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In this Issue:
- ACP SC Governor's Newsletter
- Student and Resident Corner
- Updates on Educational Resources
- Wellness Corner
- In The News
- Save the Date
- Call for Spring 2025 Board of Governors Resolutions
- ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025: New Orleans, LA. April 3-5, Pre-courses April 1-2.
Steve P. Saunders, MBBS, FACP, ACP Governor
ACP SC Governor's Newsletter
Dear ACP South Carolina Chapter Members,
As the summer winds down, I hope that everyone had an opportunity to enjoy quality time with friends and family, travel to some interesting places or simply get some rest and recovery. For many of you who are early in your careers, the summer marks a transition period鈥攚hether it be beginning your medical education journey, residency or fellowship, or starting a new job. I wish to congratulate you on whatever phase of your medical journey you are currently embarking on!
Your decision to make the ACP your professional home has contributed to more than 200 new members and fellows joining our chapter in the last six months. Congratulations! The chapter council and I welcome you to the SC Chapter and look forward to serving you throughout your professional career.
The ACP is continuously assessing its resources and programming so that the value to the members and its role as our professional home remains evident. To sharpen its focus to serve you better, the ACP has updated its Priority Themes and Goals for 2024-2027. These include:
- Address Changing Dynamics of the IM Workforce
- Enhance ACP's Continuous Professional Learning Resources
- Advance Chapter Alignment and Sustainability
- Membership and Engagement Enhancements
Please stay tuned for more details on these themes in the coming months. I encourage you to explore the ACP website for additional information at .
In this newsletter, we focus on student and resident members as they continue their professional journey. I want to thank Zoe Sanders, third-year medical student at USC Greenville, for compiling some valuable advice outlined in the Student and Resident Corner. I believe this advice is timeless and ask that you share this information with your colleagues and friends.
I would like to encourage you to increase your involvement in your ACP chapter. One important way is to become a council member. Please reach out to me at saundersps@outlook.com if interested.
In closing, I wish everyone a successful year. Do not hesitate to utilize the numerous resources for all membership categories that are available on the ACP website.
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In Service,
Steve Saunders MBBS, FACP
ACP Governor, South Carolina Chapter
Student and Resident Corner
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Medical Students
The SC Chapter of the ACP is dedicated to ensuring students, residents, and all learners have access to the best resources and advice for navigating medicine! Please see below for some curated advice from current fourth year medical students across the state about medical school:
1. Get involved early!
Take advantage of student interest groups at your school and professional organizations like the ACP to connect with residents and faculty for mentorship and research opportunities.
2. Don't stress it!
Although it is easier said than done, don't put too much pressure on yourself to make a specialty decision when you first begin. Allow yourself to fully experience your first two years and clerkships, be yourself, learn as much as you can, and you will naturally fall into the area of medicine that is the best fit for you!
3. Comparison is a thief!
Try not to constantly compare yourself to your classmates鈥攁s hard as that may seem. Study diligently, but make sure to schedule mandatory time for things that are important to you like hobbies, your community, and self-care. You might feel the pressure to study every hour of every day, but if you're exhausted, the information won't stick. So be kind to yourself and take the breaks you need to recharge.
4. Trust your learning style!
You have made it this far by learning in a way that works best for you, so stick with it! Everyone studies differently, and that's okay! Take the advice that works for you but be true to how you learn.
Special thanks to Coral Holt (M4, USC School of Medicine Greenville), Philip Johnston (M4, USC School of Medicine Greenville), and Emily Ranta (M4, VCOM-Carolinas) for contributing their excellent advice for this column!
Residents
July 1st marked the first day of residency for many of our new IM interns across the state of South Carolina鈥攖he ACP wishes to congratulate you all on how far you have come and how far you will continue to go!
Dr. Ruth Bishop, M.D., M.B.A., current PGY-3 in Internal Medicine & Psychiatry at MUSC shares her advice for interns just beginning:
Advice for navigating residency鈥
鈥淩esidency is one of the few times you'll be an apprentice and be able to learn under various physicians with different styles of practicing medicine and various bedside manners; I think residents who excel intentionally seek feedback and reflect on what styles they like and dislike as they go through their training.
Like any stage of life, striking balance is key, as is knowing what people, places, and activities fill your cup when you're running low on steam. Prioritize sleep and eating as much as you can; long hours feel more manageable when you're well rested and not hungry. Identify people whose job you'd love to have鈥攖hey'd probably make a good career mentor!
Say yes and show up if you say you will (to a meeting, research opportunity, leadership position)鈥攐pportunities present themselves to those who are engaged and excited to be there!
Fight for your patients鈥攁dvocate for the care you think they need and take full ownership of their care, especially around care transitions when things are more likely to fall through the cracks.
Stand up and stand by your co-residents鈥攆oster a culture of camaraderie and respect among residents and physicians of all specialties.鈥
Things I wish you would have known as someone just starting out their intern year鈥
鈥淚 would say that for most of intern year I'd think to myself鈥斺檊eez, I am pretty bad at this.鈥 This feeling is ubiquitous and probably indicative that you will become 鈥榞ood鈥 at this job because you care to get better and recognize room for growth in your clinical and healthcare system's knowledge. In fact, you're supposed to be slow, inefficient, and bad at your job in the beginning because you're still learning; be kind and patient to yourself during this challenging process of becoming a great intern. Know that things do get better!鈥
Special thanks to Dr. Bishop for contributing her excellent advice for this column!
Updates on Educational Resources
Preorder the new ACP MKSAP today! Reward yourself for your dogged determination to keep current with the latest clinical information and provide your patients with the best possible care.
Take advantage of special discounted pricing on your subscription and exclusive free content. Gain immediate access to a free bonus pack of 300 multiple-choice questions to continue your self-assessment and learning with brand-new questions all summer long.
ACP MKSAP launches February 3, 2025. Features included are:
- Over 2,000 multiple-choice questions in a single, more robust question bank combining the traditional MKSAP MCQs, Virtual Dx, and MKSAP Quick Qs
- MKSAP's new Confirmation of Relevant Education (CORE) questions鈥攗nlock questions to challenge yourself and earn badges to document your learning
- A new LKA custom quiz template with timer to simulate answering questions for the ABIM pathway
- Board Basics
- Useful tools mirroring high-stakes testing, including option strikethrough and time-elapsed indicator
- Personalized Learning Plan with expanded dashboard features
- Enhanced multimedia offerings
When reserving your ACP MKSAP subscription, choose either a 1- or 3-year subscription: Order Now
Wellness Corner
Physician Wellbeing and Professional Fulfillment
An ongoing thrust of the ACP is providing guidance and resources that foster communities of well-being for internal medicine physicians to best serve patients and optimize professional fulfillment. This is accomplished in the following ways:
1. Improving the Practice and Organizational Environment鈥
Providing ACP members with high quality information, resources, tools, and support to help their practices thrive in the growing value-based payment environment.
2. Fostering Local Communities of Well-being
Trained ACP Well-being Champions supporting their ACP chapter members, practices, and organizations in combating burnout.
3. Promoting Individual Well-being
Offering online resources and educational courses at ACP's Internal Medicine Meeting and chapter meetings to help ACP members manage issues related to well-being and satisfaction.
For additional information and guidance on resources for fostering well-being and optimizing professional fulfillment, visit the ACP website here.
In The News
鈥淎CP Joins Major Health Organizations in Support of the U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on Firearm Violence鈥
Posted on June 28, 2024
ACP fully supports the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy's newly released advisory, . The advisory details the impact of gun violence beyond death and injury, describing the layers of cascading harm for youth, families, communities, and other populations.
ACP continues advocating for more common-sense policies that will help reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths. Visit acponline.org/firearms for more of our firearm-related content and advocacy efforts.
鈥淎CP Recommends AI Tech Should Augment Physician Decision-Making, Not Replace It鈥
Posted on June 4, 2024
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical health care has the potential to transform health care delivery but it should not replace physician decision-making, says the 管家婆心水论坛 (ACP) in a new policy paper published today. 鈥 ,鈥 published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, offers recommendations on the ethical, scientific, and clinical components of AI use, and says that AI tools and systems should enhance human intelligence, not supplant it.
Save the Date
South Carolina Chapter Meeting: The Annual Scientific Meeting
The annual Scientific Meeting will be held at the AC Hotel in Downtown Greenville on October 18-19, 2024. Please join us in participating in excellent scholarly activities, informative presentations by colleagues and networking opportunities. You can register here. Please don't forget to share this information with friends and colleagues!
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Call for Spring 2025 Board of Governors Resolutions
Are you concerned about a practice or clinical issue, or do you have an idea you would like to suggest? If so, you might consider submitting a resolution to your Governor or chapter council.
Initiating a resolution provides ACP members an opportunity to focus attention at the national level on a particular issue or topic that concerns them. Participating in the Board of Governors' resolutions process allows members to shape College policy that impacts the practice of internal medicine. When drafting a resolution, consider how well it fits within ACP's Mission and Goals. In addition, be sure to use the College's Strategic Priorities to guide you when proposing a resolution topic.
Not sure how to begin drafting a resolution? We have a resource to help you get started. The 鈥淎CP Board of Governors Resolutions Guide for ACP Members鈥 will guide you through the process of using ACP's resources to research a topic, drafting a resolution copy, and navigating submission.
Members must submit resolutions to their Governor and/or chapter council and must be approved by the chapter council to be submitted to ACP national. The deadline for submitting new resolutions to be heard at the Spring 2025 Board of Governors meeting is September 27, 2024.
ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025: New Orleans, LA. April 3-5, Pre-courses April 1-2.
Join the ACP and your colleagues in New Orleans, LA, April 3-5, 2025, at the annual marquee educational event for internal medicine physicians and subspecialists around the globe. Together we will share in three days of unparalleled professional revitalization and make invaluable connections with our internal medicine community. for potential early bird savings!
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