Resident Lounge

More and more health information is available to patients on the Internet, and it can be tricky for patients and clinicians alike to distinguish between unhelpful, inaccurate information and true and useful information found on the Internet. Increasingly, clinicians must provide health education to clarify medical information. How can the medical...

Welcome new doctors! Yesterday you were medical students and today you are physicians! What a scary feeling. Remember that everyone shares similar concerns and fears as they start their residency and wants to succeed. Getting into residency is the beginning of an incredible journey. Savor it, relax, enjoy the ride, and be open to...

After many long nights huddled over textbooks, agonizing over the brachial plexus, committing childhood exanthems to memory, and making surgical knots of any loose fiber within arm’s reach, you have finally received the news of a lifetime: You’re accepted to a residency program! Now you know what kind of doctor you will be...

Four years ago on a crisp winter day, I interviewed at Cambridge Health Alliance’s (CHA) Harvard Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency program. From the warm, cozy dinner of Nepali momos to the thoughtful and inspiring stories shared, I felt like...

“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...

In a national survey of 7409 surgical residents, 32% reported discrimination based on their self-identified gender, 32% verbal or physical abuse, 10% sexual harassment, and 38% burnout symptoms. Mistreatment was more frequently reported by female residents, and...

We have invited the residents and faculty from the University of Vermont Internal Medicine Residency Program to lead a journal club discussion about the NEJM article, "C-Reactive Protein Testing to Guide Antibiotic Prescribing for COPD Exacerbations" found here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1803185. The authors of the...

We have invited the residents and faculty from the UCSF Family and Community Medicine Residency Program at San Francisco General Hospital, the UCSF Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program, and the UCSF-Affiliated Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Program to engage in a journal club discussion about the NEJM article...

We invited the residents and faculty from the Royal Melbourne Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program to lead a journal club discussion about the NEJM article, "A Multicenter Trial of Vena Cava Filters in Severely Injured Patients" found here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1806515. 

The current revival of activism among U.S. medical students can be understood in the context of a dissenting tradition in medical training. Though never in the mainstream, trainee-activists have repeatedly reimagined what the profession could be at its best.

By all objective indicators, I should have been unhappy in those grueling months I spent as a medical house officer. But the hospital pub offered an egalitarian escape where I could unload — and learn more medicine than in all the grand rounds I’ve ever attended.

African-American physicians-in-training may be isolated within the walls of their institutions, alienated by their patients, and disconnected from their training programs. Listen to the challenges and aspirations of some inspiring African-American residents in the latest episode of this podcast series.

Competency-based medical education holds the promise of producing a bettertrained workforce — and for many physicians, this training could be accomplished within a shorter time frame.

With trainees increasingly exposed to a culture that values efficiency, clinical protocols, and specialized expertise over scientific debate and critical thinking, new programs are creating linkages between unexplained patient presentations and scientific inquiry.

As an intern, you arrive at the hospital before dawn, speed-walk to sign-out, plan a route to see your patients before morning report — less than 10 minutes each to see how they’re feeling, examine them, check in with the nurse. Which are the moments that will matter?