There’s a senior faculty member you respect, and you want to pick their brain about a career decision you face. How do you go about this? Send an email, cold? What if you don’t hear back? Were they too busy or disinclined, or did it just get overlooked in the heap?
Dr. Brian Kwan
Do you try and catch up with them in the hallway at the annual conference and introduce yourself? What if it’s rushed or awkward?
How about someone plans a lunch for you to attend, and you sit down with this person with a block of time to chat? Now that sounds like a much better option.
This is the idea behind the Resident and Student Luncheon at HM19. At Monday’s luncheon, residents and students can have a conversation, facilitated by Society of Hospital Medicine committee members, with experienced faculty members in quality improvement, pediatrics, informatics, advocacy, and other areas.
Brian Kwan, MD, FHM, chair of the Physicians-in-Training SHM committee, said the event is meant to clear a path to interactions.
“Say you’re attending the tracks – you’ll meet people maybe next to you, but it’s sometimes hard to start those conversations,” he said. “So I think that what the luncheon allows them to do is provide a place [to meet]. And it’s a little bit more formal, because we have a structure to it. We have a program that we follow in order to kind of provide structure. That way it allows people to really get in and make the connection.”
The luncheon is open at no extra charge to resident and student SHM members. It is capped at a total of 100 attendees, including the 10 invited faculty experts – 1 per table – and Physicians-in-Training committee members, who will be there to help make introductions and move the discussion along. Residents and students first will sit at a table and hear faculty introductions – which might give them exposure to an area about which they are unfamiliar – and then have an opportunity to interact with faculty at their table. After that they will move to a table of their choosing for the second half of the event.
The luncheon often involves big names attendees see on stage. The details are still being ironed out for this year, but past luncheon guests have included keynote speakers and Bob Wachter, MD, MHM, chair of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who is considered the “father of hospital medicine.”
Dr. Kwan said the event can have big implications for a young hospitalist’s career. A current committee member, he said, met their current employer at the luncheon.
The event also is envisioned as a way for students and residents to meet and discuss their career options, Dr. Kwan said.
“It’s an opportunity to both have residents and students connect, but also for them to potentially connect to other aspects of hospital medicine that they might be interested in,” he said.
The luncheon is only one way that HM19 planners have made a point to meet the needs of those who have just embarked on their careers.
The Early-Career Hospitalist track, which runs from 10:35 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. on Monday, includes sessions on common scenarios encountered at night (“Call Night: Common Scenarios Encountered and Strategies to Make it Through the Night,” 10:35 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Annapolis) an introduction to hospitalist billing (“Hospitalist Billing 101,” 11:25 a.m. – 12:05 p.m., Annapolis), and important bedrock literature (“A Whirlwind Tour of Famous Landmark [Articles]: Must-Know Literature to Impress Your Peers and Attendings,” 1:10 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., Annapolis).
An interview workshop is also planned (Tuesday, 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., Magnolia 3) and a Trivia Night for residents and students is also being considered, Dr. Kwan said.
Kevin Vuernick, membership engagement manager for SHM, said that these events are a response to feedback gleaned from those early in their career, including focus groups with students and residents.
“One of the things we heard was that they would love opportunities to network with other physicians or with members who have been at the Society for a while and are established in their careers, and how they can break into specifically hospital medicine,” he said. The luncheon is “just an hour but at least it gives them a healthy dose of being able to interact with people one on one or in a smaller setting.”
Resident and Student Luncheon
Monday, 12:00 p.m. –1:00 p.m.
National Harbor 4-5
