“It’s not real until you get your pager,” one fellow remarked. For the dozens of first-year fellows sitting in Medical Alumni Auditorium last week, it just got real. Although their choices of subspecialty are varied across the department’s 17+ fellowship programs, they all share the same department, which helps their programs maintain national accreditation and certain department-level standards as well.
Those standards are set in part and overseen by Brian Gehlbach, MD, associate program director, and Denise Floerchinger, the program administrator. The two were joined by department Vice Chair for Education Manish Suneja, MD, to welcome the new fellows to the department and go over some basics about what they can expect.
Before he introduced Floerchinger, Gehlbach joked about her essential role in keeping the fellowship programs running smoothly, “If Manish and I disappeared tomorrow you might not notice for a bit, but we would all feel Denise’s absence immediately.”
But first, since this might be the only moment all these fellows would be in the same room together, Gehlbach asked them each to introduce themselves. As the opportunity worked its way around the auditorium, common but surprising hobbies emerged (boxing and video games!) as did shared and rival sports fandoms (Packers and Chiefs).
Suneja, Gehlbach, and Floerchinger then each took the opportunity to impress on the group of F1s a couple important details about expectations applicable to all. Everything from completing compliances to running through scenarios that would ensure HIPAA violations were avoided. But most importantly, each speaker established themselves as objective sounding boards outside of their respective programs for concerns or problems the fellows might encounter.
Many programs, each emphasized, but one department, committed to all fellows’ education and success.
