June 2026 Kudos and Awards

Thank you, residents and interns, for all you do for one another and for your patients. Though often under-appreciated, your work does not go unnoticed. 
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Help us highlight the kindness, clinical skills, and work ethic: submit here.

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Residents of the Month

Alyssa Bren, MD

She was an outstanding senior. I learned so much from her, especially about how to effectively lead and manage a team as we approached the end of intern year. I particularly admired her organization (special shoutout to the daily printed tables!), and how it improved team efficiency and patient care.

I would like to nominate Dr Alyssa Bren as one the residents of the month. Our team has had the chance to work with Dr Bren during the last 2 months during her Medicine and Palliative Care rotations. Dr Bren worked with very complex patients with multiple medical, social and psychological problems, she was able to effectively navigate very complex disposition plans for a patient with end-stage dementia, she always showed empathy, respect and excellent bedside manners to assure the patient’s goals were honored; always showing a very mature and comprehensive approach no matter how many obstacles needed to overcome to assure a safe discharge for this patient During her rotation with our team Dr Bren continued to show a very impressive depth of knowledge that allowed her to make good and reasonable medical decisions and recommendations for the patients she was following; Dr Bren was from the beginning very comfortable discussing end-of-life issues, and cases of uncurable illness with patients and families; the way she conducted those discussions allowed the families to feel reassured about the medical care their loved ones were receiving. I think Dr Bren deserves to be recognized because of her empathy, and bedside manners with patients, excellent medical knowledge, and leadership skills.

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John Davis

I would like to nominate John Davis for Resident of the Month based on his exceptional performance during our recent nights rotation, where he consistently demonstrated the clinical excellence, commitment to intern development and teaching, and mentorship that define an outstanding resident. It goes without saying that John’s clinical judgment is unrivaled, and this excellence was evident night after night. He, along with the other seniors on service managed a high-acuity service with composure and precision, and his decision-making reflected both strong fundamentals and the kind of pattern recognition that comes from genuine mastery of internal medicine. Other seniors would often turn to him for advice. Additionally, what set John apart was his refusal to let the demands of a busy nights service compress his teaching. He could have simply triaged our patient care issues and moved on, but instead he consistently made time to teach. He tailored formal teaching sessions to topics we specifically asked to learn about, ensuring the material was directly relevant to our development.

Beyond these structured sessions, he was equally invested in bedside teaching, using real patient encounters as opportunities to reinforce clinical reasoning in the moment. John went well beyond the standard of supervision expected of a resident. He took the time to identify specific areas of excellence and growth for each intern individually, then delivered structured midpoint and end-of-rotation feedback tailored to each of us, which reflected that he had been paying close attention to each intern’s individual trajectory and was invested in our specific development, not just the team’s output. Perhaps most valuable was the environment John created. He gave us the latitude to make decisions and grow into our roles as new physicians, while ensuring that his oversight meant patients were never at risk. That balance, pushing us to build confidence and competence while providing a genuine safety net, is difficult to strike and John did it consistently. He also fostered a space where asking questions never felt like a failure, which made us more willing to voice uncertainty and, in turn, learn more. Beyond the clinical and academic support, John was also personally generous with his encouragement. He proactively reached out to check in on our growth, explicitly invited feedback on how he could better support us, and made clear that he saw mentorship as a two-way relationship rather than an obligation. For these reasons, I believe John Davis embodies exactly what a truly excellent resident should be: a physician who elevates the people around him, through deliberate, individualized investment in their growth, rather than through their clinical excellence alone.

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Intern of the Month

Tintin Nguyen

A very low inhibition dementia patient was so mean to him, and he reassured the patient with grace. I was very impressed by his maturity. The patient is known to me and has been unkind to me in the past, and the way Dr. Nguyen responded was the way as an intern was just monumentally impressive and compassionate. We touched base later via email. I don’t think I’ll have trainees see her in the future, and am so relieved that Dr. Nguyen handled the situation with the resilience and good attitude of an attending physician. I want him to know that although the patient was unkind and lacked insight, his response was just so impressive to me as a geriatrician and I hope he knows how great he is.

Kudos

This group of interns was phenomenal on their very first rotation — firm nights! I watched them all grow tremendously in a very short period of time, continuing to appropriately ask their seniors for backup but consistently developing in their own clinical reasoning skills to better approach everything from cross-cover issues to complex new admissions. So proud of them!