“A message to the new generation of interns: you’re not just a doctor—you’re an artist, too.”
It’s the first day of residency. You enter the hospital, trying to recall basic medicine after months away from patient care. Gone are the days of hovering between unpaid trainees and health care providers. Gone are the days when you could deploy the instinctive, age-old adage, “I’m just the medical student.”
During graduation this year, I …
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We dive into the evolving landscape of health care entrepreneurship with our guest, Tod Stillson, a family physician and entrepreneur. Tod shares his journey from traditional employment to establishing his own single-member professional …
The journey of a medical resident is often documented, highlighting the grueling hours, intense pressure, and significant responsibilities that come with the role. However, behind the scenes lies another story that is seldom told—the challenges faced by the wives of medical residents. This article delves into the unique struggles of being a medical resident’s wife, particularly in the context of a long-distance relationship.
The overlooked partner
While much attention is given to …
Resident physicians are vital to the health care system, delivering essential medical services while training to become fully licensed doctors. However, a troubling trend has emerged nationwide, with residency programs and hospitals frequently violating the rights and protections resident physicians are entitled to under employment contracts, state labor laws, and accreditation standards. I personally was forced to deal with these issues, despite having virtually zero knowledge regarding the legal side …
I wouldn’t trust my Uber driver to drive me after they’ve been awake for over 24 hours. Why would I trust my doctor?
Since starting medical school and hearing about the dreadful 24-hour shifts, I’ve constantly wondered why they are standard of practice, let alone legally allowed. Why would a hospital want the liability of a sleep-deprived doctor?
I first saw the effects of a 24-hour shift during my general surgery rotation. …
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Join Amna Shabbir, an internal medicine physician, as we delve into the complex emotions surrounding Match Day outcomes. We explore strategies for navigating feelings of rejection, shame, and disappointment while emphasizing the importance …
Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to applicants who did not match in the 2024 NRMP match. They are just a few of the thousands of highly qualified students and physicians who did not match this cycle. This is a wrenching experience, and it can be hard to pick yourself up and move on to the next steps. However, the actions you take over the next few months can …
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Join Elizabeth Landry, a certified coach, as we explore practical strategies to support medical resident families during the challenging transition into residency. Discover how spousal support programs, inclusive social gatherings, and mentorship initiatives …
Older physicians often bemoan what’s perceived as a decline in professionalism during residency training. Caps on the number of inpatients assigned to an intern or resident. Duty hour limits. Wellness retreats. While these may be imperfect, they’re at least aligned with or heading in the direction of what is the right way to balance the rigors of a lifetime of training in and practicing medicine with the safety, quality, and …
In February 2024, the resident physicians in South Korea resigned in waves. This was not a strike; striking seemed meaningless, and the residents went right on quitting. This occurred after the Korean government promulgated health care reform plans to tackle major problems brewing under the nation’s universal health insurance system. One of the plans–to increase the medical school quota across the nation by 66 percent …
Although I have a deep respect for everyone who contributes to the education of our next generation of physicians, I also feel that the current hierarchy in graduate medical education is damaging U.S. health care. That is, the best students go to the best residency programs and get the best jobs and subsequently teach the best students, and so on, creating highly respected centers of excellence. That’s wonderful, but how …
As a lifelong learner who takes pride in self-directed learning, the importance of mentorship has not always been readily obvious to me. When I completed my residency and embarked on a career in academic medicine, little did I realize how important the mentorship of my then department chair, Dr. Janet Townsend, would be in terms of my career progression. In addition to supporting my commitment to staying clinically active while …
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine by expanding our knowledge and reducing our workload. However, physicians should tread carefully and take heed of the example set by other industries. For example, AI was at the core of the negotiations in the recent 2023 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. “AI was a dealbreaker,” said Fran Drescher, a union leader of the …
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Closing a residency program can significantly disrupt a physician’s training. In 2019, the closure of Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia forced 570 residents to find new placements. First-year residents discovered a week before they started that the hospital was closing after its owner filed for bankruptcy.
Fast forward to January 2024. Within days, two additional residency training programs in the Philadelphia area announced closures.
Albert Einstein Medical Center said it was ending its …
Amidst significant rises in resident unionization, a policy shift is warranted to guarantee equitable compensation and overtime pay for resident physicians contending with demanding 80-hour workweeks. On October 13, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom made history by signing California Senate Bill No. 525 (SB 525) into law. This monumental legislation will increase the minimum wage for California health care employees to $25 per hour. While SB 525 addresses the …
I, like many of my peers in medicine, am a terrible sleeper.
And it’s no wonder, after all. I spent the better part of my twenties and thirties training my brain not to give in to sleep when I needed it. Then, in the rare hours I did sleep, I was forced to wake at a moment’s notice and go from deep sleep to high alert. Sometimes, I was asked to …
Considering that the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) primarily evaluates candidates’ general medical knowledge, there is a growing need to introduce specialty-specific pre-training examinations (PTEs). This is because the USMLE’s focus on overall medical knowledge may not accurately predict the performance of applicants in their specialty-specific in-training examinations (ITEs). The introduction of PTEs could serve as a more reliable indicator of applicants’ commitment and aptitude for their chosen specialties. …
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Heather Furnas, an adjunct clinical associate professor at Stanford and an aesthetic surgeon, joins us as we delve into the intricate world of recommendation letters, biases in evaluations, and their impact on diverse fields. Heather lends her …
In recent years, the disparities between doctor of osteopathy (DO) and doctor of medicine (MD) applicants in securing coveted residency slots across various medical subspecialties have garnered increased attention. Despite the acceptance of DO-trained physicians within the broader medical community, there remains a significant discrepancy in match rates between DO and MD applicants in highly competitive specialties. This disparity is complex and multifaceted, requiring efforts from every level of the …
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We discuss the striking similarities between the Kentucky Derby and the challenges of medical training. Our guest, Corinne Sundar Rao, an internal medicine physician, shares valuable insights based on her expertise. We explore the shared traits of …
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