Foggy Bottom Lantern: Lighting the lantern

Musings of a medical resident about the personal and professional challenges of residency and the experience of delivering health care on the urban front lines of our American system.

Location: Washington, United States

I'm a hospitalist physician, newly out of residency, working in the Pacific Northwest. My wife and I are expecting a son in March, who figures to play a central role in my future writing. Other than starting a family, my interests include tango, literature, evolution, science, classical music, Alaska, and Scandinavia.

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Lighting the lantern

A lack of conversation, that’s the problem I’m trying to address with this blog. As medical residents, our lives are filled with incredibly rich daily experiences—we witness miracles and tragedies, encounter the extremes of human behavior, face and sometimes overcome daunting challenges. Yet, we don’t talk about it. We don’t talk about our experiences and we don’t talk about how those experiences affect our lives and shape us as ordinary people. You’d think we would, but we don’t. In house, well, we’re too busy—there are patients waiting to be seen and duty hour rules to follow. Socially, well, nobody wants to be the party spoiler bringing up medical shoptalk. At home, well, I think for various reasons we’re just reluctant to bring that conversation into our homes.

Having now finished intern year and moved on to the distinguished rank of PGY2, I’ve consumed so much residency experience that it’s backed up my throat and flowing out my ears. Indigestion is my ailment; Foggy Bottom Lantern my proposed therapy. The conversation I want to hold here is one about the experiences of residency – the trivial, the substantive, and the profound. Gather ‘round the lantern, friends, lets trade stories and help our alimentary tracts digest what we’ve seen and discovered.