The Personal Touch

The BCRP is a family made up of over 150 residents, program directors and administrative staff. Many residents have recently moved to Boston, some with partners and young children and all are working hard to balance their busy professional and personal lives. We value providing a strong support network for our residents, and we strive to give the BCRP community as many opportunities as possible to spend time together outside the hospital.

Intern Orientation

New interns participate in a unique two-week orientation before their first day of work. This time is dedicated to helping interns explore Boston, learn their way around the hospitals, take care of logistics such as PALS and NRP training, and – most importantly – get to know their new BCRP family so they can hit the ground running having already forged many lifelong friendships. During Intern Orientation, incoming interns benefit from structured programming that highlights a variety of important areas such as career planning, working with interpreters, calling consults, inter-professional communication, imposter syndrome, and resident wellness. They participate in simulations at the Boston Children’s Hospital Immersive Design Systems, which is a human-centered design lab. Our simulations are designed to teach residents how to perform common procedures as well as how to respond to acute patients.

We plan social events throughout Intern Orientation with residents and members of our leadership team in the evening so we can all get to know each other and enjoy the summer sunlight together! Some annual events include:

Interns eating lobster with program director Ted Sectish at the annual Clam Bake

Traditional New England clambake and lobster fest
Red Sox games
Chief Family Dinners
Happy Hours
And more…

Mentorship, Coaching, and Advising

The BCRP strives to provide the best possible educational experience for each and every resident, to foster personal and professional growth, and to encourage the pursuit of individual passions. Our program prides itself on carefully guiding residents along their chosen career path in order to help them become leaders in clinical care, research, medical education, quality improvement, advocacy, or other areas of their choosing. We believe that people need multiple mentors along multiple domains to accelerate their careers and maintain their drive. We provide multiple avenues for this, with built-in opportunities to connect residents with personal, project, and longitudinal mentorship. We also have a dedicated resident coaching program, in which every resident is paired with a faculty coach.

Enjoying a rooftop view of Boston at a chief family dinner

Career Mentorship

Personal mentoring often occurs at the level of the Chief Family—a cohort of about 30 residents led by a Chief Resident. Families are also broken down into smaller, nuclear families with junior and senior residents serving as “big sibling” mentors for interns. Siblings and Chiefs often advocate for residents in many forums and provide near-peer guidance on personal and professional balance.

For URiM residents, MentorMed is a structured opt-in mentorship program within the BCRP that matches URiM residents with URiM faculty for longitudinal mentorship. Often, faculty share similar backgrounds, research interests, and other commonalities which residents have found to be extremely helpful in navigating their early carriers in medicine.

Residents also often use their specific Academy (discussed more in depth elsewhere) to find faculty mentors who can assist with identifying project or research opportunities. The Academy’s Faculty Advisors, affiliated faculty members, and Chief Residents organize specific opportunities for residents to identify faculty mentors through networking events, career nights, and research-in-progress events, among others. Well-connected faculty members who are experts in their field often then become sponsors for residents to launch their careers as well.

Pizza making party sponsored by event Bob Vinci, our previous department chair, at his home

Medical Education Mentorship

Residents are paired with a faculty coach during their resident-as-teacher TEACH rotation, which is a rotation focused specifically on building skills as an educator. They are assigned a faculty coach with a background in medical education. Their TEACH coach guides the resident through their TEACH rotation and provides feedback and guidance on teaching, supervising and giving feedback. Residents deliver chalk talks and noon conferences throughout this rotation and receive feedback from their coach.

Coaching Program

Our newly developed coaching program provides an additional layer of coaching focused on professional, clinical and career growth tailored to each resident’s goals. Residents meet with their Chief parent, clinical coach, and other program leadership regularly to discuss their clinical performance and career aspirations. In these meetings, residents receive feedback from peer and faculty assessments, and discuss progress made towards individual personal and professional goals identified in their Individualized Learning Plans.

Housestaff Lounge

The Housestaff Lounge at Boston Children’s Hospital is a recently renovated, casual space dedicated to BCRP residents. It contains workspaces with computers, printer, a fax/scanner and individual mailboxes; a Keurig coffee machine with free coffee and tea; a microwave and a full-size refrigerator (stocked with seltzers and soda); and a 50-inch HD television with surround sound. Residents use this room to relax, to gather for informal meetings, and for various morning and lunchtime conferences. The BCRP also has their own Peloton bike that is located in one of the resident call rooms with a shared account open for all residents to use throughout the year.