Sometimes, patients may exhibit agitated or even violent behavior in the clinical setting. It is so important to understand background and context, try to preserve the therapeutic relationship, and also ensure our and our patient's physical safety in these challenging circumstances. Dr. Marissa Flaherty from the OSA and the Department of Psychiatry is a wealth of information on this topic. In this episode, she offers tons of practical tips, scripting, and solutions for staying safe, de-escalating potential conflict, and remaining an advocate for your patient's needs while protecting yourself.

Does your brain ever jump to worst-case scenarios, no matter the situation? Many of us in medicine can relate to this phenomenon. It’s called catastrophic thinking, and in this episode, Dr. Beth Lamos helps us understand what it is, why we do it, why it may be adaptive, all the ways it can be harmful, and concrete tools and strategies to de-catastrophize our way of thinking.  Resources: What to Do When Your Mind Always Dwells on the Worst Case Scenario. Harvard Business Review. Published September 15, 2020. Accessed July 20, 2024. Link.  16 Decatastrophizing Tools, Worksheets, and Role-Plays. Positive Psychology. Published September 24, 2020. Accessed July 20, 2024. Link.  

The UMSLE Step 1 exam going pass/fail in 2022 has been a huge change in medical education. In this episode, the OSA's Dr. John Allen talks through how the change has impacted our students at the UMSOM, the OSA's approach to residency and career advising, Step 2 CK prep, and the residency application process in general. This conversation is filled with wisdom to help students survive and thrive throughout med school and the transition to residency.  For more information on Step 1 P/F, check out episodes 54 and 108 of The OSA Insider. 

Nearly ten million Americans are currently incarcerated, on parole or probation. This population has specific health care needs, especially those who were formerly incarcerated. Today, we bring you a very special conversation featuring two UMSOM alums, Dr. Michael Baca-Atlas and Dr. Matt Zeitler, as they interview their UNC Family Medicine mentor, Dr. Evan Ashkin, about how we can best care for our formerly incarcerated patients.  This conversation originally aired on Hippo Education's Primary Care Reviews and Perspectives podcast. 

Graduating Pediatrics resident Dr. Caroline Knoop had an innovative idea for her scholarly project in residency: create a podcast about social justice issues in Baltimore for Pediatrics residents, by a Pediatrics resident. And so, Charm City Checkup was born. Listen in as Dr. Knoop shares how she got the brand new podcast off the ground, the lessons she's learned along the way, and how she studied the impact of her podcast for her residency's research symposium. 

There are a lot of myths floating around when it comes to the Office of Medical Education (OME) and the Office of Student Affairs (OSA). Myths like, if a student visits these offices, it will show up in their residency application, or visiting the student counseling center will make its way back to the med school deans. False and false! In this episode, Dr. Joe Martinez, Associate Dean for Medical Education and Student Experience, sits down with Dr. Frayha to debunk the top 10 myths about how the OME and OSA work with our students. 

What do you do if you need help with something in medical school, or you have a question about life in Baltimore, and you don't quite feel like asking a faculty member? That's what the Peer Support Network is for. Two almost-fourth-year students, Alanna Stefano and Nicol Tugarinov, share everything you need to know about the Peer Support Network - what it is, how to become involved, how peer support leaders are trained, the kinds of questions they're happy to help with, and so much more.    Resource: The Peer Support Network from the OSA Academic Handbook

Match Day is coming up soon, and each year, the Match Day celebration at our medical school is sponsored by the Medical Alumni Association. This organization - much like the School of Medicine - has been around since the 1800s. Its office is located in Davidge Hall, the oldest medical education building in the United States in continuous use. And its executive director, Mr. Larry Pitrof, has been leading the organization since 1994 - for 30 years.  In late February, I visited him in Davidge Hall to learn more about his life and what he's seen throughout his decades at our medical school. On the day of our interview, Davidge Hall was filled with activity - renovations, HVAC installation, contractors everywhere. And I felt such powerful nostalgia being in that space. Memories from my first week of med school and from my own Match Day, among so many other important milestones. Larry and I got to talk about the history of Davidge Hall and of the SOM, why he was drawn to our Medical Alumni Association in the first place, how the MAA helps medical students and alumni, and, after 30 years, what comes next for him.   

Four years ago, we learned that the USMLE Step 1 exam would become graded on a Pass/Fail basis, rather than each student receiving a 3-digit score. We covered this change in episode 54 of The OSA Insider, featuring an interview with national expert Dr. J. Bryan Carmody. This change went live in January 2022, and we can't help but wonder: where do things stand today? Why did this switch to P/F happen in the first place? Are things better? How are med students feeling about Step 1, anxiety-wise? And how is the UMSOM responding to the current moment? Dr. Nirav Shah and Dr. Devang Patel answer all of these questions and more in their conversation with host Dr. Neda Frayha.    Resources: UMSOM OME page on USMLE Prep The Pass/Fail Effect: A Longitudinal Study of USMLE Step 1 Performance Over a Decade

Think about the last time you made a mistake. Now, imagine this happened at work, with a patient, and that your clinical setting is a punitive place where people are shamed for their mistakes. Would you want to tell anyone about this error?  What if, instead, you worked somewhere that embraced open conversation about errors, and looked without judgment at all the factors that might lead to mistakes?  This is at the heart of Just Culture - a philosophy and process that looks at both the individual and the system in a non-punitive way to figure out where something went wrong, and how we can all learn from it and make changes so it doesn’t happen again. Our guest for this episode is Dr. Nidhi Goel - UMSOM alum, Med Peds physician, a leader in quality and safety for both the medicine and pediatrics departments at our hospital, and Director of the Medicine Clerkship - for a practical conversation on exactly what Just Culture is and how it impacts our students. Spoiler alert: she shares a real-world example of the Just Culture process that our team will never forget.  Resources: AHRQ's Just Culture Guide IHI courses Patient Safety and Quality Improvement elective from the UMSOM Course Catalog