Overview

Our program offers both formal and informal mentorship and career counseling opportunities for resident trainees.  The formal mentorship structure consists of twice yearly meetings with the resident’s linked program director.  At the beginning of internship each resident is linked to one of the five associate residency program directors.  The Associate Program Director not only reviews the resident's rotation and self evaluations, but also offers guidance to enhance their continuing development and career planning.  The Associate Program Director helps to connect residents with subspecialty research and/or career mentors who work collaboratively to create a good balance between becoming an expert clinician and leading a healthy, fulfilling life outside of residency. 

With respect to informal mentorship, we have found that the faculty at OHSU to be warm and invested in our residents.  They are receptive to residents who approach them seeking  guidance and collaboration.  Many have chosen to spend their careers here because of their deep interest in students and residents.  Residents often develop professional and personal friendships with faculty members with whom they have served rotations or done research that focus on the resident's growth and happiness.  Most residents have several advisors and mentors. 

CLEAR Coaching Program

Resident wellness is of utmost importance to the residency program and OHSU. To that end, we have implemented a coaching program, known as CLEAR, to provide our residents with an opportunity to share their experiences with a faculty member, or "faculty-coaches" as we like to call them, in a non-evaluative and confidential environment. Coaches are paired with an incoming resident and together, over the course of four private sessions during each academic year of training, they explore the resident's achievements and challenges, with the coach using positive psychology coaching principles to help guide the resident. At the completion of each session, the resident and coach identify an area of growth and craft an actionable plan in the form of an individualized learning plan to achieve the desired goal. Our coaching model is based on a program created at MGH that has been shown to decrease resident burnout and has been implemented in residency programs across the nation.

Big Sib/Lil Sib Program

Through our Internal Medicine Residency Council, we offer a Big Sib/Lil Sib program which pairs new incoming interns with a second year resident based on common interests (career, family, hobbies). While common in medical schools, these programs are curiously less common in the GME setting. The heart behind this initiative arose from our very own residents and their desire to to minimize isolation for any intern or resident, normalize the feelings of burnout and self-doubt, and emphasize wellness throughout the entire year rather than just the bookends. Big Sib/Lil Sib pairs meet during orientation in July, and have quarterly meet-ups scheduled directly into their noon conference curriculum. We are well aware of the time constraints of residency life and knew this program would not be feasible unless we carved out time in the day for our residents.