Insights on Residency Training

May 12th, 2020

Our Public Hospital Leads Massachusetts in Caring for Coronavirus Patients

Frances Ue, MD, MPH

Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), where I work, is a small hospital system serving the north Boston-metro area across two campuses in Cambridge and Everett but, despite its modest scale, it has arguably become the center of Massachusetts’ fight against COVID-19. This is no small feat, given that Massachusetts has the third largest number of coronavirus […]

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April 30th, 2020

Why Is Burnout Still Occurring, Even with Work-Hour Restrictions?

Daniel Orlovich, MD, PharmD

“Daniel, this guy is one… sick… puppy,” he stated emphatically, drawing out the last three words.  I put my phone down and turned my chair away from the computer. He had my attention. Not because I haven’t taken care of any sick patients before, but because this statement was coming from him. I’m sure your hospital has […]

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January 22nd, 2020

The ACGME Needs to Mandate Parental Leave

Eric Bressman, MD

My wife and I had a baby a few months ago. Or, more accurately, she birthed a child while I sat in the corner contemplating the miracle of reproductive physiology in a vasovagal fugue. In the months leading up to and following that wondrous moment, we found ourselves navigating the labyrinthine complexity of parental leave in […]

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December 12th, 2019

Why Did I Spend an Extra Year as a Chief Resident?

Prarthna Bhardwaj, MD

I was in conversation with a residency applicant recently when we broached the topic of my career plans. I explained that I was interested in pursuing a hematology/oncology fellowship in the future. He asked “Why did you do a chief year, then? Were you trying to improve your application?” At first, I was somewhat offended, […]

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November 12th, 2019

Can Minor Changes in a Program Affect Resident Burnout?

Daniel Orlovich, MD, PharmD

“How did you like it there?” I ask, sitting down next to a new fellow (between bites of a plump sandwich, hoping there is no spinach in my teeth).  I expect to hear the standard resident talking points — long hours, frequent call, and ballooning student loans. Instead, she surprises me.  “Do you know how much they […]

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September 5th, 2019

Building Your Squad — Residency and Beyond

Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD

At nearly every stage in our education and training, we find “our people.”  Maybe it’s your table-mate in kindergarten, or the kid with the really cool light up sneakers in preschool who becomes your best friend.  Maybe it’s your next-door neighbor who you play with after school, or a coworker from your first job in […]

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August 20th, 2019

Bias in the Residency Ranking Process

Scott Hippe, MD

“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. […]

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August 9th, 2019

Duty Hours: Can We Lay This Debate To Rest?

Cassandra Fritz, MD

Duty hours have been the focus of a lot of research recently. If you are just joining this discussion, the iCOMPARE trial randomized 63 internal medicine residency programs to either flexible (interns could work more than 16 hours) or standard (interns had to work within the 16-hour limit) work hours. The results so far have […]

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April 11th, 2019

The Nephrology Social Media Collective

Justin Davis, MBBS

Thinking back on it now, I can’t quite recall why I first decided to get a Twitter account. My suspicion is that I wanted to follow the amusing tweets of Jim Sterling who works in the videogame industry and whose work I closely follow. What did happen, of course, is that I eventually realised that, […]

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March 14th, 2019

Musings on Match Day, the Conception Day of our Residencies

Ellen Poulose-Redger, MD

Match Day. The one day that medical students across the United States all simultaneously look forward to and also fear. It’s really a whole week of roller-coaster emotions: on Monday we find out if we matched somewhere, and on Friday we find out where. (And, in between, if we unfortunately didn’t match, we scramble to find a position that is […]

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