A Conversation with Dr. Melissa Briones

“Success was more about me when I was younger, and trying to forge my path into medicine. Now it’s more about using my skillset to enrich the lives of others as much as I can.”

Bio

Melissa Briones, MD, is the Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and a Rheumatologist at Loyola University. Dr. Briones was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and attended Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine. She then stayed at Loyola to complete her Internal Medicine Residency, Chief Residency, and Rheumatology Fellowship training. She devotes much of her time as associate program director to recruiting efforts along with helping to oversee the research curriculum. Dr. Briones particularly enjoys curriculum development and teaching and is especially interested in helping residents successfully prepare for the ABIM exam. She also loves teaching medical students and serves as the Clerkship Director for the fourth year medical student subinternship wards rotation.

What was your path into becoming a clinical educator?

While Dr. Briones cannot recall any aha moments that were turning points, she does have a fascinating background. “I went through the Catholic school my whole life until I left for college, where I went to University of Wisconsin.”

“I majored in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and came back to Loyola for medical school. I always had such an interest and fascination with science, and I looked along the way for other careers that would make me happy, knowing what a long, difficult path medicine would be, and there was nothing else that had my interest the way that medicine did. I think it was just always what I was meant to do.”

Dr. Briones shared that one of the most challenging parts of her journey was the transition out of medical school and into the real world. As she states, “I think that there’s a couple of transitions in medicine that are incredibly difficult, and perhaps the most difficult is when you become an attending and all of sudden all those layers of security that you’ve grown accustomed to throughout your training, the last layer is kind of gone and it’s you. There’s no one co-signing your note, there’s no one following up on your orders. You’re making the decisions, you’re also suddenly responsible for teaching all of these new things. And it’s a huge transition, so I think there’s a lot of Imposter Syndrome that happens around that transition. There’s a lot of uncertainty, there’s a lot of reading that happens to make sure that you’re doing the right thing. It feels like an enormous responsibility.”

How did you navigate the transition from being a mentee to becoming a mentor?

“Even in the early years of your career as an attending you still need mentorship,” Dr. Briones noted. “And so you’re kind of straddling this dual role of being a mentor to other people but also needing a mentor yourself as you start to navigate the early phases of your career.”

From Dr. Briones perspective, anyone can be a mentor. “Any experience that you had can be valuable to someone else who’s going through the same things that you’ve gone through. And being generous with your time and with your story is an important thing in medicine because we need each other and we need the people who’ve done it to help the people who are going through it even though, as time changes, it is a different experience.”

How would you define a kind physician and a kind human being?

“Kindness in medicine is putting other people at the forefront,” Dr. Briones believes. “So, putting the patient at the center of what you do, or putting the learners at the center of what you do and thinking about the well-being of others, even sometimes before your own. I think it centers a lot around giving other people the benefit of the doubt.”

“As physicians, we work in a charged environment and people aren’t necessarily doing things just to upset you or not take the medication you recommended. You have to give people the benefit of the doubt, thinking that there’s probably something in their story that is affecting their behavior and the way they’re responding to you. Kindness is coming from a place of trying to understand where the other person is at.”

What have you noticed are the traits and habits of some of the most successful students and residents that you’ve trained?

“The first trait is what I call the kindergarten series. Be kind, tell the truth, do the right thing. These kindergarten type skills never go out of style. If people truly believe you’re coming from a good place with good intentions, your chances of recovery from your missteps are infinitely better.”

“The second thing would be staying humble. Medicine is a humbling profession, whether you like it or not, and no matter how experienced you are, you’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to miss details, you’re going to say the wrong thing, you’re going to make the wrong call. If you have been able to maintain your humility through these times it’s going be so much less painful, and potentially really educational, as you navigate some of those challenges.” This is where it is important to be a good team player and lean on the experiences of others.

Third, Dr. Briones believes every good physician should be intellectually curious and learn about their patients. “Not just what it takes to take care of them today, but what it takes to ensure that they leave your office, or your hospital stay with their medical problems on a more positive trajectory than before they met you. Ask the hard questions and be a change maker.”

What is one thing you wish you knew when you started medical school?

“I would say the importance of setting achievable goals and managing a calendar may be two of the most important skills that you’re going to use in medical school and residency. Even though it sounds boring, organization and time management are critical to a successful life in medicine.”

“But in addition to that, particularly at the beginning of medical school, I wish I understood that some of the most important skills in your toolbox as a physician are your compassion and your communication skills. My medical school in particular set us up for every chance at success in these realms, but in the mind of a medical student, all that matters is grades and research and Step 1 scores. The other stuff is sort of viewed as fluff.”

But as Dr. Briones points out, it is important to pay attention to those classes that might be labeled in your mind as unimportant. As she states, “They really are the skills that help you navigate the patient care world for the rest of your life.”

Pearls of Wisdom

1. When it comes to asking for help, don’t wait: Start that process now. We need to generate the experience of asking for help and receiving it so the positive cycle continues.
2. Kindness and success are more similar than we think. When our definition of success becomes more about helping others, and we realize kindness is about putting others’ first, we are able to see those two as being equal.
3. Stay humble. As a physician, you will make mistakes. But if you weren’t humble when you made them, it will really stick.