A New Mom in Residency Print

Jennifer Berebitsky is a resident at NCNM Natural Health Center.  Immediately after being offered the residency position, Jennifer found that she was pregnant.  A year later, she is walking proof that it’s difficult, but it can be done!  

 “You can make time for anything,” she said, “A little bit at a time and anything is possible.”

 

 


She went on to tell me that she has a loving husband and with a brand new baby boy, she chose not to pick up extra money through second jobs or medicinary shifts as other residents have done.  She estimated about 2/3 of her residency income of $27,000 goes towards the nanny.  As a mom, she found balance by doing things with her son like taking the baby for a walk for 30 minutes in the morning.  Compared to having a baby while in school, Jennifer says that in residency there is a sort of routine.  “Residency provided a structure.  I have a shift from 4-8 hours to be a doctor and I can come home to be a mom.”  

Since Jennifer will be moving outside of the state to start her practice, she had no need to take advantage of NCNMs facilities to begin seeing her own patients, but she does have time to plan her practice with her mentor.  She values her training at NCNM and wishes to practice another year in residency to smoothly transition to Indiana.

Jennifer says that she’s not nervous about not having enough patients when she moves to Indiana, but rather that she would like time to prepare the business end of things before she has too many patients.  How will she do this?  At increments of 7-10 days every 3 months she will take time to fly to Indiana to her rented space.  With the patient relationships she starts there she will be able to afford the travel while she is in residency at NCNM.  She will begin filing, record keeping and office maintenance early so that when her family moves, it will be well planned and easy.

When asked about the benefits of residency, Jennifer’s eyes widened, “I’ve seen so much.”  She believes the confidence she had as a primary wasn’t really enough for her comfort zone.  After being in the clinic with continued teaching for a year, Jennifer said, “I feel so much more capable as a physician.”  Being at NCNM she was also a teacher herself, having a chance to review CPD as she taught and getting to know the students who would be her colleagues in a few short years.

Residency is not just an underpaid partnership.  Since NCNM Health Center is a teaching clinic, both a challenge and advantage of the position is that residents must work with a variety of doctors.  They each have different styles; one may want to know everything about what you are doing and another may give you more freedom.  Another difference in a residency position is that residents aren’t in charge of charting a patient and they are likely to not see the patient all the way through their care.  Just as a resident is supervised by the doctor, the resident must also learn how to assert power over a primary student’s judgment if it differs from theirs.  Residency at NCNM holds lessons in working with a variety of people, positions and patients.

“Any other advice to students about residency?” I asked.

“Do one,” she said.  “…or find someone to work with intimately.  It’s important to practice with a doctor who’s been in practice and who has a style that you like.”  As for dreams and goals, Dr. Berebitsky offers this advice, “Hold that the whole way through school.  Keep those thoughts and they’ll turn into action.”