Looking back at the people who taught me throughout residency, a multitude of nurses, residents, faculty, ward clerks, and various techs all taught valuable lessons. I’m not forgetting how integral patients were to my education, but I’ll save them for a future blog.

My very first code was as the medicine intern on night call. When the code pager went off, I ran a short distance to the MICU and entered a room as the only physician.  The nurses looked at me and gave me a...

Many residents cultivate friendships during residency, others cultivate more intimate relationships, and some cultivate their marriage relationships. One thing is certain; personal relationships take more effort during training due to the demanding hours and stress. They also can suffer without that effort. 

One of the most important things my husband and I did during medical school and residency was learn how to carve out time for ourselves as a couple.  I know this is a...

My neighbor from my medical school and residency era, text me last week to tell me my old house was on the market.  The whole family linked to the MLS listing to reminisce over the photos. 

Wow! All the memories came flooding back. We purchased the 1896 historical home near downtown Mobile as medical students - talk about a fixer-upper! My husband, the main renovator and contractor, hired some key craftsmen who cared more about restoration than making money. Over 7 years,...

I likely learned constraint earlier in my career than others out of sheer necessity. My husband and I were a 2-resident-physician home with 2 children. Admittedly, I served on some committees and took on recruitment in residency that I didn’t have to, but I enjoyed the experiences, and they weren’t a strain on my time or energy.  At other times, I declined small opportunities even though I enjoyed them because they strained my family time, such as working the sidelines at...

I was a second-year resident on my pediatric emergency medicine month. I had worked enough shifts to become comfortable with the duties, the nurses, and the attendings. I listened to the attending take a radio call and was told they were “bringing in an 8-year-old who is playing possum,” implying that the child was faking an unresponsive state. 

Though comfortable walking into any room by this point, I still experienced some anxiety while waiting for a patient arriving...

Right Brain Rounds is the podcast of Dr. Corinna Muller. Listen to get to know her story and the stories of many other women physicians who are exploring creative ways to thrive and defeat burnout in their field. For more podcasts: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/969814.rss

How many of you in residency feel (felt) that perfection is (was) your standard?  Do you recognize the sensation of defeat or inadequacy when you realize you didn’t execute something flawlessly? Do any of you ruminate on constructive feedback as evidence of failure? For those who are parents, do you always feel less than? Maybe you can glean a couple of small tips from my past growth lessons. (I like that word better than failures).

As a married resident with 2 children and...

Let’s talk guilt.  Many in medicine excel in this emotion, especially residents. Mom guilt. Partner guilt. Friend guilt. Doctor guilt.  Food guilt. Work-out guilt. It stems from a couple of places. 

One root is that many of us high achievers are wracked with perfectionism.  We want to be perfect as a physician – and for family medicine, that means cradle to grave, inpatient, outpatient, prenatal care and labor and delivery, rural and urban.  We want...

Coaching has been around in other fields for a couple of decades. Leaders in the C-suites of large corporations have long-since used coaching to keep up their A-game. And though a small subset of physicians has found the benefits of coaching over the years, it was only in the last 5 years that data has been published about physician coaching's benefits. The most well-known study, released in August 2019, showed decreased emotional exhaustion, decreased burnout, increased resiliency, and...