I’m drowning—as usual. I brought work home with me for the weekend and, other than reading one professional article, did not manage to get through any of the other stuff. Today, Monday, I came in to work for an early morning meeting to discuss residency applicants. Luckily, the person who scheduled it had an emergency and the meeting was cancelled. Free time—a rare and welcome commodity! Further revisions of two submissions for professional meetings can be done now, as well as massively revising an initial draft of a book review written by a solid PGY-2 resident for whom English is a second language. It turns out that the rest of the morning entails trying unsuccessfully to locate funding for resident lines, following up on two pediatric consultations that have remained in the hospital over the weekend, attempting to create a schedule of formal case conferences for trainee presentations to the faculty, learning that my computer is down (and shall remain so for the rest of the day) and that my secretary is out sick!
Leaving aside several unrelated phone calls, in the midst of this ballyhoo I am scheduled to meet with a resident who is writing "a day in the life of a resident with academic aspirations." But, no knock on my door at the appointed time!
One half-hour later a phone call: "we had more than the usual number of consults on the service—I’ll try and give you my latest draft version when I’m back in the outpatient building." An hour later I walk, with papers to be read, toward lunch. I pass Dr. Zina Thomas’ door—she lunges out—"Here—I’ve got it—cannot talk now—please read it!" I take the manuscript and, 4 hours later, manage to read it and make suggestions for changes.
It is fascinating that the seeming franticness of my day is mirrored by hers—we exist in parallel. I also enjoy her writing—it flows easily and well, and she is observant and aware of much. I think back to our initial work together—a book review centering on Rutter’s contributions to child psychiatry. It was a learning process for her—learning how to organize ideas, structure a paper, weed out the chaff from the wheat, provide appropriate emphasis, and avoid colloquialisms while engaged in writing science without deadening the prose. In the end, a good scholarly effort—thoughtful, well-written, conveying the essence of the reviewed volumes in a manner useful to readers.
It was perhaps the tenth draft of the manuscript that became the final one. Distant memory reminds me that learning to write is a painful process—it involves both external and self-criticism. How to convey to trainees that the critiques are meant to help and provide shape—not to injure self-esteem? Not an easy task. Peforming this work with Dr. Thomas reminds me of my earlier years and the pains I felt while undergoing this process.
But in the end, Dr. Thomas has come through well. She has learned to juggle and manage schedules, patients, residents and faculty (was I that irate faculty member?—probably!) while pushing herself those extra miles, spending time creating scholarly products that hopefully will be of benefit to others after they appear in print. She has started out on the path leading to that full moniker of "academic psychiatrist."
Dr. Sondheimer is affiliated with UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ. Dr. Thomas is currently at Yale Medical School.