“Say her name,” “She didn’t deserve this,” and “The system failed you” were the sentiments expressed on social media by resident physicians and trainees in medicine on the death of Dr. Nakita Mortimer, an advoc…
Category: Residency
Let’s rethink letters of recommendation
Letters of recommendation help open gates to university admissions, jobs, and scholarships. Now that more colleges are ditching SAT/ACT requirements and medical schools are grading pass/fail, these letters will likely rise in importance. As a decision-…
Master the ABIM Certification exam with effective strategies: insider tips for success
The ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) Certification exam is not always about the assessment of your knowledge but also about knowing the right strategies, which are keys to success. I passed the ABIM Board Certification Exam without any review…
Successful life after residency: 6 key ways to recover and thrive
As a therapist and physician spouse who works with physicians and physician couples, I’ve seen the excitement and difficulty of exiting medical training and becoming an attending. The shift is a celebratory culmination of the physician’s ha…
Do residents deserve the title of physician?
I was unsettled by an email that our graduate medical education (GME) office recently sent out to all residents at my institution “sharing a friendly reminder that parking spaces identified as ‘physician parking’ are for attending phy…
Equalizing the future of medical residencies: standardizing work hours and wages
In the United States, work hours are traditionally recorded on a weekly basis, and salaries are paid every two weeks. However, full-time employees (FTEs) work for a full year and receive a W-2 annually. FTEs are usually hired based on an annual wage di…
Proposing solutions to end bias in the medical residency selection process
Getting into medical school is arguably the largest barrier to entry into the physician profession, but it is not the only one. Previously, I covered who gets to succeed in medical school and who gets to graduate. In this article, I look at who gets to…
The medical school selection process may be more crucial for shaping the future physician workforce
Every year, thousands of applicants in the United States register for the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Many graduate medical education (GME) programs receive thousands of applications that are reviewed by recruitment teams with fewe…
7 tips to survive night float
My friend texted me the other day that she was thinking of quitting her training program. Some schedule changes earlier in the year led to her being scheduled for back-to-back month-long night float rotations. She was in the middle of her second straig…
A letter to residents after the subspecialty match
Dear residents: I heard the amazing news that each of you matched today. Congratulations! That is huge. You will be outstanding subspecialists! The best part is that now you can take a deep breath and relax. The stress is over. Hopefully, you matched a…
