Family Medicine Santa Rosa - FAQ

Yes, we accept applications from international graduates and we follow the guidelines outlined from our regional office. Historically, our region has prioritize providing visas to residents in hard to recruit specialties. 

How to Apply | Kaiser Permanente Undergraduate & Graduate Medical Education Northern California

Our residency program values a healthy work/life balance. We do not need our residents and other medical learners to “run” our hospital or ambulatory medical offices, and so have designed the Family Medicine residents’ schedule to maximize the educational experiences and minimize extended “call.” Beyond strict adherence to ACGME Resident Duty Hours requirements, our supportive faculty are present to ensure that our residents thrive. Our faculty act as role models, encouraging healthy, balanced lifestyles. Residents will have regular Personal and Professional Development sessions facilitated by a skilled therapist in addition to Balint groups to provide check-in and support during this dramatic time of personal and professional growth. Our robust Resident Advisor Program provides protected time each month to connect with your resident advisor, offering a chance for reflection, check-in, and guidance if needed.

Healthy eating is a focus for our organization overall and supported in the selections offered in the cafeteria and conferences. Our cardiologists lecture on whole food, plant-based diets and the complimentary meals embrace these teachings. Kaiser Permanente prides itself in modeling the values we teach and we welcome participation in maintaining our organic garden located right outside our hospital and medical offices.

Exercise is encouraged with two employee gyms on campus and ready access to off-campus fitness centers. Nature beckons for year-round outdoor activities, including hiking and trail running/mountain biking in the many local and state parks, kite flying and beach walking along the stunning Sonoma coastline, skiing in nearby Tahoe, and much more. Our Integrative Medicine curriculum includes an interactive curriculum, Finding Balance in Medical Life, which includes time for self-reflection, personal heath goal setting, and respect for the body, mind, and spiritual aspects of resident experience. It’s not always easy during residency, but we do our best to make it easier for you to embrace this critical time in your training and stay well!

From an educational standpoint, our residents rotate through the same set of core rotations as any Family Medicine resident, taught by a fabulous teaching faculty with years of experience teaching residents and students. We have also had the opportunity to thoughtfully design our curriculum from the ground-up, giving intentional thought to the specific skills and experiences 21st century physicians will need to be effective leaders of the future of healthcare. Our residency spaces are new, comfortable, current and feel modern and fresh with the development of the program. 

Moreover, residents have the unique opportunity to work closely with attendings who are passionate about teaching, give feedback that gets addressed quickly.  We look forward to having residents work with us to continue to shape the residency culture and create traditions and legacy for future generations of residents.

Sonoma County is a great place to live for families of all shapes and sizes. Santa Rosa has many top-rated public and private schools to choose from, one of the best community colleges in the country, and Sonoma State University nearby. There are great parks and activities for children. Among the most popular is Santa Rosa City’s Howarth Park with play structures, a carousel, summer day camps; and the adjacent Spring Lake Regional Park, a county park with camping, fishing, boating, a swimming lagoon, and an inflatable summertime waterpark. A plethora of activities are offered through the city’s Recreation & Parks department.  Kids of all ages love the Sonoma County Children’s Museum, and don’t miss ice skating at the famous Snoopy’s Home Ice rink! 

We seek individuals who are passionate about family medicine and committed to patient-centered, team-based care. As a relatively new residency program, we value applicants who are self-motivated, emotionally mature, flexible, and possess leadership experience and interest. We welcome those eager to contribute to the development of our residency’s traditions and culture, shaping its future within the Sonoma County and KP residency community. 

Kaiser Permanente Residency programs tend to be very competitive, receiving hundreds of applications every year. That said, we believe that while it is important to demonstrate capacity to learn and pass required exams, these are not the only markers of a successful physician. We also recognize that standardized board exams carry inherent bias, so we have developed a holistic file review algorithm that relies on more than board scores to determine a candidate’s competence, lived experience, and ability to thrive in a rigorous academic environment. Overall, we look for applicants with a well-rounded file that includes a community involvement, lifelong learning, a clearly defined passion for Family Medicine, and letters of recommendation that capture your clinical and personal strengths. 

As a medical center that provides care to over 60% of the entire population of Sonoma County, and over 75% of the Medicare population of Santa Rosa, our patients reflect the broad diversity of our county demographics. Residents will care for a socioeconomically diverse patient population, with approximately 10-15% Medicare, 10-15% Medicaid, and 15-20% ACA patients, including underserved patients living rurally and many families and medically vulnerable older adults living in poverty.

The largest ethnic minority in our patient population is Latine, accounting for a growing portion of patient membership; many of the staff (MA, RN) in our family medicine center are bilingual/bicultural Spanish-speaking, and residents/faculty with Spanish language skills can cultivate a patient panel with a significant proportion of Spanish-speakers. Over 29 languages are spoken regularly at our medical center; other ethnic and racial minorities in our patient population include African American, East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian. Our county is home to several recent immigrant communities including Eritrean and Syrian refugee families. 24-hour phone translation is available to help physicians care for patients speaking a multitude of languages.

We are also a community with a large population of people identifying as LGBTQ+, including many faculty, residents, and employees/leaders on our campus. As a resident, gender and sexual health will be part of your standard curriculum and you will have the opportunity to care for many patients of all ages across the gender and sexuality spectrum

Residents have the opportunity to participate in an Elective Away rotation, allowing them to travel to various community or global health sites. The Kaiser Permanente Global Health Program supports licensed residents in diverse programs, with popular destinations including Guatemala, Peru, and Kauai. During most second and third-year elective rotations, residents can go off-campus locally , provided they return to continuity clinic in the afternoons. The program offers a wide range of in-house electives, reflecting the multi-specialty healthcare system of Kaiser Permanente. 

We have a strong academic affiliation with UCSF School of Medicine with most faculty having UCSF clinical teaching appointments. We regularly participate in conferences, faculty development, collaboration, and research as part of the UCSF Bay Area Family Medicine Alliance. Nearly all of our core faculty have completed the UCSF Faculty Development Fellowship. Third year UCSF medical students spend their longitudinal third year family and community medicine clerkship at the Rohnert Park facility. Since 2010 we have also been an academic affiliate of Touro Osteopathic Medical School, providing the full complement of core and elective clerkships for their third and fourth year students, with about 16 students on campus any given day. Many of our faculty hold Touro clinical appointments as well. 

Santa Rosa can best be thought of as a city with four large neighborhoods (or quadrants) and a downtown in the middle. Each quadrant has its own character, and there are many different nice neighborhoods to choose from. While most physicians live in Santa Rosa, you can also live in a wide variety of settings just within a 20-minute radius of Santa Rosa, including Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Windsor, Kenwood, Rohnert Park (home to Sonoma State University), and Petaluma. There are also beautiful rural settings in “west county,” such as Forestville and Graton. Here in Sonoma County, you can choose your setting. You can live downtown, or beside vineyards, apple farms, or live oak and redwood forests. You can enjoy a garden year-round, whether it be greens, succulents, or fruit trees. It is also feasible to take advantage of the reverse commute into Santa Rosa from Marin County.  

Our program provides exciting opportunities for you to explore your passions through scholarly activity. Residents are required to complete two scholarly activity projects in our program. The first project starts in the middle of your first year and can be tailored to fit your career goals and interests. You will pitch your project at our annual Residency Shark Tank event, where both faculty and residents present their scholarly ideas to attract ‘investment’ and mentorship. The second project is a quality improvement project which is started in the middle of the second year of residency. Residents will complete 4 hours of face to face training provided by faculty, then choose a topic to work on in pairs over the following year.

You will be well supported throughout your residency scholarly activity journey. We have a full time Senior Research Project Manager who provides mentorship and will help you stay on track, and you have dedicated time to work on your projects during didactics across PGY2 and PGY3. In addition, we have a network of librarians who can assist with literature searches, as well as biostatistical support from the KP Northern California Division of Research, Biostatistical Consulting Unit. Residents are also financially supported to present their scholarly outcomes at conferences. Please contact Shannon McDermott (shannon.c.mcdermott@kp.org) for more information.

Yes. Residents who have a California license and are in good academic standing may moonlight in their PGY3 year. 

Santa Rosa is conveniently located 55 miles or one hour north of San Francisco on US-101. You can fly directly into Sonoma County’s Charles M. Shultz Airport in north Santa Rosa from many Westcoast cities. Santa Rosa is an hour and a half drive from both San Francisco and Oakland International Airports. There is a very easy shuttle bus that regularly travels between Sonoma County and both the San Francisco and Oakland airports.

Sonoma County Airport: Home – Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport

Groome: Sonoma County Shuttle Routes – Groome Transportation – Book Now

Curent airlines: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Avelo Airlines

An integrated health care delivery system ensures that providers from various specialties collaborate seamlessly to care for patients. They share pertinent medical information through a unified electronic health record (EHR) and collectively aim for optimal patient outcomes. At KP, all providers are equipped with KP cell phones, enabling specialists to be accessible around the clock for primary care consultations. Family medicine physicians frequently communicate with specialists via text, call, or email for recommendations across all specialty areas. It is common for a cardiologist to be consulted directly from the family medicine exam room with the patient present, facilitating coordinated care and immediate treatment recommendations. Similarly, dermatology photos taken with a specialized dermatoscope camera in primary care are promptly sent to dermatologists, who provide instant diagnosis and treatment advice. If a patient requires a dermatology appointment, the dermatology department proactively contacts the patient to arrange care. This cohesive approach underscores the unity of our medical group, with palpable multi-specialty coordination. Additionally, social workers, psychologists, dieticians, discharge care coordinators, health educators, and other support staff are readily available to support patient care.