Physicians are expected to be the ultimate caregivers, but the stresses of medical school and residency can have a significant impact on their mental & physical well-being. They are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves and stay healthy and productive during residency. Join this conversation with Dr. Anita Lwanga to learn the steps they can take to prevent burnout, reduce stress, and maintain a healthy lifestyle during their training.
During this episode, you will learn about;
[00:00] Introduction to the show and a quick bio of the guest; Dr. Anita Lwanga
[02:42] Anita’s medical journey and how she’s equipping the next generation of physicians
[10:42] Advocating for self-care among physicians and its importance
[11:24] Practical self-care tips
[18:00] Managing your time for self-development to better the services of your patients
[22:09] Things you can put into your learning plan as you prepare for fellowship
[27:49] The importance of being true to yourself
[28:59] How physicians can come out and encourage residents in their training
[32:00] How you can connect with Dr. Lwanga and continue getting these insights
[33:00] Wrap up and calls to action
Notable Quotes
- When physicians are happy and care for themselves, they will have more to give their patients.
- When you have enough sleep, you will feel energized to give the best to your patients.
- Be authentic to who you are. You may never know the connections you can make.
- If you can just share one thing that changes someone’s life, you’ll have done your purpose.
Do you want to get home sooner from the clinic or hospital? With all your notes and charting done, too? Get your FREE PDF guide with 10 tips to maximize your clinical efficiency! https://mededwell.com/efficiencyguide/
Let’s Connect
Dr. Ryan Stegink(Host)
Website: https://mededwell.com
Get Coaching with Dr. Stegink: https://mededwell.com/coaching
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mededwell
Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mededwell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mededwell1
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC_6svH-LEDhLjqD7bKa2TSQ
Dr Anita Lwanga(Guest)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitalwanga/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lwangamd/
Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/lwangamd
Above are the episode show notes and below is the transcript via www.temi.com. Some episode transcripts have been edited more than others, but they are up in the meantime to help those who would rather read and for searchability on the web. Extensive editing has not been prioritized as I seek to both produce regular content and maintain my own wellness. See the website disclaimer if you have questions, since this is all for your education and entertainment only. Enjoy!
Transcript
Does charting in medicine seem overwhelming the queue of messages, labs, patient calls that never seems to get smaller. The pile of preauthorizations awaiting your input, the tens or hundreds of charts that you still have to finish and sign it’s exhausting, right? And still all you want is to be able to go home with your work done, to be able to spend time with family, hang out with friends, practice, self care. I want to invite you to join me for a six week long coaching program, charting mastery, where you will get equipped with the skills and approach that you need to get home sooner and leave that work at work, to check out more info and to join the wait list, head over to charting mastery Dott net. You will be among the first to hear when the door is open so that you can join me on this journey.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (01:12):
There will be opportunities to reflect and earn CME after the different sessions as well. And now onto today’s show. Welcome to the MedEd well podcast, empowering positions to get work done at work, and then be able to reflect and choose what is important for both their life and medical practice. I’m your host, Dr. Ryan Stegen general pediatrician and life coach for physicians. Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the MedEd well podcast, where physicians come to be encouraged and equipped to take the next step in their own wellness journey. Thank you so much for subscribing and sharing these episodes and for engaging with these concepts today, I am joined by Dr. Anita LOA. Dr. LOA is an internist that enjoys taking the time to demystify medical topics for her patients and the general public. In addition to her primary job, she is actively involved in educating the next generation of physicians and reviewing journal articles. Dr. LOA, welcome to the show.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (02:30):
Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (02:33):
So tell us a little bit more about yourself, your journey to medicine and how your current role involves training the next generation of physicians.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (02:43):
Well, I grew up in a small-ish town in Western Canada with five other siblings. So I had a very interesting childhood having a lot of siblings, poor mom had to try keep us out of trouble. So we were involved in a lot of sports. I was involved in competitive gymnastics, and I think that really set me up to be the person that I am today in terms of having to get along with different personalities, like looking back on my childhood, um, there’s one sibling that you’re like, okay, this is the one I’m gonna have a good time with. If I’m in trouble, this is the one that’s gonna get me out of trouble. And isn’t that real life. When we grow up, you kind of have to know how to navigate different relationships. Mm-hmm and know this is a person that I go to for, you know, advice and so forth.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (03:27):
And this is a person that’s gonna help me with X, Y, Z. And then in terms of being a competitive gymnast, it’s a great sport. It’s very taxing on your body. It’s taxing mentally as well. You have to do things that scare you and isn’t that real life, especially real life as a physician mm-hmm . And especially as you go through training, you have to have mental toughness when you’re tired, you have to keep going and you definitely have to do things that scare you. So I think having that background really set me up succeed as a physician. So after that, I’m, uh, after my initial training, my undergraduate training, I went to medical school at St. Matthews university, and I did the first two years in Cayman island. And it was a, a great opportunity, not great because I was not on vacation. You know, the island is so beautiful.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (04:17):
Uh, I didn’t have, but I didn’t have that much time, you know, to enjoy the island, but it was a great opportunity in terms of the island was safe. I was so far away from home and, you know, they gave me the opportunity to start my journey towards becoming a physician. I did the, um, clinical part of my training in Orlando, and that was another great opportunity. I picked up a little bit of Spanish, which I occasionally use today. And just the hospital system I trained in. It was very different from anything I’d seen. I think it was a seventh day Adventist system. And just the way they treated the patients and even the environment. One thing I noticed it was a seventh day Adventist hospital and the pre in the morning, and I found it so fascinating that it didn’t matter what religion the doctors were.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (05:02):
I think most of the doctors I worked with were Muslim, but this was a seventh, the Adventist hospital. So they felt comfortable. And I, I, it was just incredible for me, incredible experience thereafter. I did my internal medicine residency training at Mount Sinai hospital in Chicago. And that was very, very different from being in Orlando and very different from the small town that I grew up in. But I learned so much, I was on the at Sinai hospital, which is on the west side of Chicago, which is very difficult, I guess, or difficult environment if you’re not used to which to be in. I think the patients had a lot of social challenges, financial challenges. And for me, it was extremely humbling because I realized, you know, I’ve, I’ve had so many opportunities to do different things, to see the world to travel. And I remember one patient in particular, didn’t even know how to write his name.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (06:01):
And I’m like, I am in the richest country in the world. And this guy from the south side of Chicago, when we asked him to sign paperwork, he wrote an X and we asked him, when were you born? He said, oh, they wrote my, the data was born down in the church. And I, I can’t remember what church he named in the south side. And I was like, wow, what a contrast? You drive to downtown Chicago. It’s so wealthy. And then you drive to the west side and there’s people who had, have never left their neighborhood. So it was really eye opening, but a, a great learning experience, but very eye opening. And it made me so thankful for all of the opportunities and experiences I’ve had. And my attendings were incredible people. They were so dedicated to their patients. They taught us so much dedication and compassion and as hard as they worked and as many things as they saw, they were still, so they just had this, this humane nature to them.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (07:02):
Like you could really see they went into medicine for the right reasons. So as for me, I, I really learned a lot. I was really humbled. Um, it was a tough experience, but very humbling. So thereafter I did my fellowship in geriatrics at the university of Illinois in Chicago. And that was another great experience. It was similar, but slightly different from my training at Sinai. This neighborhood was a bit closer to downtown. And again, I saw patients from diverse backgrounds, and I think the thing that made the training so amazing again, were my attendings and my program director. They were so supportive, any idea I brought to them, they said, yeah, go for it. Like I started a Twitter page for the geriatrics fellowship and they’re like, yeah, yeah, go for it. And to me that, you know, as, as tough as training is having attendings who really support you was so incredible.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (07:54):
And I’m still friends with, with those attendings today. So that really shaped who I am as a, an attending right now with teaching attending. We all have our moments, you know, rough days where you’re like, oh my trainee, they need a little bit of work. But when I remember how gracious my attendings were to me and how kind and I, I knew there’s things I did that they probably wanted to, you know, straighten me out, but sometimes I just, you know, bite their tongue. I remember those moments. And that comes back to me in moments when I’m having a rough day or an a trainee who I’m not happy with a certain thing. I remember I remind myself, how did I feel when somebody treated me really kindly? And I try to have that same attitude towards my trainees as well. So currently, uh, I am working as an internal medicine attending back in the small town that I grew up in, in Western Canada.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (08:48):
Mm-hmm prior to that, I’d worked in upstate New York. That was also a great experience, but in terms of what I’m doing doing right now, it’s a mix of inpatient and outpatient. And it keeps things interesting because as we were talking about before I work in two different hospitals, I also have clinic that I also see my own patients in. And then we have a clinic called the preadmission clinics where we prepare patients for surgery. So having that diverse experience keeps things very interesting, keeps me on my toes in terms of reading and also working with residents, challenges me because they’ll ask me questions and I’m like, oh, I, I better look that up. I’m behind mm-hmm . So I’m, I’m really enjoying where my career is right now.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (09:31):
Thanks so much for sharing about your journey and how it’s brought you full circle back near where you grew up. I think you brought up some really important points that I think if people are, are mindful, as they’re going through training those opportunities to interact with people, who’ve had different experiences than you, and to really be able to learn from, and, and value those things as, as gifts of awareness and how you might not have realized that as I wouldn’t have that, yeah, there’s still like not only health literacy, but literacy, and being able to write your own name that still are challenges for many people. So I think that, and coupled with your good experiences with some of your preceptors along, along the way that just really shape both your approach to patient care, but then also to education.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (10:28):
Absolutely.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (10:29):
So as you think about how you come alongside residents and others in training, how would you encourage them to care for themselves and just to pursue that self care and that humanism in medicine,
Dr. Anita Lwanga (10:43):
That is a great question. And looking back that is something I wish I’d focused on more. I think the culture of residency, especially if you’re trying to prepare for fellowship and even just the nature of medicine, it kind of self reflects for people who have these perfectionist tendencies and who are extremely competitive. And it’s very easy to get caught up in the cycle of, oh, so, and so did this. So I also have to do this to keep up or, you know, trying to out outshine each other. But I think it’s very important to also remember, to take care of ourselves, because if we’re happy and we’re taking care of, of ourselves, we have more to give and we give so much to our patients. So I think one of the first things I would say, which is probably a bit unconventional, but it actually helped me is dress up as crazy as it is dress up.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (11:34):
And I got this from my sister when I was, uh, doing my undergrad. She, when she would go for an exam, she would dress up and I’m like, what are you doing? She’s like, well, Hey, at least if I fail, I fail looking good. So not to say that we’re, you know, failing and we’re gonna try fail, but I think just taking the time to dress up and, and you don’t have to have like the best outfit, if you do scrubs and you like figs or some fancy scrubs, or, you know, just something to make you feel happy and make you feel good. And I think it changes the way you carry yourself when you’re going to work. So as a resident, I remember feeling so sleep deprived, so exhausted. But if I put on say like, okay, nice shoes. Like the rest of my outfit was covered by a white coat, but nice shoes.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (12:16):
It could be a conversation piece, you know, with my colleagues or the patients. And it just made me feel better. Or if your thing is ties, I think one of my colleagues liked socks and we’d all be like, oh, Hey, nice socks. And it’s a small thing. So, you know, if it’s a, whatever you like watches or jewelry, just do something for yourself. And I think it’s okay not to feel guilty. Cause we also have this thoughts in the back of our head or watch spent so much money. Um, and so much debt treating yourself a little bit to something that makes you look nice and feel good. I think that’s one small step. Another important thing I know this is very cliche as well is eat well, eat healthy food, and don’t be afraid to spend the extra money. So the reason I say this is first year, myself and my colleagues, we all had not very good eating habits.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (13:03):
And I think because of the stress of residency, you could see by the first seven months, we, most of us had lost like 10, 20 pounds. And I used to be fairly health conscious because of my training as an athlete. But I got to the point where I was like, I’m so hungry. I don’t have time. I was eating chocolate bars for breakfast and espresso. And it was just, I had very bad eating habits, especially the first year. And I think that also made life more difficult because my energy levels will go up and down. So something so basic as eating well, it can be challenging to do that when you’re on the run. But if you can get yourself a smoothie instead, something that’s gonna sustain your energy levels and give you more sustained energy. And you can eat that on the run. A lot of us spend our time, you know, eating while we’re typing our notes.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (13:50):
If you have to do that, make yourself a smoothie, put some protein powder in it. That’s better than, you know, chocolate bar in, in my case. And if you have to get food delivered to you once in a while, cuz you’re so busy and it’s healthy food, don’t feel guilty. Go ahead and treat yourself and building these habits of eating healthy are habits. You’re gonna carry forward with you as an attending. And when you’re talking to your patients about eating healthy, you’re gonna be very authentic because it’s something that you do. And if you found small tricks for yourself, you can actually share those with your patients. Another thing that’s extremely cliche is sleep. I wish I slept more. To be honest, I spent a lot of time. I’m trying to think what I wasted my time on probably having perfect notes, but we’ll talk more about time management later, but try to try to make sure you get enough sleep.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (14:41):
Um, if you’re getting six hours of sleep, okay. That’s okay. But remember, and be very mindful, getting enough sleep. You will feel a lot better in the morning with all the stress that we face and the demands that people are putting on us. If you’re well rested, you’re less likely to snap at people and your mind will work better. And you’ll actually be more efficient than when you’re tired. The other small thing I want to recommend is working out and that’s another thing I didn’t, um, pick up until I was in fellowship, but we don’t have time to do these one hour workouts unless you are, you know, very efficient with your time. But there are workouts called hit workouts. They’re high intensity interval training workouts, and you can do three hit sessions a week. That’s like 45 minutes or yeah, 15 minutes times, three times a week is 45 minutes.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (15:35):
Mm-hmm , that’s not gonna take much out of your schedule, but the benefits are incredible. You’ll be able to maintain and build strength, maintain and build endurance. You will sleep better. You will de-stress so you don’t necessarily have to have a crazy long workout. You can probably order weights on Amazon and do weights. Once in a while. One thing I did at my previous job is we, uh, one of my colleagues actually bought a machine to do chin-ups and dips. And we had a low competition to see who could do the most. If you guys wanna put your money together as residents and buy something like that or buy weights and every day, you know, have a push up competition. It doesn’t have to be much take the stairs, but those small steps will add up. It’ll make you feel better about yourself. And again, you can talk to your patients and share your experience about working out with major time constraints.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (16:26):
And the last thing is make time for your hobbies. We often feel guilty about taking time for ourselves and our hobbies. And we often think to ourselves, especially thinking about myself in residency, what is this gonna do to make me a more, you know, competitive applicant for fellowship? I think that was the mode I was in. And at the end of the day, your hobbies make you happy. And when you talk to people and they see you’re actually happy, especially if you’re interviewing that makes you a more attractive candidate, it doesn’t necessarily directly make you an attractive candidate, unless you have a very like interesting hobby. Let’s say the program director has, which would be wonderful or a niche hobby. But if you’re happy, I think that’s very important. It goes a long way to improving your quality of life. Despite being under a lot of stress
Dr. Ryan Stegink (17:15):
Mm-hmm yeah, that’s, they’re really helpful tips and just things to say, this is a season in your life and it’s really busy, but how are those things able to lay a foundation for the habits that you want to have going forward? So one of the other areas that can be really helpful is, um, figuring out how to continue processing the new material and, um, things that you wanna learn and read about how else would you encourage residents to kind of structure their time and like a learning plan to, to help them as they’re going through training, but still wanting to, to learn and to care for patients at the same time.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (18:01):
So in terms of internal medicine specifically, there’s a program that everyone kind of uses in the us called MOAP and they actually have MOAP audio, which goes through the same material as MOAP the books and the digital version goes through. So for me, I found when I was in residency, uh, if I tried to sit down and read a book, I would fall asleep. It was just not happening because I was so asleep deprived. So if you can find audio versions of study material, it’ll actually help you go through whatever material you need to learn. So you’re gonna cover most of the stuff you’re gonna need to know for boards. And you can listen to that audio material when you’re doing other things. So using mock apps specifically, I think they had 11 modules. So each month I’d pick one topic and listen to the audio and I could get through the audio at least once.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (18:51):
But I started, um, using MOAP I think in my second year of residency. So I’ll listen, you know, as soon as I got up in the morning of getting ready, dressing up driving, especially that Chicago traffic of your time is to actually listen. And of course I’m not gonna follow asleep in traffic, but at least I was rehearsing and learning new things that I could apply. So it was not only just listening to those things, I would apply them clinically. And then you’re like, oh, this works. And it sticks in your mind. So first year I went through all the looks app material, the first time via audio. And second year I went through the material a second time. So I was really getting ingrained in my mind. And I did not feel anxious about missing certain topics because at least it covered most of the topics that would be covered in the boards.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (19:40):
And I think I went through it again a third time audio wise before I wrote my boards, but finding a program like that really helps. And I think another thing is find a question bank. So Mo app had a similar question bank and our program actually tested us on a topic each month. So I tried to listen to the corresponding audio material. And then if I had one long weekend off, I would as nerdy as this is, but it helped me the long run say, if we’re doing respirology or pulmonology, I would say, take my whole Saturday and go through those questions. My answers did not have to be perfect, but at least I was learning and rehearsing and it kept me on track in a structured way to get through the material. So I think our program, which is actually interesting, our chief used the same, looks up questions to test us each month, but he didn’t tell us.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (20:33):
I just happened to notice that pattern. And if you got below a certain percentage, you had to attend remediation classes, but they actually partnered with another program to give us questions to practice. And you had to go through 50% of those questions, no matter what your score was just finish. So I was going through more than a hundred questions, maybe just spend my whole Saturday, just go through them and learn a few points. And I think I probably went to the question bank three times as well, just because of that structure. By the time it was time to write boards. I think most subspecialties have either a question bank or some kind of audio material that you can use. But I definitely recommend audio if even if you’re not an audio learner, like some people learns, sorry. Um, via listening, you will actually pick up things. I tend to learn better by sitting down to read. But again, if you don’t have the time, you don’t have the discipline and you’ll fall asleep. Something is better than nothing. So to me, that’s the biggest tip.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (21:32):
Yeah. I’ve found that doing questions really forces me to, to generate those answers and solidifies some of that learning. Even if I don’t get the right answer going over, sometimes the explanations can be really helpful.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (21:47):
So absolutely
Dr. Ryan Stegink (21:48):
For residents who are perhaps looking towards going into a fellowship, what are some things that they can do to help themselves stand out or just prepare? I mean, we talked about the learning and some of it’s just that intentional plan. What are some things that they might consider putting in their own plan as they prepare for fellowship?
Dr. Anita Lwanga (22:10):
I think to summarize some of the points I’m gonna make, try to make your program look good. The thing is you’re gonna get a letter from your program director. And if they have interesting and outstanding things to say about you, the fellowship director will be like, oh, they made that program look good. So I want them too. They’re gonna make my program look good. So people are gonna say, what do I mean by making your program look good? One of the things you can do. And one of the things that programs need to do for AC GME requirements is have people doing research or presenting posters. A lot of us don’t like, you know, doing research. Don’t like sitting there and, you know, going through the whole process. But I think if you approach it with a different mindset, it’ll make it a little bit more bearable.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (22:56):
And I can provide a few tips, um, later on to talk about how to get research done without, you know, spending all your spare time doing it. But the things that make the program look good is their residents having scholarly activities. So if you have a case report or an interesting case, take the initiative and say, I’m gonna write this up and present it to your attending and say, Hey, I’m gonna add you as a co-author. Can you help me go through this case point out interesting things and then collaborate. If you have students, students will love this as well, because they also want to make themselves competitive. And there are some, actually most students are extremely smart and tech savvy. If you ask them to do the literature review for you and help you write. So if you work together as a group and if you have one case report, but multiple people have put in the work, and it’s a very interesting case report and you present it in a meeting, that’s excellent.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (23:49):
And the thing that happens when you go to this meeting, you’re gonna actually meet program directors who happen to be there with either their residents or fellows. If they see you presenting a poster and you have this incredible personality and you’re confident, your case presentation does not have to be so unique or incredible, but them just seeing you there, them seeing you having the confidence to say this is my case report. And they’ll ask you other questions. Like, how did you think about this? And if you say, oh, I’m the one who, who did the research? I’m the one who started with this case report. They’ll be like, oh, that person is confident. I like them. And even if you don’t talk about the case reports, you might talk about, you know, your hobby golfing or something like that. If you’re gonna apply to their program, they’ll be like, oh, I remember that guy.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (24:35):
They’re more likely to pick you for an interview and pick you on their team if they’ve seen you around doing presentations. So for internal medicine specifically, there are a lot of conferences. Chest is one of them where you can present, even if you don’t wanna do pulmonology and critical care, just presenting a case there and getting to know people and networking is excellent. I think the American association of geriatrics as well, you can present their any field. I think, uh, GI as well, has a lot of conferences where they let even students present cases, but you just showing up and them getting to see your face and also networking with other fellows and students. So at the geriatrics conference I attended, I met some amazing people who I’m still friends with to this day. And they’re people who give me tips about job applications and so forth.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (25:28):
So you’ll be amazed at what connections you’ll make that will set you up, not only for fellowship, but for other opportunities in life. Another thing I’d like to encourage people to do is not to be afraid to just be yourself. So an interesting thing I’ve noticed is especially with millennials and the younger generation, we’re a little bit less. And another thing I have to also put a disclaimer, I think culturally, there’s a difference in between us and Canada have noticed, but I’ve noticed millennials in the us are not afraid to put themselves out there in social media, as much as we’ve been told to by other generations that you should be careful what you say, but if you have an interest, then you talk about it in social media. There are a few people I’ve noticed on social media. I think, um, there’s a lady called AYA surgery in the city and she talks about her interest in fashion.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (26:17):
And she’s a family medicine resident, but I’m like, oh, she’s interesting. And I’m like, I wonder what program she’s at. They must have very interesting residents. So imagine for her, if she wants to go in to do other things, because she’s talking about her passion for fashion, she, whatever job she wants, she’ll be like, this girl is a superstar. She’s interesting. So if you have a niche interest, you’re you enjoy cooking. Go ahead and talk about that. It doesn’t always have to be about clinical things. If you like, like, you know, posting pictures and talking about your recipe, favorite recipes, mm-hmm and it makes you happy. Go ahead and do that. Don’t be afraid to have other interests outside of medicine and to talk about them even at you never know who, you know, which connections you’re gonna make, just because you’re being yourself and being authentic. So, and you being, being yourself actually makes your program look good because they’re like, oh, their residents are interesting. They’re human and they still have time to be themselves.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (27:12):
Those are really helpful, helpful thoughts. Just thinking about the aspects of collaboration, of networking and of being who you are and like a full human being. And so those interests, whether it’s cooking or playing piano or something else, or, yeah, it’s just saying, this is who I am and how can that inform how I take care of patients, how I show up for my program and just that yeah. You’re interesting and interested in other people.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (27:49):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, I dunno if your experience was the same, but I always, maybe it was just my thought process. I felt like I had to kind of, uh, almost mute certain interests and try to, you know, go with the crowd. But I wish I’d been more of myself. I, I don’t know if you have the, had the same thought process and experience as a resident
Dr. Ryan Stegink (28:10):
Sometimes. I mean, I was enjoyed baking and making cheesecakes, which I figured out initially I didn’t use, uh, water bath and they cracked. And so, I mean, I put that as one of my hobbies and I think got to talk about it on one of my interviews, but otherwise yeah, playing, playing piano and being in a choir. And so I was even able to do a little bit of that in residency. And so, yeah, just talking, whether it’s with colleagues or opportunities to interview, I think just being willing to bring that up, just shows more of your well-roundedness for those attending physicians that are listening today. How can they best come alongside and help encourage residents during their training?
Dr. Anita Lwanga (28:59):
I think the most important thing I can say to other attendings is encourage residents. I always remember looking back and I always felt like I was doing everything wrong, even if I was doing something good. I think the culture of medicine as a whole is, yes, we’re trying to learn. We’re trying to correct people and teach each other. If you can focus on encouraging and focus on using positive feedback to kind of guide your residents. I think that’s extremely important. Another thing is to think about the attendings in the past, that really made a difference for you, think about the things that they did for you that, you know, really warmed your heart or really changed your trajectory and try and emulate those things on the same note. Think about the attendings that, you know, just broke your heart. They say something that just, you know, made you FUM for weeks at a time and try and remember those feelings.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (29:56):
And before you say something to a resident or even a student, remember those feelings and yes, they do need to be corrected, but maybe it can be said in another nicer way, or maybe it’s not necessary. Maybe you’re stressed out and you know, it’s not necessary. So I think the biggest thing I would say is try, encourage, try to use positive feedback and let’s try, you know, as much as possible change the culture of medicine cause all residents remember us. I remember even as a student, I remember certain attendings who, you know, included me and to this day, actually, I, I, I didn’t actually meet, but I talked on the phone with an attending. I had as a student and I just remember having such positive feelings about her and now I’m an attending and I wanna refer my patients to her cuz she was so positive.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (30:41):
So your actions really make a big impact on people. As much as we think were not that important. They actually look up to us. So as much as you can try to enforce the positive, try to encourage and use positive feedback. And another last thing I guess I’d say is if you have tips, anything that helped you out, anything that made your life easier, go ahead and share that. Oftentimes we think, okay, I’m just here to teach them medical stuff. Yes. The medical stuff is important, but if there’s other things that made a difference for you, go ahead and share those. Even just like time management tips, anything you can share, if it makes a difference to one person and really changes their life, then you’ve done your job. And that’s, you know, that’s very important.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (31:26):
That’s really helpful. Just thinking about the long term impact that you can have and seeking to do that in a constructive and encouraging way because it is a challenging time and training and coming alongside an encouraging can really have that long lasting impact. I can think of that in my own time and training and those that were especially impactful for me.
Dr. Anita Lwanga (31:51):
Mm-hmm
Dr. Ryan Stegink (31:51):
thank you so much, Dr. Longa for joining me on the MedEd. Well podcast. If someone wants to learn more about you and, and connect with you, how would they do that?
Dr. Anita Lwanga (32:01):
Well, if, uh, people wanna connect with me on LinkedIn, my name is Anita, a N I T a. The last name is LOA, L w a N G a on Instagram. My name is LOA. Lowercase MD is uppercase and it’s all one word on Twitter. It’s the same at LOA MD, all lowercase. And then on TikTok, it’s all lowercase Dr. LOA. And if any of you guys want some tips on where to submit your case reports or publications that are not gonna charge you, please feel free to DM me. And I’ll send you a nice list because you know, we, we all want to submit our stuff somewhere, but as a resident, if your program has limited funds, it can be a bit challenging, but I’m willing to share that information or even any other tips that you know, people would like to learn.
Dr. Ryan Stegink (32:57):
Wonderful. I’ll put those links in the show notes, thanks for sharing such amazing insights. And for all of you listening, I want you to consider how you can apply what you’ve learned today from Dr. Lwanga in today’s discussion. And then please share this podcast with another doctor in your life and subscribe. You can help change the culture of medicine and promote wellness for your patients, your colleagues, and yourself. Thank you so much for all that. You do have a great day. And now for our important disclaimer, Dr. Ryan Stegen is a practicing general pediatrician, but the MedEd well podcast is not reflective use opinions or belief of his employer nor his affiliated university. Additionally, the MedEd well podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered advice regarding financial legal student loan, medical, or any other specific topic. In such a case you should see consultation with certified professional in that particular area. Again, thanks for joining us on the MedEd well podcast and have a great day.