03/08/2024
PgY3: opens email from most widely read med journal in the world.
NEJM: residents these days don’t stay late for patient care time, want wellness days, and have cognitive dissonance between work and wellbeing. Nothing we do makes them happy.
PgY3: closes laptop.
Y’all are tough on residents. I was researching prior articles from the past 30 years. Yes articles were tough on every generation of residents. In my *biased* opinion, the current articles seem more like hit pieces than realistic narratives. 🤷🏻♀️
The insinuation that “well being days”should make us “happier” and we should “be grateful for them” defines how disconnected thought processes are. As a 30 yo physician working for a hospital system, we should be able to see physicians within the system we work.
Wellness days are defined differently by each program. It’s frustrating when broad & misleading information is printed in NEJM regarding these definitions.
When we are infantilized, it is frustrating.
when we are told we are not staying late *when we ARE*, it is frustrating.
Believe it or not, NEJM, I would trust my coresidents with any of my family members. We literally adapted our training amid a global pandemic, have increased dictation demands, and are applying in increasingly competitive fields.
When duty hours are broken some residents r questioned re their “efficiency”. When duty hours are lied about, NEJM tells residents they are not staying late enough. lol Literally, I have never seen a coresident leave an unstable patient b/c shift change.
I bring this up because the way to improve our “happiness” is not by making monolithic statements and gross generalizations based on ivy only experiences.
It’s by creating microcosms of improvement within individual programs. I am grateful my program recognizes that. Some don’t
.. current residents have been through quite a bit. My current class of 2024 was the first to have completely virtual resident interviews amid the pandemic. We had entire med school disrupted. We can’t afford homes. Many can’t have kids. But that’s still not enough. 🤷🏻♀️
