November 2023 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.

Help us highlight the kindness, clinical judgement, resourcefulness, and work ethic.

Nominate a resident/intern for Housestaff of the month or just share something good.

November 2023 Inpatient Resident of the Month
Shannon Coombs

Shannon resident did a fantastic job leading the team as a senior on Cards Firm. She built a team culture that was supportive, efficient and fun, and I know her interns really enjoyed their time working with her, as did I! She struck a great balance between giving her interns autonomy while also running through their plans and ensuring they felt comfortable asking questions. This can be a challenging thing to balance, even as an experienced senior, but she identified and adapted her style to what each intern needed. She took care of her team and their well-being: buying them food, checking in when she sensed something was off, and even sending her intern home when they were sick and res-interning/admitting patients herself on a call day. Her sense of ownership over the team was evidenced by her afternoon rounding on her own to check in, or being the one to sign out a patient escalated to the MICU. Her patient communication was excellent, and I watched her expertly lead a goals of care conversation and comfort a patient’s family after transitioning the patient to comfort care. (She actually led a few other family discussions, but I wasn’t even there because I felt so confident in her ability to lead the discussion!)

November 2023 Inpatient Resident of the Month
Malek Ayoub

Malek resident was a phenomenal senior resident to have on a busy, busy service. He is a self-proclaimed “black cloud” (somehow attracting recurrently complex and critically-ill patients to his service), however he clearly leans into this nature, constantly remaining curious and engaged for enhanced learning, coming away with very appropriate management plans.

He is a machine of bright, jovial, unending energy, which creates the foundation for a thoroughly enjoyable atmosphere that is approachable for all learners; this was easily observed on a daily basis. His interns had just-the-right level of oversight to allow for individual growth, but was always available as a safety net.

Additionally, his kindness and empathy immediately shines through to his patients, with an incredible bedside composure that utilizes simple “touch” at the bedside. Whether it’s holding a hand or rubbing a shoulder during conversations, it is a skillset of such smooth execution that is otherwise rarely seen demonstrated this well at bedside.
He will shine in whatever future role he holds, this much is clear.

November 2023 Inpatient/Outpatient Intern of the Month
Ashton Naumann

Ashton is one of the best interns I’ve worked with. His medical knowledge is excellent, and he synthesizes information really well to put together a clear picture of what is going on, even for complex patients. He’s efficient and thorough, and I had a few different consultants reach out to comment on how effectively he summarized a patient case and articulated a consult questions. He asks nuanced questions that are beyond the level of most interns, and is seems very comfortable independently suggesting management plans based on his own reading/research. It seems like Ashton genuinely loves learning and practicing medicine – he sought out unusual exam findings and helped think of a differential even on the patients who weren’t his. Great patient communication, including managing some patients with challenging interpersonal interactions – his patients and their families definitely saw him as their primary doctor!

Ashton saw multiple medically complex patients during his clinic block this month. His presentations were well-organized and demonstrated that he had a good understanding of which problems were the highest priority to address. With one of his initial office visits, he was able to quickly establish a trusting provider-patient relationship that will undoubtedly benefit that patient’s care as long as Ashton is his PCP.