Welcome from Our Director

Welcome to Shannon Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program, proudly affiliated with Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine!

Howdy!

I am genuinely excited that you're taking the time to learn about Shannon IM and what we're building here in West Texas.

When we started this program, we had a simple idea: build the kind of residency we would want to train in. That means developing excellent clinical skills through real responsibility, learning from faculty who actually know you, and being part of a culture where people work hard, support one another, and take pride in what they do.

Our mission is straightforward: to train clinically strong, confident physician colleagues to serve West Texas.

We are proudly a community-based IM residency, built around three values that we all live everyday: 1) Integrity, 2) Communication, and 3) Mission-Driven Purpose. They mean doing the right thing, talking to each other instead of around each other, and remembering why we chose medicine in the first place.

At Shannon, you'll be treated as a junior physician colleague, not simply a trainee. Your ideas matter. We want you to ask questions, speak up, and help us get better. As you show you're ready, you'll earn more responsibility and independence regardless of your PGY level.

But that comes with expectations. We expect you to show up, work hard, own your patients, support your teammates, and push yourself beyond what's comfortable. Residency is hard, and there is no shortcut to becoming an excellent physician. What we can promise is that you won't do it alone.

Our faculty will teach you, challenge you, mentor you, and advocate for you. We'll know your strengths, where you're struggling, and what you hope to become. By graduation, we want you to walk into the room of a very sick patient and think, “I've got this.” Not because you know everything, but because you have the knowledge, judgment, experience, and confidence to figure out what happens next.That is the kind of physician we want to train.

Why West Texas? Because practicing medicine here matters. Training in a rural and underserved region teaches you to be resourceful, adaptable, and independent. Medicine here is personal. You see firsthand what one well-trained physician can mean to a patient, a family, and sometimes an entire community. We hope some of you will stay in West Texas. Others will take what you learn here across the country. Even if you are only here for three years, you will feel the impact you make from day 1.

You learn medicine by doing medicine. We believe strongly in hands-on training, including dedicated POCUS and procedural education, close faculty supervision, and progressive autonomy. We don't want you standing in the back of the room watching residency happen. We want you doing it by caring for complex patients, performing procedures, making decisions, learning from mistakes, and becoming increasingly independent with faculty nearby when you need them.

Whether your future is primary care, hospital medicine, or fellowship, we'll help you build a path to get there. Residents pursuing fellowship receive individualized mentorship, scholarly opportunities, and access to research through the Shannon research department and through our Texas A&M affiliation.

And here's the exciting part: we're still building. Shannon is a new IM residency program, and we're proud of that. We're not trying to recreate someone else's program. We're building ours.That means your voice matters. When something works, we'll keep it. When it doesn't, we'll talk about it and make it better. The traditions that define Shannon IM ten or twenty years from now will start with the residents training here today.You won't just join this program. You'll help shape it.

If you're looking for an easy residency, Shannon probably isn't the right place for you. But if you want to work hard, do real medicine, be challenged, be supported, know your faculty and have them know you, and become the physician people trust when things get difficult, you may have found your place.

Come ready to work. Come ready to learn. Come ready to take care of people. Come ready to build something with us.

Welcome to Shannon and West Texas. We can't wait to see the physician you become!

Gig’em!!

Sharlet Slough, DO
Program Director, Shannon Internal Medicine Residency
Clinical Associate Professor, Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashist College of Medicine

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