Welcome

We're glad you found your way here! Choosing where to spend your Transitional Year is an important decision, and we're excited to share what makes our program such a supportive place to learn, grow, and thrive.

Our Transitional Year Program offers 16 residency positions each year. Residents gain hands-on experience across Internal Medicine, Ambulatory Care, Cardiology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Infectious Disease, with elective time to explore individual interests and prepare for advanced specialty training.

Training takes place at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, a community-based teaching hospital in southeastern North Carolina. Here, residents care for a diverse patient population with complex, high-acuity medical needs, creating a dynamic environment that offers both challenge and opportunity.

Our residents also benefit from a state-of-the-art Simulation Center, where they develop clinical skills, teamwork, and confidence through realistic training scenarios. The Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine further expands opportunities for collaboration, teaching, and scholarship across our campus.

Most of all, you'll find a program that welcomes you and values you not only as a resident, but as a colleague. We are committed to supporting your growth, well-being, and success as you build a strong foundation for the next stage of your career.
 

Mission

The mission of this training program is to provide residents with comprehensive structured clinical, didactic, and procedural education in both inpatient and outpatient settings that will enable residents to become competent, proficient, and professional physicians. In partnership with our sponsoring institution, we are committed to educating and training diverse and culturally competent physicians prepared for any residency of their choice.
 

Vision

In every way, improving the quality of every life we touch.

Why Choose Cape Fear Valley Transitional Year?

  • Train Where It Matters

    As the regional referral center for southeastern North Carolina, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center receives patients transferred from hospitals across the region. You will care for a population that often arrives with advanced disease and real barriers to care. This is the kind of training that builds confident, capable physicians.

  • Develop Broad Clinical Competence

    Core rotations in internal medicine, ambulatory medicine, cardiology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, and infectious disease, plus elective time to use the year intentionally. You will finish with the clinical breadth and adaptability every specialty expects from a strong intern year.

  • Faculty Who Support Your Goals

    You will learn from a faculty group spanning a wide range of specialties, with academic, community, and military backgrounds. Faculty are invested in resident success and provide the mentorship and advising you need to reach your specialty goals.

  • A City Worth Discovering

    Fayetteville is a dynamic, affordable city with a strong sense of community. Home to Fort Bragg, it has a growing downtown with restaurants and live music, plenty of outdoor and fitness activities, and easy access to the beach and Raleigh-Durham.

  • Grow as a Physician and a Professional

    Whether your interests are in research, leadership, teaching, or community service, there are opportunities here to pursue them. We support the development of the whole physician, not just the clinician.

  • Big System, Small Program Feel

    Cape Fear Valley Health trains residents across internal medicine, emergency medicine, general surgery, OB/GYN, psychiatry, orthopedics, and podiatry, with fellowships in cardiology and pulmonary and critical care medicine. Transitional Year residents train alongside them, with the faculty and infrastructure of a full graduate medical education program behind them. With 16 residents in the class, you are still known by name.

What Our Residents Say

Feedback we have received from current residents and recent graduates:

  • One-on-one teaching from attendings, rather than through layers of senior trainees
  • A wide variety of rotations and broad clinical exposure
  • Faculty who are consistently willing to teach
  • Program leadership who are accessible and responsive
  • Strong day-to-day support from our program administrator
  • Opportunities to take part in GME leadership
  • Networking across many departments in the health system

What Makes A Successful Resident?

Dr. Umerah will walk through what it takes to make a successful resident in this video

Watch Video