Complex Family Planning Fellowship

We train:

• expert clinicians and consultants for primary care physicians and general obstetricians and gynecologists in university, free-standing, urban, and rural settings.
• proficient physician-researchers who will lead or collaborate in diverse projects.
• policy makers and influencers at the California state capitol and in national and international arenas.

Our division is a cohesive group of 7 fellowship-trained faculty plus our two fellows. Our fellowship program is now approved for a total of three fellows, beginning with the 2023 academic year. We function as family planning specialists with minimal generalist work in a robust acamedic department.

 The University of California, Davis is one of 10 schools in the University of California public education system. UC Davis Health includes the UC Davis Medical Center, UC Davis School of Medicine, and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing which are primarily located on the UC Davis Sacramento campus. Click here for a video with additional information about training at UC Davis Health. You can also find more information about the work and achievements at UC Davis Health by checking out the 2021 Points of Distinction.

Our two-year fellowship includes training in family planning clinical care within university, free-standing, urban and rural settings, engagement in the design and performance of clinical research, and participation in international or domestic underserved field work, and teaching junior trainees, including medical students and non-obstetrician-gynecologist residents. Our family planning teaching conferences and meetings include the following:

• Weekly one-hour conference with faculty, fellows, residents and students with formal family planning presentations, case discussion and journal club.
• Twice monthly fellow-only educational sessions based on the following textbooks: Management of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy; Speroff & Darney’s Clinical Guide to Contraception; and Contraception for Medically Challenging Patients.
• Twice a year book club on family planning books in popular culture. Previous selections include Birth of the Pill, One Child, Absolute Convictions, and Choice Words.
• Twice monthly fellow-only educational sessions with the Director on a topic of the fellows' choosing.
• Twice monthly research-in-progress meetings.
• Twice monthly business meetings.
• Formal mentoring meetings once per month.

Fellows are supported to complete advanced education in epidemiology, statistics, and research design through classes available at UC Davis, online, and other fellowship resources.

UC Davis is a high-volume referral center for rural Northern California and the medically underserved Central Valley. The fellow will receive high volume training in first trimester abortion procedures at rural and urban freestanding and hospital-based clinics including manual and electric vacuum aspiration and medical abortions. The fellow will also receive specialized training in managing pregnancies of unknown locations, early pregnancy loss, and unusual and abnormal early pregnancies. The fellow will become proficient in second trimester abortions by dilation and evacuation (D&E) to California’s legal gestational age limit within our institution and will rotate at the Southwest Women’s Options Center in New Mexico for gestational age training beyond that limit. The fellow will be specially trained in complex contraceptive counseling, difficult IUD insertion and removal, and implant insertion and difficult removal at our Center of Excellence. The fellow will gain expertise in providing contraceptive counseling to women with complicated medical conditions in our collaborative clinics in the neurology and pediatric hematology-oncology offices. The fellow will also serve as an inpatient consultant for hospitalist services such as the transplant team, and as an outpatient consultant to primary care physicians and general obstetrician/gynecologists under the supervision of the UC Davis Family Planning Faculty. Fellows take Family Planning home call once a week and one weekend a month with faculty-backup, and two Gynecology home calls each month. Fellows in their second year have their own private family planning and gynecology clinic, with opportunity for gynecologic surgery.

Clinical care includes regular interactions with residents and students in the outpatient clinic and operating room settings. Fellows will teach in these clinical settings and supervise residents and students through procedures.

Applicants interested in applying for the fellowship training program in complex family planning can submit their application through the ERAS website. Individuals interested in obtaining additional information should contact Melissa Garcia, Health Education Supervisor for Obstetrics and Gynecology, at 916-734-6952 or via e-mail at melgarcia@ucdavis.edu.

 The UC Davis Complex Family Planning fellowship starts on August 1 and will conclude two years later on July 31.

• Applications must be completed and turned in by Monday, May 1, 2023.
  
• Invitations to interview will be sent to applicants on Monday, June 5, 2023.