The tough transition from trainee to hospitalist can be a crucial time in the professional life of the hospital-medicine physician. But creating a “team” of collaborators and mentors, developing one-year goals, and identifying the resources you have available can boost the chances of success, according to a column in the Leadership and Professional Development series in the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
“Making the transition to unsupervised practice can be difficult clinically, academically, psychologically, and personally,” the authors wrote. “No amount of training can prepare you for everything the new role has to offer, so give yourself grace as you adjust.”1
The Leadership and Professional Development series, published in the journal since 2019, gives right-to-the-point, condensed advice to hospitalists in areas that might be overlooked in much of the career-oriented literature.
Dr. Jerardi
Dr. Manning
The career paths and professional development of hospitalists are, of course, shaped in part by big-splash promotions and publication of major quality-improvement achievements. But the journal series—edited by Karen Jerardi, MD, MEd, professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kimberly Manning, MD, professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta—recognizes that, just as often, hospitalists’ professional paths are determined by the smaller, day-to-day challenges that can call for diligence and finesse. The column is an attempt to help hospitalists work through these challenges.
Dr. Jerardi, who has edited the series since it began and is co-director of the division of hospital medicine at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said the column is meant to cover topics that are less likely to be explored elsewhere.
She said the series allows for a “more holistic view of hospitalists and the work we do” and is meant to “discuss topics that are less often covered in research or editorials.”
“This is for hospitalists by hospitalists, so that take-away action items feel relevant, or that is our hope,” she said. “Initially, we saw that hospitalists were asked to take on many leadership roles across health systems, and yet there was a lack of formal training in this area, and what did exist was limited to only those at higher levels of leadership.”
Dr. Jerardi has researched innovative ways to improve clinician conflict communication skills how best to support residents interested in pediatric hospital medicine fellowships, and other professional development topics.
Dr. Manning’s work has included enhancing diversity in hospital medicine and studying system structures for improving healthcare.
The topics covered in the series reflect this interest. In the piece on the transition from trainee to hospitalist, the authors—Whitney Cameron, DO, MSc, and Daniel Herchline, MD, MSEd—suggest considering during the interviewing process who might make a good mentor and scheduling one-on-one meetings to find the best fit. They also suggest exploring what the institution can offer in the way of career coaching. Beyond that, a yearly timeline can help frame short- and long-term career goals.
The authors also suggest taking advantage of the institution’s resources for onboarding and orientation, in order to get to know a center’s culture and history. They also emphasize the importance of getting feedback on performance and actively seeking it out if there is no formal process.
In another recent Leadership and Professional Development piece, authors Josue Zapata, MD, MBA, and Katie Raffel, MD, discuss a strategy to disagree with colleagues productively—a method they call DISNT, for determine value, illustrate commitment and show logic, negotiate partnerships, and transform your success into future impact.2
When deciding whether to voice dissent, they say, the positives and negatives have to be carefully weighed, including whether an outcome can really be changed, the magnitude of the impact, the hit you might get to your social capital, and disruption to the group’s decision-making process.
“Only if the positive outcomes outweigh the costs should you proceed,” the authors write.
Disagreement, when voiced, is best when you also show your commitment to the organization and when you line up allies in advance who might support your view when you bring it up, the authors write. Physicians also need to understand that if this dissent is successful, they might not get credit and need to avoid saying “I told you so,” and instead leverage the goodwill and social capital that they’ve gained by bringing about positive change.
In another recent piece—by Lauren Spaeth, DO, and Bruno Concejo, MD — the authors give tips for using the five senses to avoid excessive self-judgement throughout a workday, such as questioning what you could have done differently during an unpleasant patient encounter and allowing it to affect subsequent patient encounters.3 Paying attention to a sensory detail, such as the feel of a patient’s hand, or the smell of coffee in the hallway, can help bring you back into the moment.
When rushing from one meeting to the next, the authors write, it can be a helpful boost to stop and look out the window and take note of five things you see outside.
“This is simple but not easy, and the Buddhist proverb ‘short moments, many times’ can help us implement it,” the authors write. “We can gradually develop a habit by creating momentum throughout the day with short bursts of attention.”
Dr. Jerardi said that, when she was a fellowship director in pediatric hospital medicine, she saw that the fellows needed to learn these skills without a curriculum or other clear way to do so.
“When I started, the field was relatively new, and it would have been great to have a column like this to turn to for advice and ideas,” she said. “It also serves as a place where less research-focused hospitalists can publish to advance their own career.”
Drs. Jerardi and Manning strive for authors with a variety of backgrounds and professional experiences.
“Hospitalists do so many things, and each person can bring a unique perspective,” Dr. Jerardi said. “We like to have pediatric and adult hospitalists, folks who have done additional training and those that haven’t, those that practice in community settings and larger tertiary centers—no hospitalist job is the same, and no hospitalist is the same. We also like to see a more senior author pair with a junior author to provide mentorship and sponsorship for the junior author.”
She said she hopes readers find meaning in the series.
“I hope,” she said, “that our readers can find ways to grow, learn, and reflect on their practice when they read our column.”
Tom Collins is a medical writer based in South Florida.
References
1. Cameron W, Herchline D. Leadership & professional development: the tension in transition: moving from trainee to hospitalist. J Hosp Med. 2024;19(11):1035-1036. doi: 10.1002/jhm.13465.
2. Zapata J, Raffel K. Leadership & professional development: Strategies to disagree productively: Persuasive DISNT. J Hosp Med. 2025;20(3):271-272. doi: 10.1002/jhm.13531.
3. Spaeth LD, Álvarez Concejo B. Coming back to our senses! J Hosp Med. 2025;20(6):592-593. doi: 10.1002/ jhm.70029.