About Bilal Bari, MD, PhD
Resident Perspective
“Residency will be over before you know it.” This was a sentiment I couldn’t fathom when I started intern year and one I now find myself repeating as I start off PGY-4 year. Reflecting on the experience, residency has been a tremendous opportunity of learning, growth, and development of lifelong friendships. The past three years have not been without their challenges; there are simply too many demands on one’s time to fulfill all personal and professional obligations without sacrifices. Despite this, there is nothing else I would rather have spent the last three years doing, and I’m honored and humbled to develop as a psychiatrist and scientist in the MGH/McLean psychiatry residency.
They say you don’t know what you don’t know and my first day of residency on Blake 11, our inpatient med-psych unit, brought that sentiment into sharp focus. Patient complexity and patient care doesn’t slow down when you’re a fresh intern, and I found myself inundated with leading patient interviews all the while juggling formulations, medications, progress notes, discharge summaries, new admissions, and more. Yet somehow, I never became overwhelmed. I was deeply supported by my co-interns, senior residents, Blake chief residents, and attendings. Days turned into weeks and I discovered that early challenges became rote, allowing me to develop my skills as a psychiatrist. By the end of my Blake 11 rotations, I discovered a personal ease in conducting challenging interviews, thinking through formulations, and developing treatment courses, all the while handling the myriad tasks required of interns, and never once did I find myself unsupported by my colleagues.
This experience was a microcosm of my greater residency experience. I spent my medicine months at MGH, which had similar high demands. My very first day was a call shift on the Bigelow service, where I would spend 24 hours in the hospital caring for over two dozen patients and admitting new patients overnight who I would present to the team the next morning. Like my time on Blake 11, I was immediately well supported, and even managed to get rest that very first night. While the patient acuity has waxed and waned, the sense of community in the hospital has been a constant.
As a research resident in the PSTP, I thought I would need to de-prioritize my research interests to match the demands of residency. Early on, I was pleasantly surprised to discover enough time throughout various rotations to keep my working moving forward, as well as initiate new projects. One exciting project I completed during this time was a cross-sectional study (new territory for me!) assessing the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency in our Blake 11 med-psych inpatients. This was an opportunity that only developed because of my time on Blake 11, highlighting a synergy between the clinic and research. Starting PGY-3 year, the time for research expanded substantially and now in PGY-4 year, I take advantage of 70-80% protected time each week to continue to develop my work.
On a personal note, I moved to the Boston area with my wife and our 11-year-old dog. We quickly fell in love with Cambridge and felt right at home with the small-town, communal feel of the city. We recently welcomed our now 10-month-old daughter into our lives and discovered that Cambridge is an amazing city for raising a child! We look forward to continuing to grow in this community.
The highlights of this program are the people, the sense of camaraderie, and the emphasis on clinical rigor. With residency nearly finished and graduation just around the corner, I look back fondly on my time and I am thankful for the opportunity to have grown professionally in this program.