Most of Dr. Vineet Arora’s time is spent at the nexus of quality and graduate medical education.
When she’s not teaching residents, she’s researching the impact of their duty hours on sleep, or how they handle patient handoffs. And when she’s not studying residents, she’s inviting them to be part of her research team and advising them on the best ways to reach their career goals as hospitalists.
Dr. Vineet Arora
“That sort of keeps me going,” said Dr. Arora, assistant dean for scholarship and discovery at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Arora first became interested in research and quality improvement when she was a chief resident at the University of Chicago. In that role, she served on hospital quality committees and started looking at questions such as why weren’t blood tests always ordered in the right way. She got to thinking that these were the types of questions that researchers should be studying, but too often weren’t. And rather than working harder to fix things one at a time, she was interested in redesigning the system of care. “When I was a resident, I would always see systems problems and I’d want to fix them,” she said.
When her stint as a chief resident was up, Dr. Arora decided go back to school and get the tools she needed. Because traditional medical education didn’t prepare her to make and evaluate systems changes, she went back to get a masters in public policy. While getting that degree, she began studying the resident duty hour restrictions that went into effect in 2003, particularly one of the unintended consequences of that change: increased problems with patient handoffs.
Dr. Arora’s research on handoffs and resident sleep has been published in premier journals. With her own research career taking off, she tries to devote time to mentoring. Dr. Arora’s goal is to help her students carve out careers in hospital medicine that allow them to have time for patient care, research, and mentoring.
One piece of advice she always offers students and residents who are interested in research is to work in teams. Dr. Arora’s own research team includes other physicians, social scientists, health services researchers, and medical educators. And she includes students and residents on her team as well.
It’s a great opportunity for students and residents, but Dr. Arora says she benefits just as much. By working with a large and diverse team, she’s able to focus on broader research topics. And she knows that the research will continue even when she’s teaching, doing clinical work in the hospital, or taking a vacation. “By having a team approach, you’re able to get a lot more done,” she said.
Hospitalists who try to do research on their own, without a team and without dedicated research time, often find that they can’t get their projects off the ground, she said.
For young hospitalists and residents who are interested in research, Dr. Arora recommends two paths to distinguish themselves. The first is to consider a fellowship in hospital medicine. That training time is protected time to learn and begin a research project, she said.
The other pathway is to become a “good citizen” within the hospital. Consider taking a faculty development program in your area of interest, and volunteering to serve on committees that aren’t as popular within the hospital, such as recruitment. “Fill holes that are critically needed in your institution such that you’re indispensable,” Dr. Arora said.
Finally, Dr. Arora counsels her residents to stay focused. Dr. Arora admits that she sometimes tries to do too much, but it’s a luxury she can afford because she’s backed by a talented team of fellow researchers. For hospitalists who are just starting out, overextending themselves can be “deadly,” she said.
Her advice: Do one thing and do it well. If your interest is in clinical teaching, cultivate a focus on teaching in a specific area, such as physical exam skills. Then get further training in that area, she advised.
Reporting by Mary Ellen Schneider, Hospitalist News Digital Network