Thought Leaders
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Fellow First: Choosing a Mentor Through the Eyes of a Fellow
One of the most important decisions a fellow will make during fellowship is choosing their mentor. Mentors serve to help us reach our career (and life) goals, utilizing both their experience and developed network of connections to facilitate the journey. Having gone...
You Matched! What Next? Tips on Transitioning from Residency to Fellowship
Congratulations to those who recently matched into pulmonary and critical care! In the coming months, you may find that a feeling of anxious anticipation encroaches on your current level of excitement and relief. That is perfectly normal and will hopefully be abated...
Operationalizing a Wellness Curriculum in a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
“How many today?” I ask. “Just four” comes the reply. My heart sinks. Ugh, again! Out of 16 fellows, only four thought a wellness hour of facilitated discussion with a dedicated clinical social worker (SW) with healthy snacks was worth their time. This triggered...
Twitter—Opportunities for Learning, Novel Scholarship, Professional Development, and Recognition
"I think I need to join twitter…" I am a millennial physician. I tweet, podcast, and blog. The 21st century has brought significant shifts in communication technologies, spread of data availability, and restructuring of networking channels. Through social media,...
A Program Director Job Description: Lessons from Little League
After coaching my sons in a little league baseball game, my 12-yr-old asked me, “Hey Dad do you coach at work too?” I responded quickly with “Yes, yes I absolutely do!” and cracked a smile. Right then, after some apparent reflection (possibly triggered by our team’s...
Best Practices for Semi-Annual Evaluation of Fellows
Craig A. Piquette, MD “Oh, how I hate evaluations with my boss!” How many times have you said that? We often feel that those meetings are a waste of time and we never learn anything from them. Our fellows probably feel the same way but we have an opportunity to...
Preparing for Serendipity: Practical Early Career Tips in Medical Education
After completing my year as a chief resident in internal medicine, I knew in my heart I wanted a career as a medical educator. I spent the next 3 years of my fellowship and early years as a clinician educator trying to align my interests and articulate my vision to...
Using Behavior-Based Interviews to Improve the Interview Process
As a relatively new program director years ago I spent an inordinate amount of time coaching trainees with performance difficulties to success. Most of them did not have difficulties with medical knowledge, but in multiple behavioral competencies, namely...
Pearls of Effective Feedback
Giving feedback is hard. It takes time and energy. It can sometimes be uncomfortable. And…we all know of times when we got really useful feedback that helped us be a better doctor, a better teacher, a better person. The story I often tell is about the intern...
Procedural Teaching: Easy as 1-2-3
The overhead light is punishingly hot, and my senior resident is sweating as he struggles through a central line placement. It is clear he has no idea where his needle tip is on the ultrasound screen, and I am silently cursing myself for assuming that at this...
