Resident Life in Dallas
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is a culturally diverse metropolitan region with a thriving culinary scene, world-renowned arts districts, major professional sports teams, trendy entertainment venues, and unparalleled shopping opportunities. The region includes more than 200 cities, each with its own identity and character, and is home to more than 7.6 million residents. With X+Y schedules on both categorical sides, residents have their golden weekends to really enjoy all that Dallas and the surrounding area has to offer.
Socials, Retreats, and More!
- UTSW Med-Peds “Nations”: Water, Earth, Fire and Air – each incoming intern is welcomed into a new nation who can help them “bend” their way through residency. Each nation comprises a resident from each academic class, allowing for the organic development of support and sponsorship across residency classes.
- Pediatrics Intern Retreat: Every year, residents enjoy a weekend excursion outside of town for some R&R and lots of fun outdoors activities. It’s a great time to strengthen friendships on the pediatric categorical side. Residents also get a chance to come together and reflect on the intern experience through guided workshops and activities.
- Internal Medicine Intern Day Off: During the Internal Medicine Day Off, seniors cover for the interns so they can have a day to themselves with program-sponsored activities. It is a great time to unwind and get to know other residents.
- Switch Party: In preparation for the switches between Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, residents get together and swap stories and advice for the transition. It’s also a great excuse to hang out and enjoy some great food together.
- Transitioning to Senior-ing Social:The transition from intern to senior can be a challenge, and often feels daunting. The Transitioning to Senior Social is a time to remind the PGY-2s that they have the entire Med-Peds family behind them to support them through this switch. Participants also discuss logistics and reflect on shared experiences.
- Med-Peds Town Hall: The residency program and program leadership meet twice annually in the UT Southwestern Faculty Club to discuss the state of UTSW Med-Peds. We seek to be a residency program that fosters open discussion of concerns and facilitates positive change based on resident feedback.
- Journal Club and Med-Peds Trivia: Conferences chairs have made education and board-prep enjoyable and interactive with creative approaches like Med-Peds Trivia Hour. Recent trivia nights have been held at a local brewery, enabling residents to engage in friendly competition over a drink and some pizza.
- Happy Hours: Frequent Happy Hours with Dr. Bufkin encourage informal discussions of concerns and suggestions and have resulted in real changes to the program. It is also a chance to get together to catch-up as a program outside of work.
- Holiday Parties and More: Getting to be a part of three programs means three times the holiday parties and graduation celebrations. The annual white elephant gift exchange at our Med-Peds Holiday Party is a favorite tradition.
- ALOHA! Farewelcome: As “Aloha” means both hello and good-bye, our annual Texas-luau themed Farewelcome serves an opportunity to welcome our intern class while saying “see you soon” to our Med-Peds graduates.