August 2, 2024 • 18 mins
In this month’s episode of “Lab Medicine Rounds,” Justin Kreuter, M.D., interviews Isabella Holmes, D.O., a PGY-3 resident and assistant co-chief pathology resident at the University of Michigan, to discuss her reflections on residency.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
01:20 Reflections on past year
02:45 Being comfortable as a resident
05:00 Taking on leadership roles
07:51 Identifying what to focus on
11:06 Becoming better mentors
13:01 Being respectfully direct
14:17 New academic year
16:06 Balancing work and personal well-being
17:26 Outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(upbeat music)
- This is, "Lab Medicine Rounds,"
a curated podcast for physicians,
laboratory professionals and students.
I'm your host, Justin Kreuter,
a transfusion medicine pathologist
and assistant professorof laboratory medicine
and pathology at Mayo Clinic.
And today we're very lucky,
(00:22):
because again, we're roundingwith Dr. Isabella Holmes,
a PGY-3 resident and assistantco-chief pathology resident
at the University of Michigan,
to talk about herreflections on residency.
Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Holmes.
- Thanks for having me,I'm excited to be back.
- Well, yeah, this is wonderful.
I think we did our first podcast,
(00:46):
I think when you had justmatched into pathology,
talking about where yourthoughts and the like,
and then we've kind ofrevisited how did first year go?
And this is justcontinuing a fun tradition
of looking back and seeing this evolution.
I really appreciate kindaexploring this with you.
- Definitely, me too.
(01:08):
- So I guess the natural question is,
so what has this past year ofresidency been like for you?
- This past year has been so exciting.
I feel like so much hashappened in such a condensed
amount of time.
First of all, my husband moved to Michigan
at the end of the summer, which was great.
(01:28):
And so he started working asa hospitalist at Henry Ford.
And so now we don't havethat long distance anymore,
which is fabulous.
And then I went to threeconferences this year.
I went to CAP, AABB,
and then the Cytopathology Conference,
where I presented posters at two
out of those three conferences.
(01:48):
And then, I don't know, I really feel
like I kind of got a lot morecomfortable as a resident
and just in that role of what a resident
is like at Michigan the past year.
Oh, and then another great thing
that I've been working towards this year
that has taken a lot ofstress off of my plate
is getting a few publications done,
(02:09):
and as well as I also accepteda Fellowship recently.
So putting together thefellowship application
was quite the projectbecause it is not like
the ERAS System at all,
where you can submit it allin one neat little packet.
It's every program wants different things
at different times.
But it was relatively painless
(02:30):
and I was successful, so that's great.
(Isabella laughs)
- I love how you mentioned, you know,
it sounds like you'rereally kinda hit your stride
of going to a number of conferences
and you said that you'vereally kinda settled in
as like, you're comfortablein this role as resident.
(02:51):
I wonder if, can youunpack that a little bit
for the listeners?
- Yeah, let me think.
I guess what it comes down to really
is you're less afraid to ask questions.
You know what's expected of you,
and when I mess up, I knowexactly what went wrong
(03:11):
or where I took like amisstep, if that makes sense.
And then also you kind of havea little bit more of a sense
of comradery among your co-residents.
And now a lot of the fellows at Michigan
have also trained asresidents at Michigan.
So then now I also knowmost of the fellows too.
(03:33):
So it's just like a really comfortable
like learning environment at this point.
And then I've already establisheda lot of relationships
with attendings and the PA.
So I don't know, it just allkinda makes it a little bit
easier once you feel likeeveryone really knows you
and you are 100% yourselfat this point in training.
And so, you know, it's no moreof those like nervous jitters
(03:57):
of, you know, "Oh, arethese people gonna like me,"
or you know, "Can I be myself?"
And at this point I totally am.
And so that's kind of reallya freeing experience for me.
So that's kind of how I would describe
being more comfortable.
But now I'm kinda transitioninginto this new role
of assistant co-chief andthen eventually co-chief.
(04:17):
And that's been kind ofan adjustment as well.
So it's kinda like,
as soon as you get comfortable it's like,
well, now it's time to be alittle bit more uncomfortable
to get some growth.
- You're leveling up.(Justin laughs)
- Yeah.(Isabella laughs)
So don't know how that's gonna go yet.
I'm only like a month or sointo the actual position,
but I have a really good teamand we have good support.
(04:39):
So I think it'll go okay.(Isabella laughs)
- You know, I hearingyou talk about taking on
this new and added responsibilityof assistant co-chief,
recently, I was mentoringone of our residents,
who was kind of trying todecide if, you know, does,
is he interested in taking on that role
(05:02):
or should he focus on his research?
And you know, it was a reallyinteresting discussion.
What was that like for you?
Was this an easy decision tokind of go on, to take the,
to want to take on this role?
Like, is this like, leadershipskills or management skills
or something that you'reseeking to develop
(05:26):
or was this kind of a moredifficult decision for you?
- I thought about this decision a lot,
because I know that it is a ton of work
and you are not compensatedfinancially for it at all.
So that's not why people do this role.
I went back and forth onit a lot, to be honest,
(05:46):
because initially when Ifirst started residency,
the thought of becomingchief sounded terrifying,
because I was just tryingto get through the day
of being a resident andnot screwing up too badly.
But then as like time wenton, I had a few people,
there were fellows, co-residents
and then previous chiefs that had told me,
(06:08):
hey, I think your personalitywould be really good
for this job so youshould really consider it.
And so then after enough peoplesay that to you, you know,
you kind of think, wellmaybe they're not just trying
to make me feel better about myself,
maybe they're just like actually honest
and they think that Iwould do good in this role.
So then I started thinkingabout it more seriously.
(06:28):
And also once I kind of narroweddown what I wanted to do
with my career, that also helped
because obviously as you know, I wanna,
I'm going into transfusion medicine,
and I kind of pictured whatmy like career would look like
and I feel that my career isgonna be in academic medicine
and I wanna be, my dreamis to maybe one day
(06:51):
be a fellowship director
for a transfusion medicine program
somewhere, I don't know where.
And so I feel like to do that kind of job
and to be successful in that job
to get leadership experience now,
and I have had leadershipexperience in the past,
but nothing quite like this.
I feel like this is a veryserious, valuable role
(07:14):
that you really can't drop the ball
and you have to stay on itand you have to be fair,
and all while maintainingyour residency education,
which is quite the challenge.
So I think that this role willhelp me be prepared for that.
So given all of that, that'swhen I finally decided okay,
(07:34):
I think that this is the right decision
for me even though itwill be a lot of work.
- Yeah, I could not agree with you more.
And if I can tie togethertwo things that you've said
so far into a question, Iwas, you know, wondering,
you know, when you're talkingabout earlier about when you
first started being afraidto ask questions, right?
(07:57):
That kind of hurts my medicaleducator heart a little bit.
I, you know, want peopleto want to ask questions.
And then also you're avery deliberate person,
obviously is talking aboutmaking this decision.
For our audience offolks who might be going
and following in your footsteps.
(08:19):
You know, how do you kind of identify
how you are doing, andwhat you should focus on?
- So I was thinking about this
and I feel like thereare two aspects of it.
There are, you know, howam I doing educational wise
and then also how am Idoing professional wise
(08:41):
and just with the day-to-daylogistics of the service.
So those are like thekind of two categories.
For me, I think educational wise,
I do need some improvement.
Recently, we take the RISE,
which is the Resident InService Examination every year.
And we just took it this past March
and I did not do as wellas I wanted to do at all,
(09:03):
but I am only a second year at that time.
so what I'm doing to,you know, move forward
from that is I want tostart being more deliberate
about my studying.
I've taken the approach in the past
where I write things down, I look them up,
I read on Expert Path,do some casual reading,
like while I'm on service.
(09:24):
But I think I need to startapplying that knowledge
to questions more so,
'cause that's how I've always succeeded
with tests in the past.
And so that's what I'mtrying to do now is more so
watching videos and doing questions
and applying the information.
So we'll see how that helps me next year,
because for the University ofMichigan for our third year,
(09:46):
they typically want us toscore within a certain range,
and then if not, then they kindof put you on a study plan,
which isn't terrible,
but I just, for me, Ijust wanna meet that mark
so I know I can do it and thenjust move forward, you know?
But, and then as far asthe logistics day-to-day
measurement of success,the way I view that is
(10:09):
for me personally, whenI'm grossing a specimen
and I type up a gross
or I dictate a gross,
if I don't get any questionsabout my gross, that means
that it was really clear, right?
Or if I don't have to go backto the bucket for something
that I missed, that means
that I know the cancer templates
(10:29):
and I know what is neededto stage this X, Y, Z,
whatever I'm grossing at the time.
So to me, I feel like
getting less questions about clarity
and having to go back on thingsthat I should have known,
like correct number of lymphnodes, things like that,
that's how I've measured my success,
(10:49):
and that has gone a lot betterover the past year or so.
- Right.
And so, you're getting this feedback,
and you're getting it fromlike, you just mentioned,
through here through the RISE exam,
for on the educational side.
And I really appreciate howyou divide these two up,
'cause I think a lot of us
(11:12):
in residency and fellowshipprograms are thinking about,
what are the professionalor service commitments
versus the educational learning value,
and trying to always kind of find
that right balance between the two.
So I like that you're kind ofpaying attention to those too.
I'm curious, like forthose who are listening
(11:32):
to this podcast who, youknow, have been, you know,
learners and now are faculty members.
Do you have advice for, you know,
what the rest of us faculty members,
is there one thing that, youknow, we could really focus on
to become better mentors, tokind of be that assist for you
(11:55):
to kind of continue toprogress along both education
and professional lines?
- Yeah, so I would say that,
and I don't know if this wouldbe the most popular answer,
but for me personally,what really helps me
is when someone is respectfully direct.
(12:15):
And that's what I havelearned that I really need
to progress and to succeed in my training,
because I feel that everyone we work with
at University of Michigan is very nice,
very approachable and very genuine.
But not everyone tells you,
'cause sometimes people tellyou what you want to hear
(12:38):
and not necessarily what you need to hear.
And I think because it'schallenging to convey
that information without, you know,
potentially hurting someone's feelings
or it coming off the wrong way,
because being respectfully direct I feel
is a true talent and an art form,
and I even struggle with that personally.
(12:59):
I don't know, I'm working on it.
But I think that the advice
that I've gotten from the mentors
that I really value atMichigan have been the ones
that have told me, you know,
you should really do this because of this.
And it may have not been whatI wanted to hear at the time,
but it was the most valuable advice
(13:19):
that anyone could have told me.
- With the faculty,
do you feel that
in your trying to develop thisability, this skill, right,
of being respectfully direct,that's one of the aspects
(13:41):
you mentioned on wanting to focus on.
Is that something that...
What's the best piece ofadvice that you've gotten
for how to do that well?
- I don't know.
I haven't really gotten advicefor how to do that well yet,
to be honest.
(14:02):
I think it is kind oflike, a learned practice.
I see how other people do it well,
and I try to emulate that.
But it hasn't really been,
I haven't really gotten anyspecific advice for it yet.
But I feel like I willbe getting into that
as I transition into this co-chief
and assistant co-chief role,because at some points,
(14:25):
I'm going to have to bedirect with my co-residents
and also faculty membersof whatever our goals
or objectives are.
- I think I'm gonna put a pin in that.
'Cause I'm kind of curious at next year,
when we do our nextinstallment of this series,
to kind of explore that.
Because I feel like tosome extent, like feedback,
(14:47):
and perhaps appropriately so are usually
quite private conversations.
And, you know, maybe it'snot as visible to those,
like unless it's happeningto us, maybe not as visible.
So that's an interesting one.
As far as our student listeners,
(15:09):
our residents that are listening here,
and as you're going into and starting
your third year of residency,
what are you focusing onthis new academic year,
now that you're getting settled,you're hitting your stride,
you got your fellowship mapped out.
Where's your attention?
(15:30):
- So my attention firstand foremost right now
is towards my education.
And so what I'm going to do is,
the fourth years have likea condensed study plan
of how they study during their like,
dedicated elective time for boards.
And so what I decided todo is to take that plan
(15:52):
and stretch it outamongst all my rotations.
So not in like a six weekthing, but really stretch it out
so if you have to do, you know,
a hundred cytopathologyquestions, then you have two weeks
to do that on, you know,
I guess that's like a 10 day rotation
if you're only counting business days.
So that's what I've been doing now.
(16:13):
I'm not meeting thosegoals a hundred percent
because I think that's impossible.
So my goal is to justmeet at least 60 to 70%
of that material in that two week block,
all rotations are all two weeks long,
so that's kind of what I'm doing,
and I'm hoping that that will be,
that'll be a lot more studying
than what I have been doing.
(16:34):
So I think it'll really showin my RISE score hopefully.
The second thing that'smost important to me
this coming year is transitioning
into that assistant co-chief role.
And that's with basicallymanaging all of the meetings
and all of the things andemails that we have to do
on a daily basis to keepthe program afloat and going
(16:58):
smoothly for all the other residents.
And so that's gonna bemy second main focus.
- You know, so maybe I shouldkind of close out this podcast
and ask you, now that we're talking,
we've been talking alot of the actual work
of being a resident.
What if we flip it around theother way and think about,
you know, are you, haveyou kind of figured out
(17:22):
or hit a better stride as far
as how to maintain like, a balance,
and like, to continue to workon your personal wellbeing?
Has that kind of evolved in parallel?
- Yeah, and I think it'sactually been a lot easier
than I thought it was going to be,
'cause I wasn't sure howit would be with, you know,
my husband actually physically being here,
(17:43):
'cause I just wanna onlyspend time with him,
and then just rush home, you know.
But I've been still working out, you know,
three to four times a week,
that's like my numberone personal priority,
'cause if I'm notworking out, I'm useless.
And then also, likewhen he, thankfully is,
(18:04):
thankfully, and unfortunatelya night shift doctor.
So when he's on shift, I don'treally see him that much.
But when he's not on shift,
I really prioritize thoseweekends that I have off with him
when he's also off.
So what that usually looks like for me
is when I put in call request,I put that I don't wanna
be on call the days that he'soff, especially on weekends.
(18:27):
And then thankfully ourchief accommodates those
pretty well usually.
And so I just really prioritize the time
that I do have at home.
And then when he's on shift,then I just am on all business
and getting a lot of stuff done, so.
- Oh, right on.
We've been rounding withDr. Isabella Holmes,
(18:47):
talking about herreflections of residency,
and this has really been anawesome series to continue.
Thank you so much Dr. Holmes,
for letting us continue this conversation.
- Thank you. It was nice to be here again.
- To all of our listeners,thank you for joining us today.
We invite you to share yourthoughts and suggestions
via email to mcleducation@mayo.edu.
(19:11):
If you've enjoyed thispodcast, please subscribe,
and until our next roundstogether, we encourage you
to continue to connect lab medicine
and the clinical practice througheducational conversations.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
- This is, "Lab Medicine Rounds,"
a curated podcast for physicians,
laboratory professionals and students.
I'm your host, Justin Kreuter,
a transfusion medicine pathologist
and assistant professorof laboratory medicine
and pathology at Mayo Clinic.
And today we're very lucky,
(00:22):
because again, we're roundingwith Dr. Isabella Holmes,
a PGY-3 resident and assistantco-chief pathology resident
at the University of Michigan,
to talk about herreflections on residency.
Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Holmes.
- Thanks for having me,I'm excited to be back.
- Well, yeah, this is wonderful.
I think we did our first podcast,
(00:46):
I think when you had justmatched into pathology,
talking about where yourthoughts and the like,
and then we've kind ofrevisited how did first year go?
And this is justcontinuing a fun tradition
of looking back and seeing this evolution.
I really appreciate kindaexploring this with you.
- Definitely, me too.
(01:08):
- So I guess the natural question is,
so what has this past year ofresidency been like for you?
- This past year has been so exciting.
I feel like so much hashappened in such a condensed
amount of time.
First of all, my husband moved to Michigan
at the end of the summer, which was great.
(01:28):
And so he started working asa hospitalist at Henry Ford.
And so now we don't havethat long distance anymore,
which is fabulous.
And then I went to threeconferences this year.
I went to CAP, AABB,
and then the Cytopathology Conference,
where I presented posters at two
out of those three conferences.
(01:48):
And then, I don't know, I really feel
like I kind of got a lot morecomfortable as a resident
and just in that role of what a resident
is like at Michigan the past year.
Oh, and then another great thing
that I've been working towards this year
that has taken a lot ofstress off of my plate
is getting a few publications done,
(02:09):
and as well as I also accepteda Fellowship recently.
So putting together thefellowship application
was quite the projectbecause it is not like
the ERAS System at all,
where you can submit it allin one neat little packet.
It's every program wants different things
at different times.
But it was relatively painless
(02:30):
and I was successful, so that's great.
(Isabella laughs)
- I love how you mentioned, you know,
it sounds like you'rereally kinda hit your stride
of going to a number of conferences
and you said that you'vereally kinda settled in
as like, you're comfortablein this role as resident.
(02:51):
I wonder if, can youunpack that a little bit
for the listeners?
- Yeah, let me think.
I guess what it comes down to really
is you're less afraid to ask questions.
You know what's expected of you,
and when I mess up, I knowexactly what went wrong
(03:11):
or where I took like amisstep, if that makes sense.
And then also you kind of havea little bit more of a sense
of comradery among your co-residents.
And now a lot of the fellows at Michigan
have also trained asresidents at Michigan.
So then now I also knowmost of the fellows too.
(03:33):
So it's just like a really comfortable
like learning environment at this point.
And then I've already establisheda lot of relationships
with attendings and the PA.
So I don't know, it just allkinda makes it a little bit
easier once you feel likeeveryone really knows you
and you are 100% yourselfat this point in training.
And so, you know, it's no moreof those like nervous jitters
(03:57):
of, you know, "Oh, arethese people gonna like me,"
or you know, "Can I be myself?"
And at this point I totally am.
And so that's kind of reallya freeing experience for me.
So that's kind of how I would describe
being more comfortable.
But now I'm kinda transitioninginto this new role
of assistant co-chief andthen eventually co-chief.
(04:17):
And that's been kind ofan adjustment as well.
So it's kinda like,
as soon as you get comfortable it's like,
well, now it's time to be alittle bit more uncomfortable
to get some growth.
- You're leveling up.(Justin laughs)
- Yeah.(Isabella laughs)
So don't know how that's gonna go yet.
I'm only like a month or sointo the actual position,
but I have a really good teamand we have good support.
(04:39):
So I think it'll go okay.(Isabella laughs)
- You know, I hearingyou talk about taking on
this new and added responsibilityof assistant co-chief,
recently, I was mentoringone of our residents,
who was kind of trying todecide if, you know, does,
is he interested in taking on that role
(05:02):
or should he focus on his research?
And you know, it was a reallyinteresting discussion.
What was that like for you?
Was this an easy decision tokind of go on, to take the,
to want to take on this role?
Like, is this like, leadershipskills or management skills
or something that you'reseeking to develop
(05:26):
or was this kind of a moredifficult decision for you?
- I thought about this decision a lot,
because I know that it is a ton of work
and you are not compensatedfinancially for it at all.
So that's not why people do this role.
I went back and forth onit a lot, to be honest,
(05:46):
because initially when Ifirst started residency,
the thought of becomingchief sounded terrifying,
because I was just tryingto get through the day
of being a resident andnot screwing up too badly.
But then as like time wenton, I had a few people,
there were fellows, co-residents
and then previous chiefs that had told me,
(06:08):
hey, I think your personalitywould be really good
for this job so youshould really consider it.
And so then after enough peoplesay that to you, you know,
you kind of think, wellmaybe they're not just trying
to make me feel better about myself,
maybe they're just like actually honest
and they think that Iwould do good in this role.
So then I started thinkingabout it more seriously.
(06:28):
And also once I kind of narroweddown what I wanted to do
with my career, that also helped
because obviously as you know, I wanna,
I'm going into transfusion medicine,
and I kind of pictured whatmy like career would look like
and I feel that my career isgonna be in academic medicine
and I wanna be, my dreamis to maybe one day
(06:51):
be a fellowship director
for a transfusion medicine program
somewhere, I don't know where.
And so I feel like to do that kind of job
and to be successful in that job
to get leadership experience now,
and I have had leadershipexperience in the past,
but nothing quite like this.
I feel like this is a veryserious, valuable role
(07:14):
that you really can't drop the ball
and you have to stay on itand you have to be fair,
and all while maintainingyour residency education,
which is quite the challenge.
So I think that this role willhelp me be prepared for that.
So given all of that, that'swhen I finally decided okay,
(07:34):
I think that this is the right decision
for me even though itwill be a lot of work.
- Yeah, I could not agree with you more.
And if I can tie togethertwo things that you've said
so far into a question, Iwas, you know, wondering,
you know, when you're talkingabout earlier about when you
first started being afraidto ask questions, right?
(07:57):
That kind of hurts my medicaleducator heart a little bit.
I, you know, want peopleto want to ask questions.
And then also you're avery deliberate person,
obviously is talking aboutmaking this decision.
For our audience offolks who might be going
and following in your footsteps.
(08:19):
You know, how do you kind of identify
how you are doing, andwhat you should focus on?
- So I was thinking about this
and I feel like thereare two aspects of it.
There are, you know, howam I doing educational wise
and then also how am Idoing professional wise
(08:41):
and just with the day-to-daylogistics of the service.
So those are like thekind of two categories.
For me, I think educational wise,
I do need some improvement.
Recently, we take the RISE,
which is the Resident InService Examination every year.
And we just took it this past March
and I did not do as wellas I wanted to do at all,
(09:03):
but I am only a second year at that time.
so what I'm doing to,you know, move forward
from that is I want tostart being more deliberate
about my studying.
I've taken the approach in the past
where I write things down, I look them up,
I read on Expert Path,do some casual reading,
like while I'm on service.
(09:24):
But I think I need to startapplying that knowledge
to questions more so,
'cause that's how I've always succeeded
with tests in the past.
And so that's what I'mtrying to do now is more so
watching videos and doing questions
and applying the information.
So we'll see how that helps me next year,
because for the University ofMichigan for our third year,
(09:46):
they typically want us toscore within a certain range,
and then if not, then they kindof put you on a study plan,
which isn't terrible,
but I just, for me, Ijust wanna meet that mark
so I know I can do it and thenjust move forward, you know?
But, and then as far asthe logistics day-to-day
measurement of success,the way I view that is
(10:09):
for me personally, whenI'm grossing a specimen
and I type up a gross
or I dictate a gross,
if I don't get any questionsabout my gross, that means
that it was really clear, right?
Or if I don't have to go backto the bucket for something
that I missed, that means
that I know the cancer templates
(10:29):
and I know what is neededto stage this X, Y, Z,
whatever I'm grossing at the time.
So to me, I feel like
getting less questions about clarity
and having to go back on thingsthat I should have known,
like correct number of lymphnodes, things like that,
that's how I've measured my success,
(10:49):
and that has gone a lot betterover the past year or so.
- Right.
And so, you're getting this feedback,
and you're getting it fromlike, you just mentioned,
through here through the RISE exam,
for on the educational side.
And I really appreciate howyou divide these two up,
'cause I think a lot of us
(11:12):
in residency and fellowshipprograms are thinking about,
what are the professionalor service commitments
versus the educational learning value,
and trying to always kind of find
that right balance between the two.
So I like that you're kind ofpaying attention to those too.
I'm curious, like forthose who are listening
(11:32):
to this podcast who, youknow, have been, you know,
learners and now are faculty members.
Do you have advice for, you know,
what the rest of us faculty members,
is there one thing that, youknow, we could really focus on
to become better mentors, tokind of be that assist for you
(11:55):
to kind of continue toprogress along both education
and professional lines?
- Yeah, so I would say that,
and I don't know if this wouldbe the most popular answer,
but for me personally,what really helps me
is when someone is respectfully direct.
(12:15):
And that's what I havelearned that I really need
to progress and to succeed in my training,
because I feel that everyone we work with
at University of Michigan is very nice,
very approachable and very genuine.
But not everyone tells you,
'cause sometimes people tellyou what you want to hear
(12:38):
and not necessarily what you need to hear.
And I think because it'schallenging to convey
that information without, you know,
potentially hurting someone's feelings
or it coming off the wrong way,
because being respectfully direct I feel
is a true talent and an art form,
and I even struggle with that personally.
(12:59):
I don't know, I'm working on it.
But I think that the advice
that I've gotten from the mentors
that I really value atMichigan have been the ones
that have told me, you know,
you should really do this because of this.
And it may have not been whatI wanted to hear at the time,
but it was the most valuable advice
(13:19):
that anyone could have told me.
- With the faculty,
do you feel that
in your trying to develop thisability, this skill, right,
of being respectfully direct,that's one of the aspects
(13:41):
you mentioned on wanting to focus on.
Is that something that...
What's the best piece ofadvice that you've gotten
for how to do that well?
- I don't know.
I haven't really gotten advicefor how to do that well yet,
to be honest.
(14:02):
I think it is kind oflike, a learned practice.
I see how other people do it well,
and I try to emulate that.
But it hasn't really been,
I haven't really gotten anyspecific advice for it yet.
But I feel like I willbe getting into that
as I transition into this co-chief
and assistant co-chief role,because at some points,
(14:25):
I'm going to have to bedirect with my co-residents
and also faculty membersof whatever our goals
or objectives are.
- I think I'm gonna put a pin in that.
'Cause I'm kind of curious at next year,
when we do our nextinstallment of this series,
to kind of explore that.
Because I feel like tosome extent, like feedback,
(14:47):
and perhaps appropriately so are usually
quite private conversations.
And, you know, maybe it'snot as visible to those,
like unless it's happeningto us, maybe not as visible.
So that's an interesting one.
As far as our student listeners,
(15:09):
our residents that are listening here,
and as you're going into and starting
your third year of residency,
what are you focusing onthis new academic year,
now that you're getting settled,you're hitting your stride,
you got your fellowship mapped out.
Where's your attention?
(15:30):
- So my attention firstand foremost right now
is towards my education.
And so what I'm going to do is,
the fourth years have likea condensed study plan
of how they study during their like,
dedicated elective time for boards.
And so what I decided todo is to take that plan
(15:52):
and stretch it outamongst all my rotations.
So not in like a six weekthing, but really stretch it out
so if you have to do, you know,
a hundred cytopathologyquestions, then you have two weeks
to do that on, you know,
I guess that's like a 10 day rotation
if you're only counting business days.
So that's what I've been doing now.
(16:13):
I'm not meeting thosegoals a hundred percent
because I think that's impossible.
So my goal is to justmeet at least 60 to 70%
of that material in that two week block,
all rotations are all two weeks long,
so that's kind of what I'm doing,
and I'm hoping that that will be,
that'll be a lot more studying
than what I have been doing.
(16:34):
So I think it'll really showin my RISE score hopefully.
The second thing that'smost important to me
this coming year is transitioning
into that assistant co-chief role.
And that's with basicallymanaging all of the meetings
and all of the things andemails that we have to do
on a daily basis to keepthe program afloat and going
(16:58):
smoothly for all the other residents.
And so that's gonna bemy second main focus.
- You know, so maybe I shouldkind of close out this podcast
and ask you, now that we're talking,
we've been talking alot of the actual work
of being a resident.
What if we flip it around theother way and think about,
you know, are you, haveyou kind of figured out
(17:22):
or hit a better stride as far
as how to maintain like, a balance,
and like, to continue to workon your personal wellbeing?
Has that kind of evolved in parallel?
- Yeah, and I think it'sactually been a lot easier
than I thought it was going to be,
'cause I wasn't sure howit would be with, you know,
my husband actually physically being here,
(17:43):
'cause I just wanna onlyspend time with him,
and then just rush home, you know.
But I've been still working out, you know,
three to four times a week,
that's like my numberone personal priority,
'cause if I'm notworking out, I'm useless.
And then also, likewhen he, thankfully is,
(18:04):
thankfully, and unfortunatelya night shift doctor.
So when he's on shift, I don'treally see him that much.
But when he's not on shift,
I really prioritize thoseweekends that I have off with him
when he's also off.
So what that usually looks like for me
is when I put in call request,I put that I don't wanna
be on call the days that he'soff, especially on weekends.
(18:27):
And then thankfully ourchief accommodates those
pretty well usually.
And so I just really prioritize the time
that I do have at home.
And then when he's on shift,then I just am on all business
and getting a lot of stuff done, so.
- Oh, right on.
We've been rounding withDr. Isabella Holmes,
(18:47):
talking about herreflections of residency,
and this has really been anawesome series to continue.
Thank you so much Dr. Holmes,
for letting us continue this conversation.
- Thank you. It was nice to be here again.
- To all of our listeners,thank you for joining us today.
We invite you to share yourthoughts and suggestions
via email to mcleducation@mayo.edu.
(19:11):
If you've enjoyed thispodcast, please subscribe,
and until our next roundstogether, we encourage you
to continue to connect lab medicine
and the clinical practice througheducational conversations.
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