Dr. Kristi Ford-Scales at White Coat Ceremony

Thu, 13 May 2021

Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) alumna Kristi Ford-Scales, MD ’10, board-certified family physician and medical director of Spartanburg Regional Hospice in South Carolina, will welcome our incoming class of medical students at the RUSM White Coat Ceremony tomorrow, May 14. Grateful to be part of this milestone, Dr. Ford-Scales hopes to provide students with insight on the life-long dedication ahead.

 

RUSM White Coat Ceremony Speaker: Kristi Ford-Scales, MD ’10

Dr. Kristi Ford-Scales

Born and raised in a small town, Dr. Kristi Ford-Scales is familiar with the impact family medicine physicians have within communities, “I was from such a small town that the doctors were all usually family medicine doctors who saw birth to death and everything in between. They did everything. So, for me, I never even thought about other specialties,” said Dr. Ford-Scales.  

Wanting to venture away from home, Dr. Ford-Scales set her sights on attending medical school outside of the U.S. When she discovered RUSM, she knew it was where she wanted to be, “I was always in awe of the opportunity to go to med school in a foreign country. That part, for me, was an honor.” While she was used to rural living, island living was a completely different lifestyle for her. There were things she expected like eating different foods and walking more often, but she never could’ve predicted the life-long relationships she would form. “RossMed was very good about harboring strong relationships and being sure that the student body was always involved with each other.” She still speaks with her classmates and islanders she met, and frequently thinks of her small-group discussions during her day-to-day tasks. 

Currently, Dr. Ford-Scales is the medical director at Spartanburg Regional Hospice, where she says she’s found her dream job serving her hometown and the community that raised her. 

Dr. Ford-Scales has served as a hospitalist at Self Regional in Greenwood, South Carolina, where she saw an array of patient conditions and taught faculty in the hospital’s Family Medicine residency program. Dr. Ford-Scales also worked as a physician in inpatient and outpatient family medicine clinics.  

 

We look forward to celebrating your virtual White Coat Ceremony tomorrow at 3:30 pm ET. Join us on the RUSM Facebook and YouTube pages.

 

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The white coat ceremony is a special event that welcomes incoming medical students into the study of medicine and emphasizes the importance of compassionate care, scientific aptitude, and ethical behavior in medical school and future chosen profession. The ceremony is an important rite-of-passage that marks the transformation of a new cohort of Ross University School of Medicine (Ross Med) students entering as physicians-in-training.
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In 2020, 91% of RUSM students passed the initial step of the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE®) on the first attempt. And in 2021-2022, results show yet another strong year for RUSM with a 96% first-time residency attainment rate* thus far. Located on the island of Barbados and with a network of more than 15,000 alumni, RUSM is one of the largest providers of doctors for the U.S. healthcare system. RUSM graduates practice in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico.

*First time residency attainment rate is the percent of students attaining a 2022-23 residency position out of all graduates or expected graduates in 2021-22 who were active applicants in the 2022 NRMP match or who attained a residency position outside the NRMP match.

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