Success and Kindness with Dr. Melissa Briones

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. Where do kindness and success intersect? Today, Dr. Melissa Briones makes an excellent point about the changing definition of success: As we evolve, we might find that success becomes less about personal gain, and more about enriching the lives of others. And when we realize that kindness most often means putting others first—we realize that success and kindness work in tandem. Dr. Briones also advises us that adapting organized habits and good time management skills are important to start now. And that lessons in compassion are of the most valuable to us as physicians. She leaves us with this: Patients will never know your board scores, but within thirty seconds they will know whether they feel comfortable putting their health in your hands. 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.