Welcome to our website! We are excited to tell you about our Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in Hood River, Oregon. My name is Bob Gobbo and I am the Program Director. I was lucky enough (with lots of help) to convince Providence to develop and support the novel idea for a “small batch” residency program in the Columbia River Gorge. We are now in our 11th year, having graduated our 8th “pioneer” class of residents. It has been so much fun, and a lot of hard work, as we continue on our way to becoming a model for residency education.
As a fully-accredited 1-2 Rural Training Program, our residents spend much of their 1st year in and around Portland, Oregon while the 2nd and 3rd years are almost exclusively in Hood River. Throughout the three years, residents see their own continuity patients at One Community Health (formerly La Clínica del Cariño). One Community Health (OCH) is a Federally Qualified Health Center that has served the Columbia River Gorge farm workers and other vulnerable populations for the past 30 years.
In this unique rural residency program, our residents benefit from having so many amazing role models, many of whom have been practicing small-town family medicine for decades. Additionally, the growing specialty faculty in Hood River has been extremely supportive of the program, sharing with us their expertise and teaching.
The most important thing to know about our program, however, is that we are a family. We love the work we do, we love the place we work, and we know we are fortunate to be here. Come join us!
Greetings from the best chiefs you’ll never have 😉! We are excited to share with you some unique aspects of our small program. We hope you consider us for your training in rural full spectrum family medicine. Here’s why:
One aspect of this residency program that sticks out is how it builds advocacy and community into the framework of your training. Advocacy is not just encouraged in your precious spare time but included into your schedule. You may spend an afternoon in the orchards with a local physical therapist helping patients with various musculoskeletal ailments that come along with the strenuous job of farmworker. Or you might spend a morning performing well child checks at an outreach site that cares for migrant farmworker’s children while their parents are working tirelessly to provide fruit to the gorge and beyond. Advocacy topics are included alongside heart failure or diabetes lectures during residency education. Especially notable was the response to Covid when our clinic jumped to quickly fill the testing needs of the community, and now with outreach vaccination events.
One Community Health formerly known as La Clinica, an FQHC, was founded in 1986 as a community and migrant health center. It was recently named top workplaces 2021 by The Oregonian. OCH has a mission of advancing health and social justice for all our community members. And providers and staff at OCH really walk the walk with initiatives like covid vaccine equity and partnership with tribes along the river. There is not only a focus on diagnosis and treatment, but how we can provide the best treatment to patients keeping in mind their insurance status and general access to services. The clinic has many resources you can utilize everyday: behavioral health support, Salud team (diabetes education), perinatal team, a teaching kitchen, massage therapy, onsite lab, acupuncture, and even Zumba classes! It is a wonderful place to train.
From the start you are welcomed in with open arms from faculty and community members that make the transition to Hood River easy. The mentorship in this program is unparalleled. Each faculty member has unique interests that make our learning opportunities robust. Not only are we on first name basis with core faculty, but their numbers are in our phones, and it would not be odd for us to meet up for a bike ride or beer at the local brewery. The staff are dedicated to the mission of the program, and we feel honored to learn from them daily.
If all that was not enough, Hood River is an absolute dream. Gorgeous views of the Columbia River and Mount Hood, endless outdoor activities, and everything from fine dining to delicious taco trucks. We love it here!
We hope you consider Hood River for your residency training!
Maddie & Ben, class of 2022
Greetings medical students! We're this year's chief residents for Hood River, and we're so excited you're interested in our program! The Gorge is such an incredible place to live and unique place to train, and we wanted to tell you a bit about why we chose this program, and why we love it here.
Our continuity clinic is amazing. One Community Health, formerly La Clínica del Cariño, started as a farm worker health clinic and still retains a lot of that character and mission today. Many of our patients are Spanish-speaking only, most of our support staff are fully bilingual and the majority of our providers conduct visits in both English and Spanish every day. There is also a strong emphasis on outreach, both for health education and medical services; our dedicated community health workers and the existing systems that support this work have been an invaluable asset during the pandemic, as it allowed us to quickly transition from in-person clinic visits to COVID-19 testing, education events, and outreach opportunities for the surrounding Native American population.
We are fortunate to work with outstanding faculty throughout our program. Our core faculty who we work with in clinic are some of the most dedicated, hardworking and genuine people. Our attendings in Milwaukie (our sister program and intern year primary site), are the most welcoming and supportive group of people you could ask for as a brand new intern. Further, the Hood River medical community in general, who are passionate about their work and their community, are always happy to bring a resident on board.
Finally, although this one should speak for itself, the Columbia Gorge is a fantastic place to live. It is an outdoor lover’s paradise, whether you're into windsurfing, mountain biking, skiing, hiking, or just sitting on a sunny patio with a view of Mount Hood and a nice glass of wine.
If you're looking for a small program that will actively encourage and support you in pursuing your educational interests, and passionate about delivering healthcare to those who need it most, then we hope you will consider us for your training.
Laura and Enrique
Class of 2021
Hello! Here are a few things that you should know from the resident perspective:
The Hood River Rural Program is a very fun residency, and a great place
to work. Partly due to our small size, but also due to the general congeniality
of the practitioners in this community, we are a close knit group of residents,
attendings, nurses and other medical staff. One of the things that I have
enjoyed most about being here is that residents are instantly adopted
into the greater Hood River medical family.
The education here is top notch. Since we do not have to compete with any
other residents, we have first pick of experiences and procedures. In
fact, we frequently find attendings competing for us, and find ourselves
having to decide which surgery, delivery, c-section, procedure or admission
we have time and/or desire to be part of.
This is a young residency, and it continues to evolve at a rapid clip.
As residents, we take a very active role in helping shape the future of
the program. There are few entrenched practices, and no status quo that
needs to be upheld, which allows for the true focus of this program to
be providing the best education and overall experience for our residents.
I hope that you will consider all that this residency has to offer!
- Matt
