Residents and fellows graduated in another sense, finishing their training. We congratulated and celebrated with our trainees and fellows, and now, in July, they are setting out on new careers or further education.

This month, we are welcoming nearly 200 new interns and residents to our services, patient units and clinics, including about 105 interns fresh from medical school. And many Stanford medical students are beginning their first clinical rotations.

It is wonderful to work with these enthusiastic, bright and energetic new trainees, and I, for one, become nostalgic when thinking about my first clinical rotations as a medical student at the University of Michigan and pondering the impact of those early experiences on my subsequent career decisions.

As a student, I remember hungering for ‹ and sometimes actually receiving ‹ pearls of wisdom from faculty, residents and even interns. I also remember being incredibly eager to volunteer to perform procedures: blood draws, arterial lines, lumbar punctures, etc. At this time of year, the new students trigger nostalgia for times that were both exhilarating and frightening, with long working days and nights and exhaustion battled not so much with coffee as with endless hits of adrenaline.
And many of you will share the memory of feeling responsible as we became house officers and for the first time began taking care of patients.

I think we all felt the pride of diagnosing and correctly managing patients. We helped with procedures, and I can recall the first time I felt satisfaction in believing that I had helped restore a patient to good health.

At this time of year, it helps to identify with our own training as we rededicate ourselves to instructing our house staff and medical students. I believe the gratification in helping a new doctor or a medical student master knowledge and skills to help others is matched only by the gratification we receive from directly helping patients ourselves.

But the satisfaction is not without cost, and it requires our effort and understanding. For example, we must somehow make time to answer questions from these trainees, even when we feel overwhelmed with clinical or administrative duties.

We must continually keep in mind that fellows, residents, interns and students are here to learn. We must be careful not to overburden them with tasks that are solely for service needs, with no redeeming educational benefit.

And remember that we are also "teaching" when we are involved in patient care with trainees present, even though we may not be consciously thinking about imparting knowledge. Since trainees observe what we do as the cornerstone of their apprenticeship, we must be aware that they will learn from our behaviors and actions in the patient-care environment. So our styles of interaction with patients, peers and co-workers are being watched and may be imprinted as appropriate by impressionable young physicians and students. If we are rude to patients, peers, nurses, etc., we are modeling behavior that trainees who look up to us will deem acceptable. This should not happen and can be prevented if we simply model courteous, respectful, professional behavior in front of our trainees.

I hope that all of you will take advantage of the special benefit and satisfaction of working in an academic medical environment by finding joy in helping to educate our trainees. As for the institution, put simply, we wish to be known for our excellence in training the next generation of physicians as well as for our excellence in delivering patient care.

Chief Medical Officer

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