Meet the Medical Educators Behind MedStudy—Jennifer Swails, MD
We sat down with Jennifer Swails, MD to learn more about her in advance of our board review course.
Medical School: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Residency: Brigham and Women's Hospital – Internal Medicine
Current Position: Residency Program Director for the Department of Internal Medicine at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth,) Director of Interprofessional Education and Assistant Professor
Position with MedStudy: Internal Medicine Course Speaker
Dr. Swails was a first time speaker at the Internal Medicine Accelerated Review Course this fall. But, you never would have known it was her first MedStudy Course! She spoke on General Internal Medicine and was loved by our attendees. We had the chance to sit down with her and capture her advice to exam takers and why she chose a path in medicine. Sign up for 2019 courses now to hear accredited speakers like Dr. Swails.
MS: Do your residents use MedStudy at all?
JS: Of course, a lot of them use the videos and find those very useful.
MS: Are your residents watching you speak today from home?
JS: I don’t know, I think most of them use the Video Board Review that is pre-recorded and stream it online.
MS: When did you know you wanted to be a doctor?
JS: Growing up I had a friend whose sister had epilepsy. I remember when she would have the seizures we were all so afraid and didn’t know how to help her. So, I went to a conference that was all about childhood epilepsy and learning how to help people through medicine. I learned about different technology and she ended up getting this vagal nerve stimulator, which, helped her a lot. It was really inspiring, and I think starting then I knew I wanted to be a doctor.
Once I was in college I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went and worked at a camp called Camp Burnt Gin that is in South Carolina and they take care of children with chronic medical problems. After spending a whole summer working with kids who are sick and seeing both the hard part of that and the inspiring part of that and seeing the roles we had in their lives and their families lives. That is when I decided that I wanted to apply to medical school.
MS: How did you know Internal Medicine was right for you?
JS: I liked a lot of the different specialties. I decided on internal medicine because I like longitudinal patient interactions, I like complex adult medicine, and I like having the opportunity to teach.
MS: What is the most rewarding part of your current position?
JS: I love working with the residents and designing new educational experiences for both residents and students and trying to teach patient safety and team skills. Also, I love working with the patients both in my private practice where I have seen patients for years and also in the hospital where people are so acutely sick and you can really have an impact of their lives if you take good care of them.
MS: What would be your advice for residents?
JS: I think that the most important thing that residents need to realize is that the clinical work is their learning and their patients are their best teachers. The best way to learn during residency is to take excellent care of your patients and read about what is going on with them and then apply it. I think that sometimes people think that the patient care is not a part of their learning and I think that is a misconception.
MS: What advice do you have for those preparing to recertify?
JS: Trust your clinical judgement. Most of you have been in practice for so many years and to realize that you are just tweaking small things here, but overall should trust what you know. You have a lot of expertise on how to take care of a patient and are just sort of putting the icing on that cake by being at a course, so I think they should have confidence in that.
A big thank you to the knowledgeable Dr. Swails for chatting with us at #MedStudyARC! Meet more of MedStudy’s physicians by signing up for our monthly newsletter, or registering for the next Internal Medicine Course. Tell us which MedStudy physicians you want to hear from next on Twitter and Facebook.
