Students Learn, Lead, Network at National Conference
Aug. 7, 2024, David Mitchell (Kansas City, Mo.) — Alison Johnston doesn’t know where she will train as a family medicine resident, but her long-term career plan is clear.
“I’m looking for a residency program that will train me and give me the confidence that I can take over my mom’s practice when she retires and give me the skillset to do all the things my mom does for our community,” said Johnston, a fourth-year Penn State College of Medicine student who visited with many of the hundreds of residencies exhibiting here Aug. 1-3 at the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students.
Johnston’s mother, Kimberly Johnston Deltuva, M.D., is a solo family doc in private practice in Westminster, Md., a small town roughly 45 minutes northwest of Baltimore. Alison Johnston worked in her mother’s practice during high school, answering the phones and scheduling patients, and then as a medical assistant during college.
Johnston served as president of the family medicine interest group at Penn State and as a regional coordinator in the AAFP’s FMIG Network during her third year of med school. At the National Congress of Student Members during the conference, she was elected national coordinator of the FMIG Network for the 2024-25 academic year.
“I know all these amazing people now,” said Johnston, one of nearly a dozen students and residents elected by their peers Aug. 3 to national leadership roles. “It’s a great network of resources and friends. It’s something I didn’t want to step away from.”
Alison Johnston (right), who was elected FMIG Network national coordinator, shares a laugh with other student leadership candidates during a break from the National Congress of Student Members. From left are Samantha Bush, who was elected student member of the STFM Board of Directors, Payal Morari, who was elected student alternate delegate to the AAFP Congress of Delegates, and Hirak Trivedi.
As an FMIG leader, Johnston attended multiple sessions at National Conference that recognized FMIG groups doing outstanding work and shared best practices, including an FMIG Summit that drew nearly 100 attendees.
“It was a good turnout with a lot of good questions and good ideas,” she said. “It was rewarding to help the other FMIGs and let them know they are doing a good job of getting more people involved in family medicine at their schools.”
Johnston said it’s important to her to be involved with the Academy.
“I’ve known about the AAFP since I was a kid,” she said. “We got the journals and newsletters, and my mom talked about the Academy all the time. Being in private practice, my mom wasn’t connected to a health system that would provide CME and guideline updates. She had to reach out to the Academy to get what she needed to care for patients. It’s been powerful to see the Academy function and to see how the AAFP supports members like my mom. I feel like I’m giving back to something that’s been a huge influence on my mom’s career.”
Match Game
Gabrielle Saden, M.D., also has a mother who is a family physician, but her career path is less certain. The international medical graduate came to National Conference looking for answers.
“I’d like to stay near home,” said Saden, who lives in Florida, “but I’m happy to go anywhere for residency.”
Saden was raised in Paris by parents who are French doctors, but she is a U.S. citizen because she was born in the United States. Saden, who speaks five languages, graduated from Wrocław Medical University in Poland in 2023, but she delayed participating in the National Resident Matching Program when her Ukrainian husband’s job moved the couple to Canada and then to Florida, where she works as a medical assistant.
At National Conference she attended a session for international medical graduates, who face their own unique challenges in the Match, as well as a session designed to help all Match applicants succeed. She spent much of her time meeting with programs in the Expo Hall.
“I reached out to programs before I came,” she said. “I did my homework. I’m really interested in women’s health and HIV medicine.”
International medical graduate Gabrielle Saden, M.D., (right) talks with Jamie Borick, M.D., and Adel Hachmi, M.D., of the Borinquen Medical Centers Family Medicine Residency in Miami.
Fourth-year student Nicole Serrant Ayes listens to instruction from Devin Wright, D.O., from the Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Residency in Rochester, Minn. Participants used models to assess cervical dilation during a procedures workshop.
Fourth-year student Kimberly Serna works with a foot model during a joint injection workshop at National Conference.
Hands-on Learning
Another international student, Nicole Serrant Ayes, found what she was looking for in an obstetrics in family medicine bootcamp, which rotated attendees through several stations where they could practice obstetrical procedures using hands-on models.
“I think family medicine is really cool because you get to do OB and kids,” said Serrant Ayes, a fourth-year student from Ross University School of Medicine. “Family medicine is very broad, and you get to see all ages. These workshops give you a preview of how to handle the basics. It motivates you to get hands-on experience. I’m so ready. I’m going into family medicine for sure.”
Serrant Ayes, a native of Puerto Rico living in Miami, said she planned to meet as many residency programs as possible.
“I’d like to stay in the Southeast,” she said. “I need good music and good food. If I can deliver babies and go to the beach, that’s an ideal weekend.”
Other procedural workshops focused on topics like suturing, ultrasound, wound care, sports medicine and joint injections.
Kimberly Serna, a fourth-year student from City University of New York School of Medicine, made time for the injection workshop during a break from the Expo Hall.
“I’m trying to get a feel for everything with the residency programs while also learning some procedures,” Serna said. “I’m trying to stay close to home for residency.”
Serna also attended a session focused on residency applications with former Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors president Wendy Barr, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.C.E., FAAFP, and a panel of other experts.
“There was so much good advice about what to do and what not to do,” said Serna, who attended the conference on one of 240 Family Medicine Leads Scholarships awarded through the AAFP Foundation. “It was good to hear from program directors and get their perspectives. For example, the advice we typically hear about letters of recommendation is always about how many to get and who to get them from. So it was good to hear, more specifically, what program directors want. And it was very interactive, so people could ask questions.”
Take the Lead
The AAFP Foundation’s Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute rewarded outstanding work by three scholars in each of its three tracks with $1,000 awards used as travel stipends to return to National Conference to showcase their projects and participate in other activities. In addition to the travel stipends, one scholar in each of the following tracks received $3,000 to attend another family medicine event in the future:
Policy and public health leadership: Sarah Rowley, M.D., a first-year resident at the University of Pennsylvania Health System
Personal and practice leadership: Stephen Freeman, a fourth-year student at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
Philanthropic and mission-driven leadership: Ashlyn Chea, a fourth-year student the University of South Carolina School of Medicine
Thirty new scholars are selected each year to participate in the leadership development program and are paired with a volunteer family physician mentor to develop and execute a project in their track. Scholars receive a $1,000 scholarship to cover costs related to attending National Conference and the ELI.
Fourth-year student Stephen Freeman (left) presents his poster during an exhibit for the AAFP Foundation’s Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute. He received a Best Leadership Project Award in the ELI’s Personal and Practice Leadership track.
Freeman’s project focused on using artificial intelligence to create a tool to improve the readability of patient education materials utilized in primary care.
“ELI challenged me to get outside my comfort zone in terms of leadership and building teams,” he said. “When I’m challenged, I tend to put it on myself and not burden others. ELI provided the nudge I needed. If you want to create change, you need a team.”
Freeman made time to attend a session on direct primary care and meet with residency programs. Like other fourth-year students, he spent time meeting with residencies in the Expo Hall. The Michigan native said he hopes to continue his training in the Midwest.
“Meeting residents and getting a sense of culture and fit is really valuable,” he said. “It helps me assess where I want to apply.”
Bright Zhou, M.D., left, the resident chair of the National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students, and student chair Allison Zamora, D.O., in front the event’s new name.
As Freeman and others were wrapping up their ELI experience, a new cohort was beginning its journey Aug. 2. The next application cycle opens in January 2025 and will close March 1. For more information visit the Foundation’s website.
See You Next Year
National Conference will have a new name in 2025. The event, which marked its 50th anniversary in 2024, has been rebranded as FUTURE. The 2025 National Conference for the Future of Family Medicine will be held July 31-Aug. 2 in Kansas City, Mo. Students, residents, sponsors and exhibitors can sign up on the event’s homepage to receive updates about FUTURE 2025.