An Opportunity to Grow.

George Kavalam, MD

Resident in Internal Medicine

North Shore Medical Center

PGY 1

03/09/2021

George Kavalam, MD

The CTS clinical course was an excellent experience and something that I was keenly looking forward to. The key element that stood out to me while I applied for the course was the emphasis on feedback. I am a foreign medical graduate who has recently started my internal medicine residency and feedback is a major part of this program and I have grown to like that. One of our attending even call it “Feedback Friday”. All this while I had two wrong notions about it. Some part of me felt afraid to ask for feedback since I considered any negatives as a flaw and not so much as an opportunity to grow (ignorance is bliss), the other being feedback only applied to initial levels of training. This is what got me interested in attending the CTS clinical course.

 This program allowed me to be part of a group of people with similar interests one common goal. Improve the overall work dynamics- be it one's efficiency and skills through feedback and how to communicate effectively. It was uplifting to look at feedback in a different eye than previously mentioned and has indeed changed my perspective on how I feel about it. I am no longer worried that I might hear something I don’t like, rather that is exactly what I want to hear because that is what is going to make me grow. Another key element of the course to me was how to be an effective communicator while teaching. Moving forward a few years in my career I see myself in a teaching role. Being excellent at your field doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you would be a great teacher, there is the part of effective communication and connecting with the audience which makes world of difference. Even as part of our training we have several medical students from across New England who rotate with us and teaching sessions are common daily, and the role is usually taken on by the 2 or 3rd years. It was important for me to realize my strengths and weakness before I take on such a role in a few months. Recording myself to teach and hearing the feedback from two other fantastic physicians was a fun and learning experience.

 Overall, I am so delighted that I could be a part of this wondering program. I have learned to embrace the feedback culture and more so on how to deliver the feedback most constructively. Trainees need to have such an experience because this is the only way we will get better at what we do. This will then lead to professional excellence and eventually our contribution to society. Having said that, just like any other learning experience, there will be trial and error, but if we know that there is room for improvement and our actions are in someone’s best interest, I would still consider it a win.