St. Rose Dominican Welcomes 2024 Medical Residents

Diverse group from around the globe comprise new class of 12 doctors-in-training 

LAS VEGAS, March 18, 2024 – Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican recently welcomed the twelve 2024 medical school graduates who successfully matched with our Graduate Medical Education Internal Medicine Residency Program. These dozen new doctors-in-training comprise the second-ever Dignity Health Residency class in southern Nevada and take the next step in their careers the next three years of their medical training under our staff’s supervision. 

An Important Step: Match Day is a pivotal day in the graduate medical education community as it is the day on which the National Resident Matching Program releases the eagerly awaited results of all the applicants who have applied for residency or fellowship training positions in the U.S. It is an important day for medical students. Securing a residency position is key in securing one's future career. Match Day occurs on the third Friday of March each year and is marked with ceremonies at many of the more than 150 medical schools in the United States. At precisely 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, medical students across the nation simultaneously learn where they matched. 

A Match with St. Rose: The twelve doctors who comprise the second class of Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Residents and will spend the next three years studying in southern Nevada are: 

Dr. Kimberly Bates, Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, says the St. Rose Dominican GME team has been preparing for this day for months and is excited to welcome this second class of Residents and begin their studies in June. 

“Like our first class last year, this is a new group of outstanding student doctors who will create a wonderfully diverse class of resident physicians,” said Dr. Bates. “They represent exactly what we hoped for and we are incredibly eager to meet them in person.” 

Primary Care: Within the Internal Medicine Program, four Residents will follow a Primary Care track, emphasizing an area of particular need in southern Nevada. 

“The number one key indicator of healthy communities is the number of primary care physicians in that community.” said Dr. Bates. “Nevada is unfortunately lacking in that area and we hope our program can begin to address that need. The entire job of a Primary Care physician is to manage a person’s health for life. To have the ability to see a patient, diagnose, and treat them before something requires more advanced care. I am excited to see young doctors ready to embody that mission, embracing the challenge and commitment.”

Residents will perform their clinic hours in medical offices in the North Las Vegas Neighborhood Hospital Campus and their Hospital hours at the San Martin Campus working with St. Rose affiliated subspecialty faculty. 

Improving health care in Nevada: Residencies are an important element in improving health care in Nevada, as they correlate closely with the likelihood that doctors will stay in-state when they begin to practice. Among those who graduate and complete a Residency program in Nevada, nearly 75 percent tend to stay and practice in Nevada. 

This year’s class of twelve Internal Medicine Residents brings the total number of in the St. Rose Residency program to 24. Residency is a three-year program. Next year the program will add twelve more new doctors, bringing the program to its full capacity of 36 doctors.  

Just the beginning: “We are at the beginning of something very special for both our hospitals and our community,” said Dr. Rod Buzzas, Chief Medical Officer for Siena and St. Rose de Lima Hospitals and Designated Institutional Officer for the GME Program. “As St. Rose continues our journey into the world of teaching hospitals, we fulfill our mission by extending the benefit we bring to our community by educating new physicians and enticing them to stay and practice as doctors here in southern Nevada.” 

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About Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican

Nevada’s only not-for-profit, faith-based health system, Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospitals remains guided by the vision and values of the Adrian Dominican Sisters who founded Rose de Lima Hospital in Henderson in 1947. Dignity Health now operates three acute care hospitals in southern Nevada - the Siena, San Martin, and Rose de Lima Campuses. St. Rose Dominican Hospitals is a member of the Dignity Health network of nearly 10,000 physicians, 60,000 employees, 41 acute care hospitals, and more than 400 care centers, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, and primary care clinics. Dignity Health is a part of CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit health system committed to advancing health for all people and dedicated to serving the common good. More than 75 years after the arrival of the original seven Sisters in Henderson, the 4,000 employees of the St. Rose Dominican health system continue the Sisters’ mission of serving people in need, especially the most vulnerable. For more information, visit www.strosehospitals.org.

Dignity Health hospitals in Nevada are supported by the St. Rose Dominican Health Foundation, whose mission is to improve community health and wellness through fundraising and relationship building with caring supporters who donate or pledge to fund our work. To learn more, visit supportstrose.org or email [email protected].