What is the most important lesson you learned during residency training that will help you be a successful and accomplished fellow?

Spend time thinking about the important lessons you learned during residency, focusing on the ones you will carry with you for the rest of your career. Give an unconventional example of something you learned outside of clinical competency to help you stand out from other candidates.

"The most important lesson I learned was to not let my work become too routine. By the time I started PGY-2, I was used to regularly seeing certain conditions. After a while, it seemed like I could predict patients' histories before even meeting them. Fortunately, one of my attending physicians warned me against this mindset because it can be easy to overlook small details that could have potentially devastating effects on a patient's outcome. He taught me that no symptom should go uninvestigated and I vowed to be thorough in my approach for every single patient. As an aspiring fellow, I will certainly uphold this standard of care and give every patient my utmost attention."