Cape Fear Valley Health Program

Program Identity & Fit

Cape Fear Valley Health's Transitional Year is a community-based program at a high-acuity regional referral center in Fayetteville, NC, serving a complex, often late-presenting patient population drawn from across southeastern North Carolina via an extensive transfer network. The thirteen-block curriculum blends core inpatient/outpatient rotations (internal medicine, cardiology, psychiatry, pediatrics, EM, ID) with substantial elective and selective time, high-fidelity simulation training, and AMBOSS-supported Step 3 preparation, all oriented explicitly toward preparing residents for their next specialty rather than toward transitional-year training as an end in itself. Scholarly activity is present but modest in scope (mandatory poster/QI participation, an optional research group) rather than central to the program's identity, and near-peer teaching opportunities are emerging alongside the new Methodist University medical school affiliation. With 16 positions embedded in a larger multi-specialty GME system, the program emphasizes a "big system, small program" feel and explicitly values residents who engage with community outreach and want a supportive, personalized launchpad into advanced specialty training.