Tag: intern year

Celeste Arden Swain, MD Celeste Arden Swain, MD (1 Posts)

Resident Physician Contributing Writer

Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco


Celeste Arden Swain MD is a 4th year OB/GYN resident at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. She attended Bowdoin College for her undergraduate degree and Drexel University College of Medicine for her medical degree. She will be starting a Minimally Invasive Gynecology Fellowship in Portland Oregon this summer. Celeste enjoys trail running, surfing, and spending time outside with her husband.




The Hug

There was a dark, empty space. Stillness, Where there should have been movement. No rhythm, no dance to take me across the screen.Floating, falling, weightless. Stillness. Silence. The heart. His heart. Still. My heart. Loud and bounding. In the small triage room, silence was my call for help. Scan, search, more gel. Maybe if I keep looking, I will find it. 38 weeks. Labor check. Uncomplicated pregnancy. Contracting painfully for the past few hours. As …

Punctuality Permits Presence

It’s only 7:15 a.m.? I can finish folding my clothes before I have to leave for clinic, I thought to myself. Though the day was young, I had already been quite productive — I started the laundry, made myself breakfast, picked up around my room, and even found time to journal briefly about the day before. Surely I could check one more thing off my to-do list.

Surviving the First Month as an IMG Resident

Let’s start with a very brief introduction: Hello! My name is Aline, and I am an international medical graduate (IMG) from Germany. I used to work in Germany in internal medicine, where I have completed four out of five years of training. I would like to share my experiences, thoughts, and later also some of the processes and steps that got me here over the course of this new column.

Internalizing Medicine: Starting Intern Year in the Time of COVID

In my home city of Washington, D.C., citizens have taken the changes brought on by COVID-19 very seriously; social distancing, masking and frequent hand hygiene are now routine. These days, I am startled when I see the bottom half of someone’s face out in public. Our homes have become our sanctuaries. In the hospital, however, much of our work continues unabated. Orders are written, notes are signed, lab work is drawn, imaging is performed. Housestaff are on the front lines with nurses, respiratory therapists and patient care technicians taking care of the sickest patients day-in, day-out.

July 1, Take 2: Navigating the Transition from Intern to Senior Resident

You could feel it in the air, in how the nurses double-checked the orders, how the attendings’ notes bloated in size, and even in how the patients, despite their general lack of knowledge towards the inner workings of the hospital, exuded mild apprehension. It was day one of the academic year, the day that the new interns — my new interns — started.

Night Call

My senior and I had been on night float together for a few weeks. That night, the dimmed lights of the hospital corridors spilled into the workroom which was lit only by my computer screen, but that was enough. Despite the few months that I had been there as an intern, I could describe each inch of this room with my eyes closed.

The Sweet and Sour of Intern Year

Of all the fulfilling and purposeful vocations to pursue, we’ve ended up trying to find our footing in the vast and ever-changing maze of medicine. Propelled by some combination of privilege, perseverance, and circumstance, we became doctors — many of us with the noble drive to heal and support other humans through the physical and spiritual struggles of life.

Kara F. Curry, DO Kara F. Curry, DO (1 Posts)

Resident Physician Contributing Writer Emeritus

Kara F. Curry, DO is a child and adolescent psychiatrist practicing in Rhode Island. She completed her psychiatry residency at the University of Louisville and her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Tufts Medical Center.