Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Ingrid Walker-Descartes, MD, MPH, FAAP Pediatrician and Director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Maimonides Children’s Hospital of Brooklyn For the past decade, Dr. Walker-Descartes has prepared hundreds of residents and fellows for ameaningful career and life post training. She’s been instrumental developing residents clinically and preparing her trainees to secure desired fellowships and positions across the country. Dr. Walker-Descartes serves as the Vice Chair of Education where she has impacted the learning community on several levels, including, resident wellness, work life balance and transitional planning for both trainees and faculty. She has identified and implemented innovative strategies of serving the needs of trainees and faculty across the GME spectrum through her involvement with the Association for Pediatric Program Directors. As an author of this chapter and advisor to Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents, Dr. Walker-Descartes believes this book will serve as a spring board to fill a much-needed gap to help trainees successfully transition into their career and life post training and create a platformformentees (trainees) and their mentors to work through the non-clinical, business of medicine and identify the trainees’ purpose beyond medicine. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. Meagan W. Vermeulen, MD, FAAFP Associate Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program, Rowan University School of Medicine Meagan Vermeulen has practiced family medicine for 20 years and is now the Associate Program Director of the Rowan University SOM Family Medicine Residency Program in Stratford, NJ. In her leadership role, she has pioneered the FamilyMedicineResidentWellness Initiative, a fullspectrumcurriculumembedded in the residency program didactic to teach residents the skills of self-assessment, effective interpersonal communication, financial literacy, and self-care. Dr. Vermeulen’s academic research focuses on resident wellness, including a recent study on rates of burnout among allopathic and osteopathic medical residents in the state of New Jersey. In addition to her research, she also serves as a mentor for the AAFP Emerging Leader Institute: Family Medicine Leads program. As a mentor, she supported a young physician in the creation of drpiggybank.org , a truly innovative source for resident and medical student financial literacy Dr. Vermeulen truly believes that the tenets of wellness include self-awareness, effective communication, self-care, mentorship, and advocacy for those looking to grow and move forward in their career. C H A P T E R A U T H O R S SECTION I: T MINUS THREE YEARS CAREER AND LIFE PLANNING GUIDEBOOK FOR MEDICAL RESIDENTS 10