Meet Full Code: By day, they care for patients. After hours, they jam.

On a Wednesday evening, six guys meet up in a New Jersey studio, pick up their instruments, and start to jam.

In their professional lives, they are doctors and a hospital chaplain at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, in essential, high-stakes roles on which countless patients, families, and colleagues depend.

But tonight, above the garage of Craig Gronczewski, MD, MBA, emergency medicine specialist and chief medical officer of Penn Medicine Princeton Health, they are here to perform for themselves

This is Full Code. Gronczewski is on guitar and vocals, while geriatrician David Barile, MD, plays percussion and guitar. On guitar, keyboard, and vocals is critical care specialist Jasmeet Bajaj, MD; and on bass and vocals, endocrinologist Gabe Smolarz, MD, MBA, MS. Gastroenterologist Kevin Skole, MD is on drums, and chaplain Samuel Yenn-Batah plays saxophone and flute. They even have a manager: hospital lab courier Alan Stefanowicz.

Originally a classic rock band, Full Code’s song list has expanded as the group has grown; a typical set might include Lou Reed, U2, or George Michael. The group also enjoys experimenting with blues, jazz, soul, and other genres, rotating vocals and playing around with different sounds.

“When it works, it has a steady groove to it,” Gronczewski said.

For now, the band plays only covers, but that could change. “We tinker with our own songs, but none are ready for prime time … maybe in 2026,” Barile teased.

Every two weeks, the band gathers in their dedicated studio to jam together. While they occasionally perform at community gigs, they mostly play for fun and camaraderie. For these hard-working professionals—whose hours are intensely focused on caring for others—playing music has also become a vital form of self-care.

“It’s so different from what we do in our day jobs … more of a visceral, spiritual, let’s-have-fun-together-as-a-group experience,” Barile said.

The band came together casually. In 2018, Gronczewski and Bajaj, medical director for the hospital’s Critical and Intermediate Care units, realized they both played guitar and began meeting up for informal jam sessions. Over the next year, they picked up two additional members.

They found their first drummer in Barile. He was the one who came up with the name Full Code after Penn Medicine Princeton Health announced an upcoming employee talent show—part of its 100-year anniversary celebration in late 2019—and the band decided to enter.

“Full code” is a medical term for the directive to use every available measure to save a life. As a band name, it’s a humorous nod to the members’ professions. Unintentionally, it’s meaningful in another way. For each of them, being in the band has revived a piece of their youth—recapturing a sense of fun and possibility.

“It brings me back to a time of hanging out with the guys at college, when I didn’t have to be a serious adult,” Gronczewski said.

Most of the members were in high school or college bands. Yenn-Batah, the hospital’s director of Spiritual Care and Well-Being, is the band’s only professional musician. He was doing his chaplaincy residency during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and sometimes played sax outside the emergency room for staff and visitors. That got him an invitation from Bajaj.

What drew in Yenn-Batah was more than the music; it was the people.

“I had deep conversations with Jas, Craig, and Dave throughout the pandemic—conversations about life, not just work,” he said. “That trust translated naturally into music.”

Beyond the garage

In 2025, Princeton Health CEO James Demetriades invited Full Code to play at the August grand opening of its new six-story parking garage. The staff-only event gave the band an opportunity to share a side of themselves that their colleagues rarely see. They showed off their range, covering songs by Bob Dylan, Darius Rucker, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, and others.

When five doctors and a chaplain traded their stethoscopes and daily routines for their musical instruments and microphones, the staff celebration lit up. “The crowd's energy was infectious,” Demetriades said.

The band has plans to leave the studio more often; Stefanowicz has lined up performances at a local festival and the Princeton and Cranbury public libraries, and he’s working on booking more.

“Community gigs are perfect for us,” Barile said, laughing. “I don’t know that we’re gonna be touring Europe anytime soon, but wherever he wants to take us, we’ll do it.”

In the meantime, Full Code will keep on jamming and finding joy in this brotherhood they’ve created.

“The lesson for me is that you can build community in so many different ways,” Smolarz said. “You never know what will happen, as long as you keep an open mind and never stop looking for connection.”