Name: Meg Rolfzen, MD
Medical school you attended/year you graduated: UNMC College of Medicine, Class of 2020
Residency/fellowship at UNMC: Anesthesiology residency; adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellowship at UNMC (to start 2024)
Program director: Andrea Dutoit, MD
How long is your training program and how long have you been at UNMC? The categorical anesthesiology residency is four years. After college, I moved back to Omaha for UNMC for medical school, so I’ve been here for seven years now.
What do you like the most about your training program? Apart from the interactions with co-residents, staff, attendings and respiratory therapists that have transformed into friendships, I’m appreciative of the Careers in Research and Anesthesiology in Nebraska (CRANE) Scholar pathway that provides dedicated time and structured mentorship to conduct research.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future? With the changing health care landscape, incentive structures and stakeholder commitments, the academic emphasis is at a crossroads. I anticipate that within certain specialties, advocating to preserve academic career development for motivated individuals will become more challenging.
List some accomplishments that you are proud of: I’m proud of a recent Anesthesiology cover page publication that would not have been possible without Dr. Karsten Bartels’ mentorship. I’m also proud of maintaining a productive garden — to such a degree that I have adequately convinced my husband to build more raised beds.
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
- During my senior year of college, our Augustana University soccer team won a conference championship; I played midfield.
- I have one sister who is currently in dental school in Minnesota.
- My most memorable childhood interaction with the health care system is an emergency room visit in which a stranger repeatedly attempted to use a balloon extractor to retrieve a rock I had hidden in my nose. It’s a wonder I’ve made it this far.