Resident Update

In closing, I would like to quote two of my favorite leaders: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Although they came from diversely different backgrounds, the civil war they fought together still lives on today. We might not ultimately lose our lives as they did, but may we endeavor to pass on their values to our children, our patients, our world. This may seem like the “end of the world as we know it” but we can say that we will be fine and learn to be kind and treat others with empathy and understanding in our new normal.

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

–John F. Kennedy

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”.

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Luke D. Piper, MD PGY-3, Penn State Health Department of Psychiatry

lpiper@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

Hello everyone, My name is Luke Piper, and I am happy to introduce myself as the PaPS resident representative for the upcoming year. I understand that my predecessors have left some sizable shoes to fill, and I will endeavor to have feet large enough to do so. Over the next couple weeks, I am hopeful to contact the program coordinators and/or directors across the state and serve as a point person for any resident-specific concerns and needs at our periodic meetings. I am grateful for this opportunity and want to make myself freely available for advice on how I may best serve in this role. My email is listed above if you would like to reach out to me.

I will readily confess that when I was first approached with this responsibility, I had little idea it would take place during one of the most significant health crises of our lifetimes. I’m sure if my written words drone with the same frequency as my voice, I could bore us all recounting the myriad ways this has affected us and our patients in our daily and professional lives, but I’ve been particularly intrigued by how it’s affected the experiences of training residents. My experience is, of course, limited to that of my program, but I have been both surprised and impressed by the rapid adaptations undertaken to meet the needs of our patients, while preserving both resident safety and resident education. And I suspect that my program is not alone in meeting the demands of this uniquely challenging situation. If nothing else, my resident colleagues and I have certainly become more familiar with video- and phone-based telepsychiatry modalities; I suspect this to be conveniently timed in a climate where there’s an increasing push for these sorts of services to meet the needs of our more access-deprived patients. At least previously, our program didn’t have any formal utilization of telepsychiatry except for conducting (fairly infrequent) overnight consultations to our emergency department, but I’ve had more than one shower thought about whether the experiences from this pandemic might prompt more structured practice of telepsychiatry during resident training. Besides the potential utility for training residents entering an increasingly technology-driven world, it’s seemed quite palatable to our patients so far, and we’ve noticed significant reductions in clinic “no-shows,” likely reflecting telepsychiatry’s ability to obviate transportation issues or other logistical concerns. Now, lest I seem a particularly overzealous cheerleader, I think many of us probably prefer to see our patients in person, and can acknowledge the limitations of telephonic communication, but especially in regard to those patients who otherwise might not have access to mental health services whatsoever, I’m cautiously optimistic for the momentum that these past couple months might give to telepsychiatry, as well as the recent immersion in the modality experienced by training residents.

With COVID-19 numbers now decreasing, we are slowly but surely seeing a return to some sense of normalcy. Going forward, I will try to be particularly attentive to the needs of residents as they pertain to obstacles engendered by these uniquely challenging past several months, while being a general advocate for the next generation of young psychiatrists. I thank all responsible for this opportunity and wish all readers good health.