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First Week for Northwestern’s New Residents

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New internal medicine interns respond to a scenario with a mannequin, simulating the process of stabilizing breathing in a mannequin with sepsis. “This bootcamp module emphasized the fundamentals of critical care medicine using a simulated patient environment to build teamwork, communication and critical thinking skills with real-time feedback,” said chief medical resident Gregory Cascino, MD, who ran the session.

During the week of June 20, Northwestern Medicine welcomed more than 150 first-year residents. Incoming interns at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University beginning residencies in a variety of specialties, including internal medicine, neurology, orthopedic surgery, urology, neurological surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology, general surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry and pathology.

“This week has been surreal, and everyone was so welcoming,” said Mozziyar Etemadi, MD, PhD, a resident in anesthesiology who will also be continuing his engineering research, repurposing available technology to create new medical devices. “I decided to pursue anesthesiology because it’s a collaborative specialty – anesthesiologists interact with almost every discipline of medicine.”

More than 20 percent of this year’s incoming interns are members of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society, and 35 percent come from medical schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the top 25. Additionally, 15 percent come from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine, and 15 percent are Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine alumni.

Throughout orientation week, many interns participate in a bootcamp, a two-day training program to practice the communication and procedure skills they will use in their residencies. Trainees in internal medicine, dermatology, preliminary medicine, neurology and anesthesiology participated jointly in these sessions, which included mechanical ventilation management, paracentesis, handoffs of care, electrocardiogram (EKG) and radiology interpretation.

Trainees in general, plastic, thoracic and vascular surgery participate in a separate bootcamp specific to their speciality. Sessions included suturing practice, central line and chest tube management and placement as well as lectures and scenarios designed to enable them to be successful from the first day of their clinical rotation.

The bootcamps first started in 2011 as a collaboration between Feinberg and Northwestern Memorial Hospital to address the so-called “July effect,” where the combination of experienced residents leaving and new trainees beginning raised national concerns about a potential negative effect on patient outcomes.

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Matthew Peller, MD, internal medicine resident, and Taylor Poor, ’16 MD, ’14 PhD, internal medicine resident in the Physician Scientist Training Program, participate in a mechanical ventilation simulated scenario.
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Internal medicine resident Ryan Lahey, MD, participates in a communication skills exercise with a standardized patient to practice having difficult conversations with patients and their families. Kathy Johnson Neely, MD, associate professor of Medicine, said, “A medical decision-making conversation can be thought of as a procedure; if done well, like any procedure, it can be diagnostic and therapeutic; if done poorly, it can be useless or even harmful.”
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Sean Connolly, MD, anesthesiology resident, practices performing a paracentesis, a procedure where a needle or catheter is inserted into the peritoneal cavity to remove fluid for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.
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Internal medicine resident Shamsa Baaj, MD, performs a paracentesis with the help of Jennifer Smith, ’16 MD, on a simulated model. Alexander Lemmer, MD, the chief medical resident who ran the session, said, “In this training session incoming interns are given step-by-step demonstrations using anatomically realistic mannequins on the proper skills and techniques required to perform a paracentesis. They also get the opportunity to practice their skills in a group and individually with the mannequins to master their skills before performing a paracentesis on a real patient in the hospital.”
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Towards the end of the week, all interns participated in hospital orientation, where they picked up their white coats, identification cards, went on tours of hospital facilities and met with current residents.