Moira Horn – TCC Class of 2024
Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Family Health Center
I felt torn between OBGYN and Family Medicine when I first applied to medical school, as I thought OBGYN would allow me to focus on my passion for women's health. However, Family Medicine allows me to train to deliver babies, provide comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care, perform well child checks, among many other doctorly activities associated with women's health, labor and delivery, and pediatrics.
Additionally, I realized in applying to TCC that Family Medicine is more closely aligned with my interests in community health—with TCC's deep focus on population health, quality improvement, and health systems science in general, I feel that I found the perfect program that addresses all of my interests in healthcare. I love that I will be able to treat people of all ages, from all walks of life
Maintaining a balance between the Pathways to Health & Wellness Curriculum (PWHC) and TCC can be challenging, however, I developed several strategies to stay sane in medical school. First, I meticulously schedule most of my activities in a Google calendar and use a written planner. Staying organized (relatively) is paramount to student success in an accelerated program like TCC. Secondly, I also prioritize rest and time with my loved ones. As the old saying goes, you cannot fill someone's proverbial cup if yours is empty.
Jordan Brogley Webb – TCC Class of 2024
Cleveland Clinic Akron General
I honestly wasn’t sure about wanting to do family medicine when I was applying to medical school. It wasn’t until I was in TCC that I realized it was really a perfect fit for me. I wanted to see a variety of cases because I didn’t want to get bored doing the same thing each day for the rest of my career. In family medicine, you can see a toddler coming in for vaccinations and a well-child visit, an elderly patient with heart failure, or an athlete with knee pain, all in the same morning at the office. You have the ability to do a lot of things as well as specialize in a lot of different areas. I liked the idea of being a lifelong learner and pushing myself to stay on top of the most current medical knowledge. I wanted to have continuing relationships with patients across their lifespan. Additionally, I enjoy the idea that as the family doctor, you are like the quarterback of the patient’s healthcare team and are coordinating between different specialists to make sure that they are getting the best care possible.
There are many reasons why I chose to apply to TCC. You have a guaranteed residency spot in one of the most prestigious healthcare institutions in the world, the Cleveland Clinic. That comes with it an enormous opportunity to marshal the Clinic’s many resources to make meaningful impacts on patients’ lives. I grew up in Northeast Ohio and it was a no-brainer for me to want to stay close to my family. It’s very comforting to know that you’ll be at home for at least six years in this program.
TCC is a small program where you get a lot of individualized attention and mentorship. Family medicine is so versatile and there are many things you can do with this kind of training. In our cohort alone, I have colleagues interested in geriatrics, integrative medicine, women’s health, hospital medicine, and sports medicine, just to name a few. I loved the idea of being given the tools, whether it was through quality improvement, leadership training, or conducting a community project, so that we could have a genuine impact on the people of Northeast Ohio and beyond. As our professor Loren reminded us, this is the Transformative Care Continuum, not the “do a little better” care continuum, and that has continued to inspire me to dream big.
Finally, TCC is a program where I truly feel like I belong. This is a program that values students who have life experience and have accomplished other things before medical school. As someone who wants to spend my career advocating for and educating patients, this was the perfect opportunity to unite my prior experiences as a lawyer and journalist with medicine. As Dr. CK has told us, we are really more than family doctors, we are humanologists, and that’s something that really grounds me in the work we are doing.