From the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors: JOYS OF BEING A PROGRAM DIRECTOR

The role of a Program Director often involves handling multiple tasks on a daily basis. I recently had a particularly difficult week. First, I was notified that my 4-year-old program only filled 3 out of 6 positions in the Match. All I really knew about the SOAP was that I never wanted to go through the process. So, I spent the better part of the week making phone calls to potential candidates while wondering what went wrong with our interview and selection process. We were fortunate to acquire 3 quality resident candidates. I was still reeling from an administrative hearing the previous week. The hearing had overturned my decision not to renew one of my resident’s contracts. As I was working on this issue, 1 of my full-time faculty members told me of her decision to leave our program in order to accept a position at the medical school. With little advance notice, I was going to be left with only 2.5 faculty FTEs for 18 residents. Finally, to cap off my week, I was asked to fill in as interim Family Medicine Department Chair. As I sat in my office trying to finish up the work for the week on Friday afternoon, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that this was not a job that I had signed up for. I was overwhelmed, exhausted, and looking forward to the weekend