Scott Hippe is a family medicine chief resident who blogs at Insights on Residency Training, a part of NEJM Journal Watch.

Objective measures aren’t perfect at predicting real-life clinical ability

Medical Education
October 27, 2019

“Can we please try to be objective about this!” I said these words to myself over and over during this year’s interview season as we formulated our residency rank list. At my institution, the residents and faculty have equal sway in forming the rank list. The chief resident facilitates the resident half of the process. As the hours wore on during our last meeting, the discussion gradually deviated from assessing the …

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Objective measures aren’t perfect at predicting real-life clinical ability

Is the journey in medicine leading me to my best self?

Physician
July 6, 2019

“Medicine robbed me of my 20s.” I’ve heard the line many times in my medical training. It often comes accompanied by a long sigh, a slow sip of coffee, and a glazed stare off into the distance. “Imagine what could’ve been,” the seasoned physician muses, “if I had my 20s to do over, without medicine.”

But now, I am mere months away from leaving my 20s behind. To be completely honest, I often feel similar …

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Is the journey in medicine leading me to my best self?

Medical education fails trainees interested in primary care

Physician
April 16, 2019

“She is meant for more than just primary care,” mused an attending on my internal medicine rotation in medical school. He was referring to a particularly adept resident with whom we were working. This resident was planning on practicing clinic-based general internal medicine. I wasn’t sure why this attending disclosed his thoughts regarding this resident to me, but the implication was clear: “primary care” — whatever is meant by the …

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Medical education fails trainees interested in primary care

Medical waste is a bigger problem than you might realize

Physician
November 1, 2018

The nature of the crime? Bringing my reusable food container down for meals. I just wanted to avoid the Styrofoam plates and plastic silverware, but the lunch ladies were convinced I was asking for two portions’ worth of side dishes and then only paying for one. I wasn’t, although I admit to once sprinkling cheese from the salad line on my soup [gasp!]. But by that time, I already had a large target painted on …

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Medical waste is a bigger problem than you might realize