Medical residents to be feted during week of recognition

Residents, the new physicians just out of medical school assigned to teaching hospitals, are usually the little-recognized workhorses of medicine.

That will change for the next five days during the region’s first Resident Recognition Week, April 17-21.

“This has never been done here before,” says Karen Goodman, president of the Capitol Area Health Consortium, one of two administrative units overseeing residency programs for nearly 600 physicians.

“Resident Recognition Week is time set aside to say ‘thank you’ for the care and compassion they provide to patients.”

The popular image of a resident is that of a harried, overworked and underpaid young physician, and that’s true in a sense.

But residents now are limited by law to the amount of hours they work, are better compensated than they used to be, and manage to have some time off.

Depending upon the specialty, a residency could last from four to seven years before the doctor is eligible to be licensed to practice medicine.

The week celebrates residents’ youth and vigor, compassion and skill, and cheerfulness and optimism.

At the Health Center, celebratory banners will hang in conference rooms and administrators will give residents grab bags filled with goodies.

Hospitals other than the Health Center are participating, too.

The Hartford Hospital and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center administrations, for instance, are writing personal letters of thanks and recognition to their residents.