Graduate Medical Education

Hello, and welcome to Raleigh! We’re so glad that you’re interested in the WakeMed Graduate Medical Education (GME) Programs.

Part of what attracted me to WakeMed over 30 years ago was its commitment to training residents and students in a uniquely advanced community hospital system that was interwoven with other health care and educational organizations in the surrounding region. Having trained with the NC Area Health Education Center (AHEC) system of community-based clinical sites across the state as a UNC medical student, I was always inspired and interested by the intersection of community engagement and medical practice.  

It's been exciting and gratifying to be a member of the team that launched the WakeMed Internal Medicine Residency Program, which is WakeMed’s and Wake County’s first residency program-located in southeast Raleigh just a few miles east of the NC Capitol; this program was closely followed by the WakeMed Surgery Critical Care Fellowship. We feel incredibly fortunate to have started out with amazing groups of residents and fellows, many of whom are now practicing and serving as faculty at WakeMed and the surrounding area.  

For its foundation in medical education, WakeMed has over 50 years of resident and student training as the primary teaching hospital in the state’s most populous county. The Level 1 Trauma Center, the Rehabilitation Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Heart Center, the critical care capabilities, the simulation lab, and Wake AHEC are all part of the WakeMed package. WakeMed has enduring partnerships: training residents with UNC, training medical students with UNC and Campbell University, collaborating on clinical and educational initiatives with Duke, and supporting medical education through NC AHEC. Other partnerships include Wake County Human Services, Alliance of Medical Ministries, Urban Ministries, Advance Community Health and others to facilitate access to care and to improve the health and well-being of those we serve.

It is easy to see that there are a growing number of outstanding clinical experiences within our system and community, layered on a foundation of teaching infrastructure and support. Mix in an engaged, inquisitive, and fun faculty plus one of the most high-tech and rapidly growing areas of the country and add a heavy dose of rankings of high-quality places to live, and you’ve got a great framework upon which to build GME programs as well as an exciting place to be a resident.

Raleigh is rich in educational institutions that improve the quality of life in Wake County, including Wake AHEC, NC State University, Shaw University, Meredith College, Wake Technical Community College, and Wake County Public Schools.  We believe WakeMed GME is now part of this impressive line-up. I hope you enjoy learning about the WakeMed GME programs. I think you’ll discover many good reasons to join us.