CMU Medical Education Partners Celebrates 52nd Residency Graduation

Forty-one physicians completed their residencies and earned their medical licenses this year. CMU Medical Education Partners, in partnership with Central Michigan University College of Medicine, Covenant HealthCare, and Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital, celebrated its 52nd graduating class of resident and fellow physicians during a June 10, 2022, ceremony at Horizon’s Conference Center in Saginaw Michigan. The resident physicians and fellows spend several years in medical training while serving the local patient population at several CMU Health clinics, Covenant HealthCare, and Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital.

Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. Residents hold medical degrees and practice medicine under the supervision of an attending physician. Successful completion of a residency program is required to obtain a medical license. The CMU Medical Education Partners residency programs offer several different learning environments including outpatient clinics, hospitals, ambulatory, emergency settings, plus specialty rotations and serve a diverse group of patients in the region. Physician graduates who wish to practice in a specialty may further their education by attending a medical fellowship. A medical fellowship is a training program for medical school graduates who have completed their residency and wish to continue learning in a specific area of medicine.

“The years of residency are to teach physicians specifics about the specialty in which they’re going to practice and, more importantly, to teach how to approach patient care and the ever-changing healthcare system,” said Mary Jo Wagner, M.D., chief academic officer and designated institutional official of the resident training programs in Saginaw. “These graduates have been a significant part of the growth of CMU Medical Education Partners”.

 The graduating residents received their certificates of completion from Central Michigan University College of Medicine, the medical school affiliated with CMU Medical Education Partners. With their residencies completed, eight will continue their education in fellowships in a medical specialty while thirty will begin working full time as physicians, with seventeen staying in Michigan and fifteen in Mid-Michigan.

CMU Medical Education Partners oversees eight residency programs including emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, podiatric medicine and surgery, psychiatry, and its newest program, pediatrics. In addition, CMU Medical Education Partners has two fellowship programs, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Emergency Medical Services.