Ways To Ace Residency

Image Credit: Pexels

Author: Adriana Coleska, MD, AAEM/RSA Board of Directors

Originally published: Common Sense

November/December 2019

My name is Adriana and I am one of the AAEM/RSA Board Members and your liaison to the Publications and Social Media Committee. As I transition into my role as the senior resident, I thought I would share with you a few tips that have helped me enjoy my time in residency and make the most out of the learning opportunities.

1. Save the numbers of all of your co-residents in your phone!
   Your co-residents are your lifeline. You should always be able to count on them for advice, shift swaps, check-ins, and that occasional “sorry I’m running late” text. You don’t want to be fumbling around looking for numbers in a time of need.
   
   

The Future of Wellness

Image credit: Pexels

Authors: Andrea Purpura, MD; Robert Lam, MD; and Ryan DesCamp, MD
AAEM/RSA Wellness Committee
Originally published: Common Sense September/October 2019


If you feel like you are suffering symptoms of burnout, you are not alone. Most prevalence studies show that more than 65% of all emergency physicians are experiencing symptoms of burnout.1 Most physicians find they are no longer able to mitigate the challenges of an increasingly frustrating work environment with individual resilience practices alone. This frustration mirrors the shift in our current understanding of burnout and physician well-being.

Reflections of a Third-Year Resident

Author: Meaghan Mercer, DO
Originally Published: Common Sense March/April 2015

Writing this around New Year's Day makes me nostalgic. There is a contagious sense of hope and excitement this time of year. Fourth-year medical students are thrilled that interviews have come to a close, rank lists are in, and Match Day looms around the corner. Interns are feeling comfortable in their shoes, seasoned residents are in the groove, graduating residents are applying for licensure, and nervous excitement accompanies the end of residency. Each New Year's Day I write a letter to myself that includes what I expect from the year and what I hope to achieve. I then seal it, and one year later open it and read it. As I reflect back on the last seven years, I want to leave you my experience and advice.

Balance

Image Credit: Pixabay

Author: Thomas Hull, MSIV
Medical Student
Loyola University Chicago SSOM
AAEM/RSA Social Media Committee

This post was peer reviewed.
Click to learn more.

The eyes do not see what the mind does not know,” a common saying many of us have come to hear in medicine. A simple and powerful aphorism illustrating the fundamental connection between awareness and intelligence; it urges us to keep reading and expanding our education. The connection between study and clinical success may seem obvious, and even elementary, but one cannot dismiss it as reductive. A deeper proverb is speaking here about the connection between mind-body, or more specifically, consciousness and well-being. We all know the feeling after a long day, with energy running low and emotional barriers wearing thin, of being “brain-dead.” The medical community has been forced to deal with this in recent decades, most prominently and publicly with residency duty restrictions. Now this November with conclusions by the Accreditation Council on General Medical Education (ACGME) task force that 24-hour call (with 4 additional hours allowed for transition) for first-year residents does not affect patient care,[1] it’s even more relevant. Their recommendation has found support in the idea that increasing number of handoffs and transitions of care could result in an actual rise in medical errors. A 24-hour shift may also be desirable to some, as one long shift with a day off after may seem better than to two rigorous 16-hour shifts abutted. Though the ACGME has requested public discourse on this topic before making its official 2017-2018 recommendations on December 19th, it’s likely these changes will take affect and highlights the importance of maintaining healthy balance heading into residency. After all, these hours are already the standard for PGY2 and beyond, thus it’s only a matter of time.