Patience, organization, and communication are some of the key skills honed during a successful chief year. Aside from these personal gains, we intended to make a lasting impact on both the function and direction of our program, which had given us so many opportunities throughout our residency. UMMC gave us strength, courage, knowledge, empathy, and efficiency. In short, it gave us the tools we needed to succeed as physicians and leaders in an increasingly demanding field. And, we were eager to give back to it.
On the outset of the year, we were excited to work for and with our residents through opportunities such as hands-on teaching, recruiting, and further developing the mission of our program including how we cultivated, educated, and advocated for our residents. We quickly realized that the year posed a lot of unique opportunities for growth both for ourselves and others. Navigating the challenges of a post-pandemic world, its idiosyncrasies, and its effects on national resources and work culture proved to be daunting throughout the year. We as chiefs ensured the residents’ voices remained a part of the conversation.
Within this formative year, each of us gained a greater insight into academic medicine which we will take with us as we plan our career trajectory. We also gained a greater appreciation of the sacrifices that our program leadership makes on a daily basis on behalf of the residents. This year afforded us the unique opportunity because we were able to see behind the curtain for every decision that was made which affected our program, and the level of thought and discussion behind each of them was truly staggering.
Our role and subsequent impact became more than education, recruitment, and administrative work. Our role was to be an advocate for the people we had taken on the duty to serve. We thank each and every one of our residents for this opportunity. We thank our program leadership for nominating us as chiefs and mentoring us along the way in both our personal and professional lives. We hope that we have made this program shine even brighter and that we made each of you proud.
-Peyton, Hillary, Aayush, and Thor
Progress Notes 