by Dr. Darlene Tad-y MD
The work of an academic hospitalist is never the same from one day to the next. Clinical patient care, medical education and scholarship are all part of what I get to do every single day. The photos below highlight why I love my career! I also have opportunities to add in different types of work as an academician, including teaching and scholarship.
Consulting with neurology colleagues.
Our Teaching Rounds
Without a doubt, the care of patients in the hospital is a major part of my day-to-day. As a hospitalist, I get to see a wide variety of patients who are acutely ill. Because I practice general medicine, the diversity of illnesses I see always makes clinical care exciting and challenging. As an academic hospitalist, I also have the responsibility and benefit of providing top-notch patient care as part of training residents and students.
Residents in the hematology lab, looking at a peripheral smear.
Reviewing patient films with radiology colleagues.
In these photos, our team gathers at the bedside of our patient with our neurology colleagues, visits our hematology lab to look at our patient’s peripheral smear, and reviews our patient’s films with our radiology colleagues. My role as a hospitalist allows me to be at the center of patient care, coordinating teammates and subspecialists and putting the whole picture together.
Teaching outside the “Clinical Classroom”
In addition to teaching in the hospital, I also stay up-to-date with our residents and colleagues at Journal Club.
Journal Club with residents.
Because medicine evolves so rapidly, keeping up with the newest literature is critical to providing the best evidence-based medicine.
Being a mentor and advisor to residents and students at the outset of their careers is also a wonderful and satisfying role. In addition, hospitalists are uniquely positioned to be able to teach about quality improvement and patient safety, as these are topics that we know very well through our quality and safety work in the hospital.
Teaching quality and patient safety with hospitalist colleagues.
Being Part of the Discussion
Scholarship and publishing research or quality improvement work is very important as it allows us to be part of the discussion outside of our local institutions. Presenting in poster sessions at regional or national meetings allows me to be part of those larger conversations. In this photo, we are sharing our work with national hospitalist colleagues at the RIV poster sessions at the Rocky Mountain Hospital Medicine Symposium.
Poster session at Rocky Mountain Hospital Medicine Symposium 2014.
To learn more about a career in hospital medicine, watch SHM’s newly released video on YouTube, Busting Myths about Being a Hospitalist, the second in a series of five videos about a career in hospital medicine.
Darlene Tad-y, MD
Dr. Tad-y is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine where she is an academic hospitalist, Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program and Hospitalist Training Program, and the GME Director for Quality and Safety Innovation.
Dr. Tad-y has had a long-standing interest in medical education, specifically in curricular and program development around systems improvement and safety, hospital medicine, and learner assessment and program evaluation. Since joining the faculty at CU, she has helped to build the quality and safety curriculum for both the Hospitalist Training Program and the Internal Medicine Residency, as well as the Leaders Track of the Hospitalist Training Program. Her work has included curricular content for hospitalist residents around business of medicine, career development, quality and safety, in addition to the creation of a Systems-Based Morbidity and Mortality conference. Dr. Tad-y recently joined the faculty of CU’s Institute for Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency working to integrate students and residents into quality and safety initiatives.
Dr. Tad-y attended St. George’s University, followed by residency at Lutheran Medical Center, and completed a 2-year fellowship in Academic Hospital Medicine at Johns Hopkins focused on medical education. When she’s not teaching trainees or seeing patients, Darlene takes full advantage of the Colorado outdoors, including rock climbing, hiking, and skiing.
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