Escaping Addiction with Dignity as a Medical Student
“The most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.” –David Foster Wallace
Addiction can be a nightmare of isolation and shame, but it doesn’t have to be.
I will always remember my last night of withdraw; sitting in the busy waiting room of my training hospital. I kept thinking about what might happen if one of my EM attendings were to care for me. To see me sick, weak, and vulnerable. Nobody other than my family knew I struggled with alcohol abuse, and I was exhausted with the neverending cycle of trying to manage addiction on my own. This had to stop.
Welcome to season 3, episode 9 of the ALiEM 
Procedural training is critical in emergency medicine (EM). EM residents must effectively acquire the skills to safely and accurately perform high-stakes, invasive, and life-saving procedures during high-pressure scenarios. Residency programs typically incorporate procedural skills workshops into didactic sessions, which results in residents practicing procedures several weeks or months before performing them clinically. Unfortunately, there is no established method to practice and evaluate procedural skills competency immediately prior to performing invasive procedures on a patient. A solution to this issue may lead to improved outcomes and greater patient safety.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the first edition of the ALiEM In-Training Exam Prep Book in both PDF and iBook form. This free book was a year-long project from the Chief Resident Incubator, led by the Editors Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Dr. Dorothy Habrat, Dr. Margaret Sheehy, Dr. Samuel Zidovetsky, and Dr. Adaira Chou with the support of Associate Editors Dr. Nikita Joshi and Dr. Michelle Lin. Over 90 EM residents and faculty from the Incubator and across U.S. emergency medicine residency programs contributed board-review type questions. Five practice tests are included for those preparing for the in-training exam (also known as the in-service exam) or even for the ABEM written board exam. You can download the free PDF or iBook below.
Congratulations to the Class of 2016 graduating class of emergency medicine residents! It is the end of a chapter and a beginning of another. For those of us practicing medicine for so many years, there are many things that we would have done differently… especially in that first year post-residency. In the following infographic, we present crowdsourced reflections and advice for residency graduates from the the UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine faculty.