Medical Education
Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa has become a major hub for Medical Education and you may be asked to be part of training our future caregivers. Understand more about your care team by reading below about our types of learners.
Medical Students
Medical students have completed at least 4 years of college and are the process of becoming a doctor. Medical school is 4 years and is a mix of intense classroom education and early patient contact. We have medical students from all over the country as well as local schools such as UC Davis and Touro University. As these are students, they are 100% supervised by a licensed physician and are not allowed to make any medical decisions on their own.
Residents
We have 4 Residency Programs on our Santa Rosa campuses.
- Family Medicine
This year, we have launched our first Family Medicine Residency. We were very excited to welcome our first 6 residents in July 2018 with 6 more every year. By 2020, there will be 18 Family Medicine residents on our campuses. These new doctors bring to Santa Rosa an amazing amount of energy and passion focused on taking the best care possible of the people in our community. In addition to working on our campuses, they will also work in community locations such as schools, Jewish Free clinic and Petaluma Health Center. As Family Medicine is a specialty that cares for patients throughout their lives, there is a good chance that you will meet one of these wonderful doctors when you come to our campuses as they spend time in almost all medical and psychiatric departments. As these are new doctors, there are very strict guidelines overseeing their supervision for each year of their 3 years of training. Many large studies have shown that overall patient care experience as well as patient safety outcomes improves with the involvement of residents.
- Podiatry
Graduates of Podiatry school who have earned their doctorate in Podiatric Medicine (DPM) continue their surgical training by completing a three-year surgical residency. Kaiser North Bay Consortium is a highly competitive Foot and Ankle residency program. They accept three residents per year and have a total of nine residents. Residents rotate through Kaiser Vallejo, Vacaville, Santa Rosa and San Rafael every 4 months. Residents are capable of managing the entire spectrum of pathologies in the foot and ankle. Under the supervision of an attending physician, residents are also trained in the surgical management of the foot and ankle.
- Pharmacy
Santa Rosa Pharmacy Residency program started in 2011 with 2 pharmacy residents and was accredited in 2013 by American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP). The accreditation is given in increments of 1 to 6 years based upon a rigorous site survey. Each year 2 residents are selected from about 60 applicants for the 12-month program. The demand for the residency is high and we have greater number of applicants applying each year. The goal of the program is to provide advanced clinical training in specialty clinics such Anticoagulation, HIV, HEP C, PHASE, Medication Therapy, Pain, Oncology/Infusion, Geriatric, Drug Utilization Management and at Hospital and Outpatient Pharmacies. About 90 percent of graduates stay with Kaiser and work in many of the specialty clinics we have established. Some of the graduates will continue their advanced training to a 2nd year residency or fellowship. Majority of the Kaiser Medical centers in California, Washington, Hawaii, and Colorado have pharmacy residency programs. Santa Rosa Pharmacy has had great support from medical center leadership and staff at all of pharmacy operations.
- Optometry
In 2016, Kaiser Northern California, in partnership with Ketchum University, formed its first residency in optometry specifically in primary care with additional emphasis on leadership. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa now joins the rank of optometric teaching facility amongst other medical institutions throughout the country including Bascom Palmer Eye institute of Florida, Mass Eye and Ear, UC Berkeley and various VA hospitals. Maiden program of one resident within Kaiser is under the leadership of the Graduate Medical Education Department. During the academic year, the postdoctoral resident will manage more than 1400 patients, participate more than 32 hours of exclusive Kaiser Brand leadership training, and actively teaching Kaiser staff ranging from physicians, medical assistants, medical students rotating through KP, and medical residents from other specialties. In addition to clinical and teaching duties, the resident will interface with departments of Pediatrics, family medicine, Ophthalmology and Earl Baum Low Vision / Blind Center. Creation of this program shall place Kaiser as one of the premier optometric teaching hospitals in the United States.
