Today we honor residents

On Thank a Resident Day, I want to honor and celebrate the 10,000+ internal medicine residents across the country who are shaping the future of healthcare. Residents show up with dedication every single day, and while that daily commitment doesn’t go unnoticed, it’s important to pause on a special day to honor the meaningful impact they make.

Simply put, medicine as we know it would not be possible without their continued commitment to patients, to learning, and to the profession.

Throughout my career, including nine years as a residency program director at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, I have had the privilege of mentoring and teaching internal medicine residents. I hold deep respect for this formative stage of training and have enjoyed watching how residents shape both their professional paths and their identities as physicians.

Residency also can be one of the most demanding seasons in a physician’s life. The breadth and depth of knowledge and skills needed to practice medicine are growing exponentially. The hours are long and the responsibility is real, but the journey is worth it.

After training, most residents will practice for three or four decades or more, caring for thousands of patients, becoming respected colleagues and mentors, and maintaining that commitment to excellence every step of the way. There is great reward on this other side of training too, in being the physician your patients and peers trust, and in teaching the countless physicians in training coming up behind you.

So, for any resident reading this: You are the future of medicine. You are well on your way to becoming the physician you’ve always dreamed of being. On behalf of ABIM, thank you for choosing internal medicine. Thank you for caring for your patients and each other. Our patients and profession are better because of you.

Erica N. Johnson, MD, FACP, FIDSA
Senior Vice President for Academic and Medical Affairs, ABIM