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Stephen Bergin, MD[/caption]
As chief resident for Duke Regional Hospital and ambulatory medicine, Stephen Bergin, MD, spends a lot of time thinking about how to maximize learning opportunities for residents.
“A good bit of my time is dedicated to the ambulatory setting, making sure that our continuity clinic experiences are meaningful and that our residents are truly developing a good understanding of what it means to be a primary care physician,” Dr. Bergin said.
Bergin looks for opportunities to improve these learning experiences, taking advantage of the vast knowledge of Duke faculty and making sure residents have opportunities to develop relationships with their patients.
Bergin said one of his goals for his chief resident year is to highlight the role of the primary care physician.
“In a place like Duke, where we have thought leaders in so many areas, we begin to get so focused on being very specialized. It’s easy not to recognize the importance of primary care and how the primary care physician is the center of a patient’s world and how they interact with the health system,” Bergin said.
In the last year, the residency program has reorganized resident rotations at the Duke Outpatient Clinic, the program’s largest clinical training site for primary care. Bergin said residents have more opportunities to build relationships with patients. And because they work with the same attending physicians at DOC, residents receive more meaningful, long-term feedback about their performance.
The residency program also has added an ambulatory care leadership track for residents who are interested in specializing in outpatient and primary care. Residents in this track work together for three months of the year and attend focused didactic sessions.
“This track has been a vehicle to improving the ambulatory curriculum for the entire program,” Bergin said. “If you take the residents who are really excited about outpatient medicine and get them invested in change and improvement in that setting, that’s change and improvement that will trickle down.”
Bergin said these changes illustrate a question he has in mind as he looks at the clinics and opportunities for residents at ambulatory sites: “It’s not just enough to say we do it, but to ask how can we do it better,” he said.
Bergin is looking for ways to improve didactic meetings and conferences for the residency program. He said he would like to find ways to make noon conferences and similar events more interactive and to use technology to make it easier for residents at Duke Regional Hospital and other ambulatory sites to participate.
Having his own work spread across so many clinics has been a challenge for Bergin as well.
“This chief resident role in particular is unique because you have responsibilities at several sites. Figuring out how to be involved at all of those sites but not spend your whole time traveling has been one of the things that I’m still trying to fine-tune,” he said.
Bergin attended medical school at the University of Mississippi and came to Duke for residency. He said curiosity is what inspired his career in medicine.
“I’m fascinated with the complexity of medicine, and I’m drawn to how much we don’t understand,” Bergin said. “Medicine is a field with the potential for new developments and a rapidly expanding knowledge, and the challenge is incorporating new knowledge within the limitations of what we do know to impact personal health, something that is meaningful for everyone.”
During his residency, Bergin completed a global health elective at Tenweck Hospital in Bomet, Kenya, where he learned more about the importance of talking with patients.
“It’s an opportunity to really refine examination skills, to really talk with the patient and develop your diagnostic picture from your interaction at the bedside rather than the diagnostic studies we have so readily available here,” Bergin said. “I don’t know of a better way to learn how to practice medicine efficiently and in a cost-conscious manner but to do it in that setting for a while.”
In his time outside of medicine, Bergin said he likes to hike, kayak and camp with his wife. He also likes taking on home renovation projects – he renovated a house while he was in medical school.
After his chief resident year, Bergin plans to begin a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine.
Meet the chief residents:
Stephen Bergin, MD[/caption]
As chief resident for Duke Regional Hospital and ambulatory medicine, Stephen Bergin, MD, spends a lot of time thinking about how to maximize learning opportunities for residents.
“A good bit of my time is dedicated to the ambulatory setting, making sure that our continuity clinic experiences are meaningful and that our residents are truly developing a good understanding of what it means to be a primary care physician,” Dr. Bergin said.
Bergin looks for opportunities to improve these learning experiences, taking advantage of the vast knowledge of Duke faculty and making sure residents have opportunities to develop relationships with their patients.
Bergin said one of his goals for his chief resident year is to highlight the role of the primary care physician.
“In a place like Duke, where we have thought leaders in so many areas, we begin to get so focused on being very specialized. It’s easy not to recognize the importance of primary care and how the primary care physician is the center of a patient’s world and how they interact with the health system,” Bergin said.
In the last year, the residency program has reorganized resident rotations at the Duke Outpatient Clinic, the program’s largest clinical training site for primary care. Bergin said residents have more opportunities to build relationships with patients. And because they work with the same attending physicians at DOC, residents receive more meaningful, long-term feedback about their performance.
The residency program also has added an ambulatory care leadership track for residents who are interested in specializing in outpatient and primary care. Residents in this track work together for three months of the year and attend focused didactic sessions.
“This track has been a vehicle to improving the ambulatory curriculum for the entire program,” Bergin said. “If you take the residents who are really excited about outpatient medicine and get them invested in change and improvement in that setting, that’s change and improvement that will trickle down.”
Bergin said these changes illustrate a question he has in mind as he looks at the clinics and opportunities for residents at ambulatory sites: “It’s not just enough to say we do it, but to ask how can we do it better,” he said.
Bergin is looking for ways to improve didactic meetings and conferences for the residency program. He said he would like to find ways to make noon conferences and similar events more interactive and to use technology to make it easier for residents at Duke Regional Hospital and other ambulatory sites to participate.
Having his own work spread across so many clinics has been a challenge for Bergin as well.
“This chief resident role in particular is unique because you have responsibilities at several sites. Figuring out how to be involved at all of those sites but not spend your whole time traveling has been one of the things that I’m still trying to fine-tune,” he said.
Bergin attended medical school at the University of Mississippi and came to Duke for residency. He said curiosity is what inspired his career in medicine.
“I’m fascinated with the complexity of medicine, and I’m drawn to how much we don’t understand,” Bergin said. “Medicine is a field with the potential for new developments and a rapidly expanding knowledge, and the challenge is incorporating new knowledge within the limitations of what we do know to impact personal health, something that is meaningful for everyone.”
During his residency, Bergin completed a global health elective at Tenweck Hospital in Bomet, Kenya, where he learned more about the importance of talking with patients.
“It’s an opportunity to really refine examination skills, to really talk with the patient and develop your diagnostic picture from your interaction at the bedside rather than the diagnostic studies we have so readily available here,” Bergin said. “I don’t know of a better way to learn how to practice medicine efficiently and in a cost-conscious manner but to do it in that setting for a while.”
In his time outside of medicine, Bergin said he likes to hike, kayak and camp with his wife. He also likes taking on home renovation projects – he renovated a house while he was in medical school.
After his chief resident year, Bergin plans to begin a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine.
Meet the chief residents:
- Joel Boggan, MD, MPH, chief resident for quality and patient safety at the Durham VA Medical Center
- Vaishali Patel, MD, chief resident for the Durham VA Medical Center
- Krish Patel, MD, chief resident for Duke University Hospital