The University of North Carolina’s Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program will begin collaborating with the Fully Integrated Readiness for Service Training (FIRST) Program. FIRST is a three-year accelerated medical school curriculum with a directed pathway into affiliated UNC Residency Programs. The purpose of the program is to support medical students passionate about providing care to rural and underserved populations in North Carolina. Other successful collaborators at UNC include Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and General Surgery.
“We are so excited to participate in UNC’s FIRST Program,” Mike Contarino, MD, director of the Med-Peds Residency Program said. “The Med Peds community feels deeply about UNC’s mission to provide exceptional care for everyone in NC, and this is a phenomenal way for our Med Peds Residency to partner with the School of Medicine and further that mission.”
This program is available to UNC Medical Students, with applications occurring in the first year of medical school. The UNC Med-Peds FIRST program will start interviewing applicants in January 2024, with the hope of an applicant starting the FIRST curriculum in March 2024. Upon acceptance, FIRST participants will spend one half-day per week in a UNC Med-Peds clinic and have close mentorship from UNC Med-Peds faculty. FIRST applicants have an accelerated curriculum to ensure readiness to graduate from medical school early. Upon successfully completing medical school training, a Med-Peds FIRST applicant will be ranked favorably to match into the Med-Peds Program at UNC through the NRMP (National Resident Matching Program). FIRST participants are free to interview and rank other programs. Should a FIRST applicant’s career interests change, they can elect to transition to a four-year traditional medical school training. Full details about the curriculum can be found on the UNC FIRST website.
The FIRST program is an ideal fit for medical students who know their desired specialty, wish to finish medical school a year sooner, and want to serve the people of North Carolina. This program allows for fewer student loans, increased exposure to the Med-Peds specialty, and enhanced mentorship from UNC Med-Peds faculty. UNC is passionate about providing care to the rural and underserved populations of North Carolina and preparing future Med-Peds residents to do so.
“The FIRST program is awesome,” Dr. Katie Jordan, FIRST faculty member for UNC Pediatrics, said. “It allows students with a strong sense of career trajectory to enter fields like primary care with decreased loan burden. We have been so impressed with the FIRST students in the pediatrics program and are so glad we started peds FIRST and get to work with these top-notch UNC students. By doing extra clinical work early and by cutting some of the fourth year and interview months of medical school, students are able to complete rotations and be well prepared for intern year.”