Emily Fourt, DO, had just completed her third and final year as a resident in the Department of Medicine when she was offered the opportunity to serve as a chief resident during a fourth year at UCSF Fresno.
Nervous about the responsibility but honored by the opportunity, she accepted.
“It is a huge honor to be able to do it. And to now be a few months in and say, I have all the training in residency to be the doctor I need to be, and now I get the continued teaching to be the educator administrator that I'd like to become,” Fourt said.
The uniquely familial learning environment at UCSF Fresno prepared her well for the role. As a UCSF School of Medicine regional campus, UCSF Fresno provides comprehensive medical education and training for residents, fellows and students, while also offering many teaching opportunities. From the beginning of their training, residents are empowered to step into the role of an educator.
“Residents are vitally important teachers in our medical education environment, and it is important to note that they teach medical students in addition to teaching one another. And while faculty do a large amount of teaching, we do a considerable amount of learning too. We learn a lot through our interactions with residents and medical students alike,” said Stacy Sawtelle Vohra, MD, Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education.
Fourt, who cares for patients at Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC), the primary teaching hospital, the Fresno VA Medical Center and United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley (UHC) Ambulatory Care Center, chose a career in medicine because she loves caring for patients but as a chief resident, she’s come to realize she also loves teaching. She believes that peer-to-peer instruction is a major strength of medical education.
“I love doing the procedures myself, but as a chief, getting to take on a leadership role to supervise residents and teach them how to have important conversations and how to be well trained procedurally is a different kind of satisfaction,” Fourt said. “It made me realize there's a lot to be done in the field of medical education, from med students to graduate medical education.”
UCSF Fresno’s medical education model is team-based, fostering continuous teaching and learning. All nine programs have dedicated educational time during which chief residents lead didactics and small group discussions, allowing them to develop a deep understanding of each topic.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Chief Resident Abbigayle Laszacs, MD, who does her clinical training at CRMC, UHC and Inspire Health Medical Group, believes that teaching opportunities are essential while training and make learning more accessible.
“We have super engaged attendings that want to teach us and walk us through everything but there's also something to be said to have a peer-to-peer relationship where, as a chief resident now, I’m helping teach the interns how to break people's bags of water, how to do cervical exams. All of those skills that we do, that are on the job,” Laszacs said.
Chief residents are selected for their teaching ability, communication and leadership skills, commitment to education, and strong evaluations from both peers and faculty.
Justin Kamkar, DO, Family and Community Medicine Chief Resident, cares for patients at CRMC, UHC, Clinica Sierra Vista and Valley Children’s Hospital. He believes there are multiple levels of learning and says teaching is one of them.
“There's reading it, there's writing it down, there's watching a video. I'm a firm believer that you won't be able to learn something unless you actually are able to teach it,” Kamkar said.
For Fourt, Laszacs and Kamkar, teaching moments have been pivotal times when they realized they could deeply influence a learner’s experience and shape how that person develops within their specialty, furthering their own impact in the community
“The reason why we do this job is to continue to help people. The only way we can continue to do that and keep up is by learning more. And we need teachers for that. We need other people to pour into us and tell us the things that they've learned, the studies that they're looking at, and the way that their experiences have shaped their practices,” Laszacs said.
Over the past thirteen years, Sawtelle Vohra has seen that learning and teaching are multidirectional, creating an environment that supports both education and growth.
“Taking these doctors who want to be the best they can be and helping them get there is something that's very exciting and new. And honestly, something I didn't consider initially going into medicine, but because I was given the mentorship and the training, I can see myself continuing to do that now,” Fourt said.
Chief residents are especially likely to remain involved in teaching. Fourt, Laszacs and Kamkar hope to pursue educational roles as practicing physicians.
“It's been an excellent opportunity and I've loved it so much, I'm actually going to stay in the valley after I graduate and I'm going to continue to help take care of this patient population because it is a patient population that I've fallen in love with,” Laszacs said.
