Academic Medicine Podcast

What I do know is in the desert of the Middle East I learned that the right decision isn’t always the easiest or most appealing. Our patients don’t need our judgment; they need our help. Medical student Mason Blacker reflects on treating patients while stationed in Iraq and what is truly right and important in life. This essay placed first in the 2022 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the December 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

There is growth in speaking up for myself and others in my position, but I do not want to have to sacrifice inner serenity as the price of advocacy. Rewan Abdelwahab, a third-year medical student at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, reflects on the difficulties faced by trainees and staff from underrepresented in medicine groups when resources promoting inclusivity, like religious coverings in the OR, are not provided. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the December 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

This one, brief moment opened me up to the greatest sense of appreciation; regardless of the treatment arm, role, or results, it is the journey we embark on together, side by side with our participants, teams, and peers, that will contribute to our greater collective knowledge, advances in care, and a better future. Vanita R. Aroda, director of diabetes clinical research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, reflects on how acting as a clinical trial investigator has changed her approach to life. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the November 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Guest Heeyoung Han, PhD, joins hosts Toni Gallo and Research in Medical Education (RIME) Committee members Javeed Sukhera, MD, PhD, and Andres Fernandez, MD, MEd, to discuss new research into the different methodologies used in health professions education research and how rigorous, or not, the descriptions of these methodologies are in published studies. Also covered is advice for researchers who want to more creatively and rigorously conduct and write up their work.   A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org. Read the article discussed in this episode: Han H, Youm J, Tucker C, et al. Research methodologies in health professions education publications: Breadth and rigor. Acad Med. 2022;97:S54-S62. Read the complete collection of articles included in the 2022 RIME supplement.

Medical practitioners of all specialties may lack Cassandra’s divinely inspired prophetic powers, but our training, research, and deep consideration for our patients’ wellbeing inform our prognostication. We hope that in this way, we are able to serve as guideposts along their ultimate paths. Judy Ch’ang, medical director of the Neurointensive Care Unit and assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Unit at the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Nara Michaelson, a fourth-year neurology resident at Weill Cornell Medicine, reflect on how difficult it is for physicians to explain the intricacies of prognostication to patients’ family members. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the November 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Maybe this letter is more a letter to myself, a reminder … that mentorship is the key to training good, competent, humane surgeons. That this extra effort is what will create change, sustainability, and at the end of the pathway, is what will be remembered. That this is the type of person and surgeon I want to be. Adam Goldstein, director of the Trauma Surgery Unit at The Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, writes a letter to Dr. William Schwab thanking him for his outstanding example of mentorship. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the November 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

The medical record from the day before includes a note from the chaplain who wrote that you smiled. I resolve to end more notes this way. The patient smiled. Medical student Molly Fessler reflects on the profound experience of caring for a patient during their final days. This essay placed second in the 2022 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the November 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Guests Luca Petrey and Laura Weingartner, PhD, MS, join hosts Toni Gallo and Research in Medical Education (RIME) Committee members Arianne Teherani, PhD, and Daniele Olveczky, MD, to discuss a new scoping review of the literature on the inclusion of standardized patient characters and actors with diverse gender identities in simulation cases. A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org. Read the articles discussed in this episode:  Petrey LN, Noonan EJ, Weingartner LA. Gender diverse representation in patient simulation: A scoping review [published online ahead of print August 09, 2022]. Acad Med. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000004926. Weingartner L, Noonan EJ, Bohnert C, Potter J, Shaw MA, Holthouser A. Gender-affirming care with transgender and genderqueer patients: A standardized patient case. MedEdPORTAL. 2022;18:11249.  Read the complete collection of articles included in the 2022 RIME supplement at academicmedicine.org. 

It is more likely emotional overload rather than apathy or insensitivity that prompts these contradictory expressions of emotion. An involuntary attempt to achieve a type of emotional homeostasis. Sadaf Qureshi, a hematologist/oncologist at Summit Health in Florham Park, New Jersey, reflects on “appropriate” responses to misfortune. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the October 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

So often, we get caught up in studying and updating the medical chart. When we get to know our patients as human beings, however, we realize that providing care goes beyond triple-checking medication dosages. A human being is the product of every person, every success, and every misfortune he or she has encountered. Theodora Lananh Swenson, a fourth-year resident physician in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, reflects on the importance of understanding the social context in which each patient lives. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the October 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

I was glad that I was too tired to speak at the close of the day, because by listening, I learned a lesson in humility. Madam A’s family was more knowledgeable about her than we were, treating her as a person who had hopes just like the rest of us, despite being bedbound. Norshima Nashi, a consultant in the Division of Advanced Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the National University Health System in Singapore, reflects on the importance of preserving hope for patients, no matter how serious the situation is. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the September 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Guests Addie McClintock, MD, and Joshua Jauregui, MD, join hosts Toni Gallo and Research in Medical Education (RIME) Committee members Andrea Leep, MD, and Paolo Martin, PhD, MS CHPR, MEd, to discuss clinical teachers’ behaviors and how they support or harm students’ sense of psychological safety in the clinical learning environment. This is the first episode in a 3-part series of discussions with RIME authors about their medical education research and its implications for the field. Read the article discussed in this episode:  McClintock AH, Fainstad TL, Jauregui J. Clinician teacher as leader: Creating psychological safety in the clinical learning environment for medical students [published online ahead of print August 9, 2022]. Acad Med. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000004913. Read the complete collection of articles included in the 2022 RIME supplement at academicmedicine.org. A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org.

As I progress through my training, I see more clearly how I benefited from my intern year; my comfort with ventilator settings and ability to navigate goals-of-care discussions are a direct result of my pandemic cases. However, when I am asked how my residency has been, I am haunted by the memories of those who can no longer answer. Michelle I. Suh, a second-year resident in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reflects on how her intern year was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the September 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Remembering my own medical experiences is an insistent reminder that disease is not mundane, no matter how desensitized we may grow to it. Tom Fouché, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, reflects on his dual identities of provider and patient and how not keeping them separated makes him a better physician. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the August 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Guests Katherine Hoops, MD, MPH, Andra Blomkalns, MD, MBA, and Allison Augustus-Wallace, PhD, MS, MNS, join host Toni Gallo to talk about firearm safety and injury prevention education. They discuss the role of physicians in engaging patients and communities in firearm injury risk reduction, the current state of firearm injury prevention education, and where the academic medicine community needs to go from here.  Read the articles discussed in this episode:  Hoops K, Fahimi J, Khoeur L, et al. Consensus-driven priorities for firearm injury education among medical professionals. Acad Med. 2022;97:93-104. Mueller KL, Blomkalns AL, Ranney ML. Taking aim at the injury prevention curriculum: Educating residents on talking to patients about firearm injury [published online ahead of print April 19, 2022]. Acad Med. Read the complete collection of articles on firearm injury prevention published in Academic Medicine.  A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org. 

When faculty members open themselves up to the idea that the work we do in seemingly different realms can actually enhance our practice, we arguably do our greatest service to the development of others’ gardens. Sarah-Ann Keyes, assistant professor in the School of Health Professions at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reflects on how difficult it can be for faculty members in academic medicine to balance clinical, educational, and scholarly work. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the August 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

After this patient encounter, I came to realize that my greatest strength, my finest therapeutic tool, was me—all of me. Omar Sahak, a first-year fellow in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Child Development in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California reflects on how sometimes the best way to help a patient is to be vulnerable with them. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the July 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Next time a patient thanks me, I will not let self-conscious worries diminish their words. True thankfulness reflects deep humanistic connection and is unburdened by the hierarchies of medicine. Paulina M. Devlin, a first-year obstetrics and gynecology resident at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah, reflects on the expression of gratitude between patients and providers. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the July 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Guests Chirag Bhat, MD, and Warren Cheung, MD, MMEd, join hosts Toni Gallo and associate editor Teresa Chan, MD, MHPE, to discuss their research into nurses’ perspectives about giving feedback on residents’ clinical performance. They share their findings regarding the unique perspective nurses can offer, the barriers nurses face in providing feedback, and some possible ways to overcome these barriers. Read the article discussed in this episode: Bhat C, LaDonna K, Dewhirst S, et al. Unobserved observers: Nurses’ perspectives about sharing feedback on the performance of resident physicians. Acad Med. 2022;97:271-277. A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org. 

Despite the emotional challenges that my anatomy course presented, I feel reaffirmed in my desire to pursue medicine and now understand the beautiful complexity of the human body in a way I never could have before. Keldon K. Lin, a second-year medical student at the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Scottsdale, Arizona, reflects on the common humanity that all patients, both living and dead, share with one another. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the June 2022 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.