Excitement, preparations as new house officers arrive

Rachael Newton, MD, would prefer to talk on the phone.

The new general surgery resident, who started at UNMC on July 1, doesn’t have time to get on a Zoom meeting on this late June afternoon.

"Today I need to worry about getting my kitchen set up," said the newly minted Dr. Newton, who, along with 215 other house officers, began work at UNMC on July 1. "I’m in the middle of moving. But I’m doing a good job of balancing things."

GME team's annual onboarding process runs like clockwork

Vicki Hamm	Erin Snow

Rachel Nelsen	Amy Guziec

The Office of Graduate Medical Education has been onboarding hundreds of new house officers every June for several decades.

It's a process, said Dr. Are, that the office has down to a science.

"It runs like clockwork despite the large numbers and the need to onboard new residents coming from stateside and all over the world," he said. "This is all because of the tremendous amount of hard work done quietly in the background by Vicki Hamm, Erin Snow, Rachel Nelsen and Amy Guziec; I cannot thank them enough for what they do. They keep this place humming, on track and on time during June and July, the busiest time for graduate medical education on campus."

When a first-year resident arrives in a new city, there’s a lot to balance. 

Dr. Newton comes to Omaha from St. Louis, where she earned her MD at St. Louis University. Like the rest of her Class of 2022 peers, Dr. Newton did her residency interviews remotely — although she visited Omaha on her own as soon as she received UNMC’s residency interview invitation, and she came back for another visit once the interview was over.

"I came and saw the city for a weekend; I have a good friend here. We didn’t visit the med center. She took me around town, showed me some of her favorite things and places."

Residents and fellows begin arriving at various times in June and, for some fellows, July, said Chandra Are, MBBS, associate dean of graduate medical education, and "unless they went to medical school here, these new house officers likely had no experience of Omaha in person until they come for their orientation and residency or fellowship."

That’s not unique to UNMC, he pointed out — residents and fellows across the country are facing similar challenges. In fact, Dr. Are said, there may be short- and long-term effects to the past few years of online residency interviews.

"When you do in-person interviews, the same candidates are on the interview trail," he said. "I might see you in Baltimore, and then I might see you in Boston. And if we both end up in Omaha, there’s a camaraderie there. You lose that with remote interviews. 

"Also, you have stress of transitioning to a new place and a new campus — and added to that, you’re going to a place you’ve likely have never seen and meeting people you’ve never met. It may take longer to build peer relationships and professional bonding."

Dr. Newton said she saw positives and negatives to the remote interview process.

"It was easier in one sense," she said. "People were doing a lot more interviews, because we didn’t have to travel. I could do one in Oklahoma one day, one in New York the next day. But the hard part is, you can’t get as good a feel for the people — the faculty, the residents, the culture of the program. You just log on and log off."

Still, for Dr. Newton, Omaha was a perfect fit.

"I moved from a small farm in rural Missouri to St. Louis. It was only 50 miles down the road, but it was a huge adjustment for me. As soon as I visited Omaha, it felt more like a really big version of my hometown than St. Louis did."

Dr. Newton, who wrestled with her residency preference before deciding on surgery, said UNMC gives her a broad range of post-residency career opportunities, as well. Though she currently is considering being a small-town general surgeon, the Nebraska residency leaves her positioned for other avenues.

"There is a variety in the patient population," she said. "You’ll see things you might see in a small town — farm accidents, for example – or things you’d see in a big city. And the med center itself is very impressive — a solid hospital with a good reputation, exposed to all the surgical training I could need to open any doors in the future that I might want."

In the roughly three months since her Match Day, Dr. Newton said, "It’s been a roller coaster, and it changes by the hour. I’m going from literally jumping off the ground with excitement to on the verge of tears from stress."

Except for a six-month study abroad program, she’s never lived outside of Missouri, so moving far from her family and boyfriend is tough, she said.

"I’ve been spending a lot of time with family and keeping my personal relationships going," she said. "But I’m also making sure I’m on my game for my patients."

The feeling that she needed to be ready to do everything perfectly starting July 1, she said, was probably the most stressful part of the process.

Still, she appreciated the work of the Office of Graduate Medical Education as she begins this new phase in her life. "They did a very good job of onboarding us — setting up timelines, letting us know when things are due, what to look ahead for and be aware of," Dr. Newton said. "The communication has been phenomenal. The current residents have been a great resource as well — when I was house-hunting, they offered to look at prospective addresses and send feedback."

Above all, Dr. Newton is excited to begin her career as a surgeon.

"I was interested in the work for a long time, but I was intimidated by the lifestyle for a while," she said. "But then I realized, ‘This is it — I can’t run away from it any longer.’

"I’m excited to be here."

Dr. Are invited the UNMC community to take a moment to welcome Dr. Newton and the other new house officers.

"If you happen to see them, say ‘Hi’," he said. "There can be a lot of stress during this time. They may still be trying to find the bathroom. A friendly face or a kind greeting will certainly be appreciated."