felt the very warm welcome extended to us, and that the
transition from moving to actually working couldn’t have been
better.
Even if we were only first year residents, our thoughts/feedback
about the residency program and its different activities has always been sought
since day one, and that says a lot about the active involvement of residents
into the continuous improvements that our program has both on a personal and
organizational level.
Vincent Valencia,
MD
Vince is originally from the Philippines. After finishing
grade school, he and his parents along with his two sisters immigrated to
Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he finished high school and his undergraduate
studies in Biological Sciences. He then worked for a couple of years in research
and then decided to go to medical school. He graduated from the Far Eastern
University in the Philippines in 2007. He considers himself very lucky to be a
part of the Penn State University /Good Samaritan Hospital Family and Community
Medicine Residency Program. Aside from being an “unopposed” residency, he
relishes the exposure to the urban, semi-urban/rural and rural clinical settings
of the program. The different rotations at the Good Samaritan Hospital, Hershey
Medical Center and the ELCO Family Health Clinic are a great complement to
learning and practicing Family and Community Medicine. One thing that drew him
to this program was that the faculty and residents had input into how the
residency runs, built on a solid foundation of respect and change that adapts to
the current demands of modern Family Medicine. He tries his hand in cooking
Filipino dishes and would like to eventually try other dishes if you lend him
the recipe. Volleyball, wakeboarding and running outdoors are his
hobbies.
Abdul Waheed, MD
I was
born and raised in rural area of Lahore, a jolly district on the Eastern border
of Pakistan. I did my school from a local public school in my village and then
moved to Government College University Lahore for my college years where I
developed some interest in fictional literature and poetry because of the rich
literary traditions of the college. I still retain some of the attributes that I
got from there. I write poetry in Urdu language and enjoy reading Urdu and
English fiction.
I moved to Aga Khan University in Karachi, which is
costal town in the Southern part of Pakistan. Aga Khan University enjoys a good
name because of its good training in community health sciences and teaching
innovation and problem solving in medicine during the medical school years. A
good exposure to community health sciences and my natural tendency towards it
pushed me to work as a general medical officer for some time back in Lahore
after graduation. Then for further training in family medicine, I am fortunate
enough to come to the natural place, Penn State University/The Good Samaritan
Program, which could nurture my interest inside and outside medicine.
My interests include research, and this program has
great support in the form of great mentors and physical resources. The program
highly encourages scholarly activity. I have more than 15 peer reviewed indexed
publications right now and hope to publish more as I grow in the field of family
medicine here at PSU/Good Sam.
I am interested in literature. I have published some
of my poetry previously. The program provides me with opportunities to have a
feel of myself in the form of a resident support program, Balint group and other
similar programs. I want to be a well-rounded family physician and my program
provides me with opportunities for a mix of rural and urban, community and
tertiary care experiences all combined in one program. I love the diversity of
thought, people and teaching and learning experiences in my program.
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