July 3, 2024
Fifteen residents and six fellows were honored June 30, 2024, at the 49th annual graduation ceremony of The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency Program and Fellowships. The event was held at UA’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The residents and fellows will begin their medical practices in Alabama and in other states and countries or enter fellowship programs. To date, the UA Tuscaloosa Family has graduated 588 family medicine physicians.
“This is a great class, who came to us in June of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Tamer Elsayed, residency director, said in welcoming remarks to the graduates and their families. “You’ve worked hard and became a part of a system. Soon, you will become independent and work by yourself.”
Elsayed said he learned much from the 2024 class about change, and that he will always be available to them for advice. “We’re happy to be here for you as a source and to welcome you as an alumni of the University.”
The Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency is one of the oldest and largest family medicine residencies in the United States. The residency is operated by the UA College of Community Health Sciences, which provides graduate and post-graduate medical education through the three-year family medicine residency and through year-long fellowships for family medicine physicians seeking additional training in behavioral health, emergency medicine, geriatrics, hospital medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, and sports medicine.
The guest speaker at the graduation ceremony was Dr. Jennifer Clem, associate professor of family, internal, and rural medicine at CCHS and a practicing family medicine physician at University Medical Center in Northport, which the College operates. She told the graduates that while physicians often focus on their failures “we cannot allow ourselves to do that because I guarantee there are going to be many more victories than failures each day you practice medicine. Most of your victories may seem very small and not important to you, but they are not going to be small for your patients.”
Clem continued: “Even after 15 years, I still love being a family medicine doctor. “As much as I enjoy teaching, mentoring and filling out evaluations, it is the patient care that fulfills me, that sustains me and that awards me every day.”
Dr. Richard Friend, dean of the College, also spoke to the graduates. “Some of you will be staying for fellowships with us and others will be going to other institutions or going out into practice, and we are very proud of that,” he said.
