Support for residents’ spouses
I spoke at a coordinator retreat at the University of Connecticut a couple weeks ago and got into a conversation about their system-wide spouse organization.
This group was developed as a support network for the residents’ spouses across all their graduate medical education training programs. The organization offers social activities and disseminates information regarding shopping, child care, housing, etc.
Our department chair’s wife started a similar organization for the spouses and significant others of our surgical residents. It is just getting underway this year.
It would be great to hear from those of you who also offer this type of organization. What types of activities do they do? Do you talk about this as part of your recruitment strategy? Leave a comment below!
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Ruth Nawotniak
Ruth Nawotniak is cofounder and first president of the National Board for Certification of Training Administrators of Graduate Medical Education (TAGME).
Ruth has written 18 posts.
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We have a housestaff “spouse” group at the health system here. They are very organized, have presidents, committees, etc. They are very proactive about contacting incoming residents. I don’t use it as a recruiting tool, but i do highlight it as a resource early on during the post-match, pre-orientation process.
At the University of Missouri-Columbia, the GME Office helps support a “Network for Resident Spouses”. This group has elected officers and holds monthly luncheons, organizes a special luncheon in July to include “new” spouses, and also hosts a Picnic in September (in addition to setting up a support system for daycare and other outings). This group also puts together informational packets about Columbia for new recruits (housing, banking, entertainment, etc.) They are great!
Not yet, but this is something I’m certainly going to place on my agenda to discuss with my program Chair and this years Chiefs. Thanks for this tip!
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