Internal Medicine Residency Program Overview

Program Philosophy

Our belief is that residents learn most efficiently in a supportive and collegial environment. Our goal is to optimize the potential development of each resident in the program, regardless of one's ultimate niche in medicine.

We seek self-motivated individuals who share our enthusiasm about medicine. We strive to have residents who will, at the completion of their training, be superbly trained clinicians, excel in crystallizing and synthesizing medical problems, understand how to think about medicine, and appreciate the subtleties of patient-physician interactions and the bio-psychosocial process.

Residents are busy enough to be challenged and stimulated, yet have enough time for medical reading, relaxation with family, or various outdoor and cultural activities, which abound in the Santa Barbara region.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to create a nurturing educational environment in which Residents learn to provide superior health for, and improve the health of, our communities through a commitment to the core values of excellence, integrity, and compassion.

Teaching Environment

The program offers an excellent balance between common community medical problems and more esoteric problems, which outlying community hospitals refer to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The excellent locale coupled with outstanding medical facilities has provided for a competitive medical environment where well-trained subspecialists, hospitalists, and primary care physicians have collaborated and flourished.

Most of these physicians volunteer their time and energy to the teaching faculty; a comfortable rapport exists between the private voluntary faculty and the residency program. The bulk of the clinical teaching is done on a one-to-one basis between attending physicians and residents.

Affiliations

The Cottage Health Internal Medicine Residency Program is affiliated with the Department of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Medicine. Although medical residents do not rotate between hospitals, third and fourth year students from USC participate in IM and MICU rotations at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Cottage Health also offers a Pre-Health Shadowing Program with University of California – Santa Barbara and Westmont College.