Page 24 - HCMA Bulletin Summer 2021

Resident’s Perspective
Match Day: A Rising Chief’s Perspective
Hesham Hassan, MD, MPH, MSc hesham.hassan@hcahealthcare.com
Being selected as one of the chief residents for next year, I have a special interest in the upcoming intern class and the overall well-being of our inter- nal medicine program. Additionally, I was excited to start getting to know the incoming class; however, the COV- ID-19 pandemic changed the dynamic of our residency culture with the limi- tation of being unable to use social outlets to get to know each other. For
the current first-year class, I had not even seen most of their faces outside of their photos on their name badges. Nonethe- less, I was determined to evolve with the current social climate and Match Day generated an ideal place to start.
how the pandemic altered their class’s transition to residency contrasted with their preconceived notions. Most would agree that residency is important for establishing professional rela- tionships that will extend well beyond residency – some of our own attendings model this by being in a practice together that they formed after their own residency experience decades ago.
Realizing that being a chief comes with the ability to affect residency culture, I decided to act after conferring with the other rising chiefs in the internal medicine and emergency medicine programs. I emailed the incoming class and created a group chat between the incoming class and some of the current interns and second-year residents. The incoming transitional year residents were also invited to join to hopefully make their transition to our hospital a smooth one as well.
What a difference it has already started to make! There were re- ply emails from a few expressing gratitude for feeling welcomed by our program. There has also been much chatter in the group chat about what to do, where to live, what to expect, even what to wear. For a majority, there is much unknown about living in Hillsbor- ough County and it was almost nostalgic reading the questions different incoming residents have
and imparting wisdom through replies. Although using a group chat forum may lead to many more notifications than most people can keep up with in a day, I have already started to feel more connected with the incoming class and cannot wait until the next academic year to welcome them to our hospital—to welcome them into this second home they will spend so much time in the next three years of their training. Leadership starts when you realize the value that everyone brings to the team, and I am hoping that these efforts will show the incoming class how much they are valued. Although they may not have done anything more than match into our program, they unknowing- ly have sparked much needed excitement and have started the motions necessary to lift the social-isolation culture established the previous cycle. Residency will be challenging, but I hope the
(continued)
We had our annual Match Day
luncheon on March 19, where
we got to see the photos of all
the incoming residents and the
energy was palpable. As seen in
the photo, residents from the dif-
ferent programs at our hospital
took the opportunity to mingle
with each other and catch up.
Common themes could be heard
across the various conversations
from the current intern class’s ex-
clamations regarding how quick the time had already flown by to the third-year residents conversing about signed contracts or expectations regarding future fellowships. The day was filled with such optimism regarding the future, which was something that previously had been lacking since the cultural shift that started with the pandemic. However, there was also this con- current worry that feeling disconnect with the current intern class could manifest again with the incoming intern class. Not to say that relationships were not inevitably made with the cur- rent intern class but there was an obvious separation upon their matriculation to our program since they had a nontraditional orientation—via WebEx. One of the current interns comment- ed on her experience transitioning to our program and high- lighted how much disconnect there was in the beginning and
Internal medicine residents engaged in the slide show on the TV screens showing the incoming class.
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HCMA BULLETIN, Vol 67, No. 1 – Summer 2021