Teaching points from the ER, July 2024.

As you know from a recent Inside Medicine, July is my favorite month of the year in the hospital. I simply love the renewed energy that comes from the arrival of newly minted doctors who are just beginning their formative residency years. The Inside Medicine describing this lead to the Boston Globe reaching out to ask if they could do a more detailed story about what life is like in the hospital in July. In the end, the Globe ended up writing a fairly different story than the one pitched to me—one that was more of a debate about the “July effect,” a well-described phenomenon in which a small increase in hospital mortality in teaching hospitals occurs, ostensibly because newly arrived residents have a learning curve.

Me and new emergency medicine resident Dr. Anjali Misra, outside of Brigham and Woman's Hospital. Lane Turner/Boston Globe.

All of this got me thinking about teaching experiences I’ve already had this month with Harvard’s newest crop of resident doctors, already eagerly learning the ropes—and making you proud, I assure you.

I’d like to share with you how I approach training our nation’s next generation of physician leaders.

So, I’ll break this down into five categories…