Residency

Starting day one of your residency, patients and attendings will have certain expectations of you. As a resident, it is crucial that you are proficient in communication to retrieve clinical questions in caring for patients, relay this to your attendings, and use evidence that will be used to address said medical concerns. Of course, skillfully read more…

The internet medical education space is full of great guides on how to excel at different points along the medical journey. You’ll find plenty of material on excelling as a medical student, being a fantastic intern, and smoothing the transition to fellowship and/or attending-hood. But like a middle child, the junior resident can be forgotten. read more…

After spending the last two decades in school, there’s nothing quite like that first paycheck in residency. Now that you make money, what are you going to do with it? You can treat yourself, focus on your loans and financial goals, or ideally, find a healthy medium. Being a financially responsible adult doesn’t happen overnight. read more…

If you decided to pursue a career as a pediatrician, then congratulations! Pediatrics is an extremely rewarding profession that exposes you to a wide range of pathology, patients, and cultures. The path to becoming a pediatrician is a long journey, but it is worth it. Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how long it takes read more…

I was the chief resident during my PGY-3 year of family medicine residency. Frankly, until the application deadline, I wasn’t sure I’d even run for chief. My program selected the chief based upon votes from your peers, but naturally, applicants had to be in good standing with the administration as well. Weighing the pros and read more…

Life as an internal medicine resident is busy. Most days are filled with patient responsibilities, and you naturally may want to relax and catch up on chores or errands during the occasional day off. You shouldn’t feel pressure to build even more into this busy schedule, but if you have the time and mental bandwidth, read more…

Embarking on residency is a daunting prospect. We’ve heard the horror stories of residents who exceed the 80-hour work-week limit, endure grueling calls, and take ownership of acutely sick patients on inpatient rotations. Admittedly, residents work long hours and go through difficult training in the pursuit of medical proficiency. I would never go so far read more…

Time flies, it seems, and you’ve made it to the last year of your family medicine residency! With less than a year before your graduation, this is your chance to learn as much as you can under supervision before entering the world as an attending physician. Take advantage of these tips to ensure a successful read more…

Every year as residency comes to an end, many decide between doing a fellowship or starting practice as an attending. It’s an individualized decision that hinges on professional goals and personal circumstances. The roles fellows and attendings serve are different in structure and purpose. If you’re approaching a similar decision, and are wondering “What is read more…

Fellowship is an exciting next step in your training after residency. Not everyone needs to do a fellowship (and many people don’t), but the advantage of further subspecialty training is the additional expertise that will set you apart from your colleagues. In this article, we’ll explain the different types of fellowships, how to apply to read more…

Starting residency is an exciting time! During this time, some specialties may require you to do a modified intern year before continuing to your “advanced” residency. This specifically applies to applicants going into anesthesiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), radiation oncology, radiology including interventional radiology (IR), and in some cases, urology and read more…

According to the Maslach Burnout Inventory, there are three specific components in assessing burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of a sense of personal accomplishment. About 40% of medical students, residents, and attending physicians experience these symptoms of burnout. Considering the prevalence of burnout among medical professionals, how do you avoid burning out in read more…

Starting residency can be daunting. It’s a transformative experience that will transition you from a medical student to a practicing physician. It will be busy, and at times tiring, but you’ll learn so much and should view this as your opportunity to learn how to be a stellar doctor. Your program leadership—the faculty you work read more…

Residency is a busy time filled with many clinical, professional, and educational responsibilities. Much of the time, it can be a 60-hour or even 80-hour work week without much downtime. With a busy schedule, you may wonder whether you have time to relax and what that might look like. Here’s how vacation during residency works read more…

Call shifts are a hallmark of residency and an important hurdle to conquer prior to becoming an attending. If you’re approaching your first call shift soon, you’ve probably racked your brain wondering: how do I survive a 24-hour shift? Caring for hospitalized patients, making important medical decisions, and answering questions from nurses, patients, and families read more…

Medical school is long and expensive, with little (if any) time to earn money. Residency may not come with much more free time, but still, it’s exciting to receive a paycheck for your work rather than pay tuition. Your resident salary, generally adjusted to your cost of living, should cover housing, food, and limited entertainment. read more…

Matching into residency is the ultimate goal and arguably the purpose of medical school. The years spent in the library—starting with the basic sciences and physiology, proceeding to clinical medicine and rotations, and followed by subinternships—are all to get you into a program that will train you to become an attending physician. It’s important to read more…

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. –Marcus Aurelius As health systems and universities face unprecedented change, budget cuts, and the transition to distance learning during coronavirus (COVID-19), medical educators are finding ways to not only survive but thrive in a digital environment.   High-quality, comprehensive, online educational content read more…

Surviving years of medical training requires a certain personality type—one with a willingness to skip the party, stay home and study, work on both Saturday and Sunday, and switch from night shifts to day shifts and then back to nights without a break in between. Yet, this commitment and lifestyle might be incompatible with starting read more…

A career in medicine requires tremendous dedication. From the number of hours we spend training at the hospital to the neverending board exams, it’s a path that is by no means easy. We hold ourselves to such high standards in our careers that it’s often a challenge to equally apply those standards to our personal read more…