Family Medicine Residency Greenville - Chief Resident's Letter
Hey, everyone!
Welcome to the Prisma Health Greenville Family Medicine Residency Program! We are excited and honored to be serving as the chief residents for the 2023-2024 academic year. We love our program and hope to share with you all some of our favorite things about training here.
Perhaps our favorite thing about our program is our faculty. They are culture-setters within the program, and we feel a strong level of camaraderie with them. It’s evident they genuinely want us to become the best physicians we can be while maintaining an emphasis on wellness. Many are not far removed from training and understand the stressors that come with being a resident. Some ways they’ve promoted wellness include creating Core Skills rotations and Wellness Wednesdays. Core Skills are rotations in which the interns spend time together outside of the hospital to focus on foundation skills and wellness. Wellness Wednesdays take the place of our didactic sessions and involve the residents doing an activity together such as yoga, laser tag or axe throwing.
Our program also recognizes each of us has unique goals and desires for our career; and our training reflects that. We have focus tracks that include Sports Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine, Inpatient Medicine, Women’s Health/Obstetrics and Academic Development. Outside of the focus tracks, we participate in other unique learning experiences including providing care at specialty clinics including refugee clinic, diabetes clinic, sports medicine clinic, LGBTQ+ clinic and women’s health clinic. For those interested, we also have global health trips to Brazil and India! The breadth of experiences we have sets us up for success in any career path we might choose.
When you’re not in the clinical environment, Greenville has a lot to offer. It’s located in the beautiful upstate of South Carolina and has recently been mentioned in lists such as the New York Times ‘52 Places to Travel in 2023’ and Travel and Leisure Magazine’s ‘10 Most Beautiful and Affordable Places to Live in the U.S.’ There are always new things to experience such as urban parks, hiking in nature, shows, restaurants and our downtown space. Some of our personal favorite things to do are visiting the Saturday Farmers Market downtown, having a picnic at Unity Park, and eating the local favorite stecca bread at Swamp Rabbit Cafe. For when you want a day trip or weekend getaway, we have easy access to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the beach, Charlotte and Atlanta.
As chiefs, we have several values-driven goals for our program. First, we will continue to promote the culture of camaraderie and wellness that our faculty has created. Secondly, we are committed to emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in all our activities, beginning with the recruitment process. We strongly believe these pursuits will develop the happiest, most compassionate, and overall, best physicians for our community.
The application process is a difficult but exciting one. This is a time for you to be introspective, explore what’s out there, and ultimately find out what is the best fit for you! We hope that you’ll consider our #FamMedFam. We are available to answer any questions you may have so please feel free to reach out to either of us during this time!
Sincerely,
Batare and Shiv
Medical School: Ross University School of Medicine
What drew me to the program: Hello, my name is Batare Okivie! I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. I received a B.S in Biological Sciences from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!). I then worked as a Research Assistant with the Cellular Biology Department at UGA and received my Masters in Medical Sciences from Drexel University shortly after. I attended medical school at Ross University School of Medicine. Some of my hobbies include traveling, outdoor nature walks, photography, and recently I have started to love painting! A few of my interest within Family Medicine include women’s health, preventive medicine, and global health.
Medical School: University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville
What drew me to the program: Hey, I’m Shiv! I grew up outside of Atlanta in a suburb called Buford, GA. Afterwards, I attended the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) where I earned my BS in Biology with a minor in Spanish and where I met my now wife. I then moved to Greenville, SC, where I completed medical school at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. During medical school, I fell in love with Greenville and am so excited to call it home for the next few years. Within medicine, my interests include Lifestyle Medicine, preventative care and caring for underserved populations. When I’m not at the hospital I love to spend time with my wife and dog, play trombone, cook plant-based meals, watch sports, play video games, watch documentaries, explore Greenville’s restaurant scene and spend time hiking the beautiful trails the Upstate has to offer.