Insights on Residency Training

February 4th, 2021

Engaging with History: Why Do the Actions of Nazi Physicians Matter in Medicine Today?

Holland Kaplan, MD

The reflections and photos in this post are a result of the immersive experience I had via the Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics in 2016. Many assume that Nazi physicians were antisocial, sadistic psychopaths. But viewing the perpetrators of the Holocaust as morally deficient is simply inaccurate; in fact, the Nazis physicians […]

---

December 11th, 2020

Why Does Diversity Matter in Residency Training?

Holland Kaplan, MD

As residency interview season ramps up, the topic of diversity arises frequently. Residency programs emphasize diversity in the locations at which their trainees practice, the variety of patients their trainees have the opportunity to see and care for, and the characteristics of the residents they matriculate. Diversity is an important characteristic of residency programs for […]

---

October 26th, 2020

Futility as a Cause of Burnout in Residency

Holland Kaplan, MD

At the beginning of my residency training, one of our program leaders defined burnout as “work out of proportion to meaning.” In a sense, I think this also defines futility – performing a disproportionate amount of work compared with the results or meaning you are deriving from the work. The proposed causes of burnout in […]

---

September 3rd, 2020

“Never Waste a Crisis”: Perspectives from History and Today

Holland Kaplan, MD

The mantra “Never waste a crisis” has stuck with me for the past several months. This statement was reportedly made by Winston Churchill in the 1940s, during World War II. However, a well-known internal medicine faculty member and leader at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. David Hyman, who recently passed away, also gave us this […]

---