Graduate Medical Education
MD Residents
Building on what they learned during medical school, residency is the time after medical school when physicians gain the skills to become independent, practicing doctors in their specific field.
The process involves long hours under the supervision of veteran physicians, but during the annual Graduate Medical Education Leadership Workshop, organized and sponsored by the Office of the Designated Institutional Official (ODIO), held this year at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center, residents took a few hours to get coached in the non-clinical aspects of the job to promote leadership skills. This year’s theme: Team Culture and Emotional Intelligence.
Tackling tough topics, from addiction, to handling mistakes, building a positive culture, and confronting with care, four medical professionals shared tips that would inspire and inform medical residents and serve as a foundation as they start their careers.
Dr. Angela Gough, a board-certified physician in Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine, spoke on healthy ways to cope with the rigors that come with being a physician.
" I think we are doing a better job of acknowledging that burnout is really common, and yet it's still really hard to talk about. It's hard to talk to our colleagues. It's hard to ask for help. So I think trying to normalize that it's out there and then walking through, what do you do when you have a colleague that's in trouble or when you yourself need help."
Dr. Hepua Hermosura, Senior Director, Native Hawaiian Health & Kaleiopapa: Unity & Wellness Departments at Queen's Health System, spoke about the importance of creating culture at the early stages in a resident's career.
" I think that starting and building a culture with new folks coming in, like residents, is essential to bridging the gap between the senior docs who have been taught to hold it all in and be stoic with this new culture of thriving and being well. I think having these conversations about connection and connectivity early can set the stage for a different culture in medicine."
Cynthia Kim, LCSW, built off that with her "Carefrontation" talk.
"Carefrontation is powerful because it disarms someone's natural defenses. It takes the wind out of the sails so that people feel safe and we can get back into our prefrontal cortex and have reasonable conversations and work things out," Kim said.
Kim, the Department of Family Medicine's Director of Behavioral Health, made a point of sharing this message with residents because they're still finding their identity as physicians.
"It has a lot to do with them being the future generation. They will be the future attendings, and if we don't talk about this stuff now, we will just see the same kind of patterns repeating over and over again. So helping them figure out how to do this in small microcosmic ways now leads to longer and bigger systems change because they will be doing this for others, other generations of learners at some point."
Finally, Julius Pham, a critical care specialist and Chief Patient Safety Officer at The Queen’s Health Systems, discussed adverse events and making mistakes, which are bound to happen during one's career.
"When errors happen, there is a toll on the patient for sure, but there is also a toll on the providers, and we have to be cognizant about that," Pham said. "We want to support our healthcare providers when adverse events do happen. This is the time to build the skills and knowledge about adverse events and errors, because this is when they're gonna determine, after they leave here, how they view errors. They'll leave the training knowing that mistakes will happen and they need to have a set of lenses on how to process and respond to that."
“I would like to thank the presenters mentioned for sharing their time, expertise, and experiences,” said Dr. Susan Steinemann, JABSOM’s Designated Institutional Official. “We are also grateful to the residents’ program directors and faculty, who encouraged them to take some time away from their (all-important and consuming) clinical care of patients to spend time learning and reflecting about topics that will enhance their personal and professional resilience– ensuring their own wellness so they can make their patients well.”