2008 National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students

I had the privilege of representing Louisiana as our resident delegate at the 2008 National Resident and Student Conference in Kansas City.  The experience opened my eyes to vast number of issues facing Family Medicine.  I had the opportunity to speak with many residents from across the country on hot topics such as loan deferment, medical home, urban and rural issues, and the many different procedural opportunities we had in our programs.  Delegates wrote resolutions which were discussed and voted on to either adopt or not adopt. For example, we discussed limiting pharmaceutical support for CME activities. We did not adopt it because of worries over support of programs such as frontline diabetes workshop and the osteoporosis workshop. Another resolution that we adopted was to have more contraceptive teaching at next year’s conference. I also had the opportunity to elect the resident delegates to the AAFP Board of Delegates, the 2009 chair of the convention, and delegates to the STFM and AFMRD.
     
I served another part at the convention. I was an exhibitor for East Jefferson Family Medicine Program. I spoke with many students about their futures, as well as things to look for and ask when choosing a residency. I also went to lectures and took a class on no scalpel vasectomy.
    
The conference was not all business. My fellow residents and I went to Kansas City Live to listen to live music. We ate all the Bar B Q we could eat. We even went to watch the Kansas City Royals play the Chicago White Sox, and they had a fireworks display after the game.
     
I would recommend that all residents attend this conference if they get the chance

Cullen Ocmond MD
PGY3 East Jefferson Family Medicine