- I've always wanted to be a doctor since I was little.
And I love being able to have
the hands on experience to be able to influence
someone's life in a positive manner.
- My mom was a nurse in the emergency room,
so she definitely inspired me.
And then in about fourth grade she was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis.
So I definitely saw her primary care doctor,
neurologist, really guide her through
such a difficult time and really help advocate for her.
So I wanted to take that role as a physician.
- Scripps Mercy is a phenomenal place to train.
The hospital cares for a whole range of patients
of all diverse backgrounds and the underserved.
Our residents enjoy working with each other
and care for each other.
Our faculty loves to teach, and the residents develop
strong positive relationships with the faculty.
And finally, our residents enjoy working
with the nurses and the other allied health professionals.
- We have lots of opportunities for educational conferences,
lots of good teaching on the floors,
lots of great teaching in the outpatient clinics.
So we have a strong focus on education.
And in addition to that, I would say
that it is just a very friendly place to work.
People genuinely care about each other.
They care about the patients.
And they really want what's best for everyone.
- Scripps has a reputation for being known for being
one of the best transitional year programs in California.
Scripps offers a lot of unique opportunities
with electives that we can take.
We only require about six to seven months
of inpatient rotations on wards and on ICU,
and the rest of the time can be spent
doing electives that you enjoy.
And Scripps provides such a breadth of variety
for electives that you can pick and choose
what really suits your own interests.
- I first heard about Scripps
through a medical school classmate of mine
and he spoke very highly about the program
and said how happy he was here.
And then when I came for the interview day
I saw how happy all the residents were.
And when I met Dr. Higginson, our amazing program director,
I knew that it was a place I wanted to be.
And also I grew up in San Diego and my family's all here,
so it seemed like a perfect fit.
- Our ideal candidate is someone who is
an excellent team player,
someone who works well with others,
who looks out for their co-interns and medical students.
Someone who is compassionate and provides care
to patients that is compassionate.
- One of the highlights of the training opportunity here
involves the CLU program which is
Cardiovascular Limited Ultrasound program.
This is something that any of our transitional interns
are welcome to participate in,
and can even become certified in by the end of their year.
This is an additional training experience
outside of the general residency program.
And this offers insights and teaches residents
how to use the Cardiovascular Limited Ultrasound
to obtain information about
the patient's cardiovascular state
and it's an adjunct to the physical exam.
It's one of the things that was kind of created here
in San Diego and San Diego is well known for.
So residents are able to participate in that.
Residents also do a lot of procedures here.
So if you're looking for a program
that has procedural experience and opportunities,
this is definitely one of them.
We teach the procedures to all of the interns
and they have the opportunity to perform them
on patients in our hospital.
- So a typical day for me on the wards
would involve sign out, which is at 7 am,
and obviously if there are more complicated patients
or if we have more patients on your list,
you might want to come a little bit earlier than 7 am.
But we pre-round on our patients
and then we have rounds between 8:00 and 8:30.
And then after that we have what's called
multidisciplinary rounds where we meet with
case managers, social workers, physical therapists,
and kind of just talk about what the plan is
for the patient for the day.
And then after that we work on our notes.
We work on putting in orders
and calling the consultants that we need to call.
And then we have really interesting cases
that are presented at morning report,
and then also noon conferences where we get lectures
from various attendings and also residents.
And then after that you kind of work on
a lot of your discharges, as well as admitting
new patients from the ER if you're on call.
- And we see a very wide range of patients,
a very diverse patient population.
And patients come to us sometimes
with medical problems that might not be seen elsewhere.
And our staff is equally diverse,
the physicians that work here are diverse.
And so you might not get that level of diversity
in other locations.
- Being so close to the border
we end up taking care of a lot of patients
who are from diverse cultural backgrounds.
There's a lot of Hispanic, African American, Asian patients
and it really teaches you how to be
empathetic and also to deal with different patients
from different cultures, to be understanding
of where they come from.
Sometimes we might not be able to speak the same language,
but every room does have a translator phone
which is readily available in order to help
communicate with the patient.
- I think this program is special for a couple of reasons.
First, I think we provide really sound
educational opportunities in whatever field
a transitional intern may be going into.
So we provide excellent training in the core specialties
of internal medicine and pediatrics,
but then each individual candidate gets to choose
other electives that may met their needs.
So if there's going into radiology,
they may wish to do rotations that would serve them well.
We also offer plenty of electives
in other specialties such as ophthalmology, dermatology,
cardiology, there's lots of opportunities for elective time.
And that is helpful for residents when they come here.
We have the opportunity for you to work
with pediatrics and adult patients,
which isn't found in a lot of programs.
We have excellent collaboration with research
throughout the city and lots of opportunities
to do research if that's something
that you're interested in.
Our hospital is certified in STEMI care
and also stroke care.
And so you have the opportunity
to work at a very high level with these medical issues
that come in commonly.
- I think Scripps is really special in that everyone
in this hospital is really, really nice
and also feels like we're part of one big family.
- I think other residents should definitely consider
coming here and I'll give you a couple granular reasons why.
In terms of the schedule, we're only required
to do six to six and half months of hard rotations,
so ICU or wards, and then you also have an ER rotation
and an urgent care rotation.
But besides that you get to do a lot of electives
up to three, three and a half months of electives.
So I felt like that was a great way
to explore my career interests.
I'm going into dermatology so I got to do
peds derm, derm path, a research elective.
So I felt like it was very flexible
in a way that I could really cater it towards my interests.
Other than that, I think people are really supportive here,
people are happy, the hours are good
and there's a good work-life balance.
I'm definitely happy here.
- Scripps Mercy has been characterized
by both the Joint Commission
and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
as a hospital with heart.
That's really true.
Everything here really cares for each other,
the doctors, the residents, the nurses,
administration, and everyone really cares for our patients.
So it's really not just a job, it's a calling.
- We all look out for each other.
We have each other's backs.
We're a small enough place that we can count on each other.
We know each other by name.
And it really is a nice place to train because of that.
I tell the interns, once you're part of a family
you're always a part of our family.
And we really enjoy that.
Others have described our hospital
as the hospital with heart,
and we really feel that that's true.
We provide compassionate care to all patients
regardless of anything.
We're here to serve and we're here to care for them.
And we all come here knowing that's what we want to do.
- Scripps Mercy is definitely the hospital with heart
and you can see that everyday on the wards,
how passionate the nurses, doctors, social workers,
case managers, the pastors, everyone that takes care
and cares for our patients really does it with passion
and a lot of empathy.
And you can see that everyday.
- Scripps Mercy prepares residents
to go into the world and practice and teach,
and continue to do research,
and enjoy positions of great prestige
including department chairs and chiefs of medical staffs,
and to be real leaders in their communities.
- While here in our program,
residents make lots of connections within the community,
with attending physicians.
They then likely go somewhere else
for their definitive training in the specialty
that they're going into, and many of them do end up
coming back to Scripps for employment later on
based on the experiences they had here previously.
- This program offers a TY intern great academics
in a very friendly environment,
a focus on education, focus on patient care,
and the added benefit of living in San Diego.
And honestly, I'm a perfect example of this.
I came out here from Ohio 21 years ago
for my internal medicine residency training here.
And I just haven't left.
This is a wonderful place to be.
You work very hard while you're here
in the hospital for sure, but when you're off, you're off.
And there are so many great things to do in San Diego.
If you're interested in the beach, you've got the beach.
If you're interested in skiing there's the mountains
that you can easily get to,
and literally everything in between.
It's a great place when you have downtime to spend.
- There's a lot of opportunities for surfing
if that's what you're into, kayaking,
there's sea lions, there's the San Diego Zoo,
the wild animal park, Sea World,
it's all just around the corner.
- Obviously you have the beach,
that's definitely a huge plus.
A lot of great hikes, a lot of great food,
a lot of great tacos at the border,
but Asian food in the Convoy district.
There's a lot of places to explore.
- I think that something that Scripps has taught me
very well is how to be efficient and organized,
cause that's one of the most important characteristics
that you can have as an effective intern.
Being able to prioritize tasks efficiently,
know what to do when, when to put in discharge orders,
how to talk to a patient about
what medications they're going out on,
and about how to write notes efficiently
in order to convey what you want to say
to all the consult services in a succinct manner.
And I think that Scripps has really prepared me well
for these tasks.
- I learned that I was able to care for
a lot of challenging and complex patients,
and take on a greater patient load than I anticipated,
especially in the beginning of the year.
But I think that that speaks to just how great
the training is here and how much I've learned so far.
- Biggest surprise for me about residency
is how close everyone is in the hospital,
not only your colleagues,
your other transitional year interns,
and the categorical interns, but also the attendings
and the consult services, the nurses as well.
Everyone really works together as part of
a multidisciplinary team in order to care effectively
for the patient.
We have a very, very robust system of care managers
and social workers who help manage our patients
so that we have a very safe discharge for our patient.
They help coordinate rehab facilities,
skilled nursing facilities, home PT, home OT,
and it really helps us in our discharge planning
for the patients.
- I would say what is most memorable for me
was having the opportunity to care for patients
towards end of life when I was on my ICU rotation.
So there's always a couple patients
that will stick with you forever,
and I had young guy in his 20's with HIV,
with metastatic Kaposi sarcoma,
as well as a 30 year old with metastatic ovarian cancer.
And they both ended up passing away,
and I think it was just a real privilege
to be able to take care of them in their end of life,
and that will always be something I remember.
- So if you're looking for a transitional year internship
I urge you to consider our program.
We offer excellent clinical training
in our very busy emergency department,
the busiest in the county.
And there in our hospital we also are certified
for stroke and STEMI care.
Our transitional year internship offers experiences
in both adults and pediatrics,
which is one of the unique features
of a transitional year internship.
- It will really prepare you well
for the next step of your medical career.
- We provide a great foundation of general medicine
but also allow you to cater your electives
and your year to your career goals,
in a very nurturing environment and very supportive.
I'm very happy here.
I feel like we have a good work-life balance.
So I would highly recommend it.
- In the course of my 47 years in medicine,
I've experienced the joy of taking care of patients,
of continuing to learn, of doing research, and of teaching.
I hope as my graduates go into the world,
they experience all that same joy,
learning how to grow professionally
and learning how to provide excellent care
for their own patients.