Nephrology Education in Private Practice: My Perspective.

Abstract

I have been in a small private nephrology practice in Southwestern Michigan for the past 15 years. My community hospital started an internal medicine residency program about 10 years ago. My 2 partners and I serve as the entire nephrology faculty for the program. The work is largely uncompensated, since the hospital updated their bylaws requiring resident teaching as a condition for hospital privileges. Nevertheless, I have come to view resident education as a pleasure, an opportunity to continually update my own knowledge base, and a way to position my practice for future growth.