Mark Shephard, DO

A day in the life of a PGY-4 resident

My name is Mark Shephard, DO, and I am a PGY-4 psychiatry resident and the Administrative Chief Resident. I was honored to be nominated by my peers and selected to serve in this role by our residency faculty. In this chief role, I have an exciting, unique and varied day-to-day that keeps me constantly engaged and stimulated. As administrative chief, my role is as a liaison between residency leadership and residents. This allows me to advocate to leadership for my fellow residents while assisting in training/development of my co-residents/medical students and being an integral part in recruitment during match season. This academic year, I have made it a goal to never accept the status quo and to further strengthen our already great program to make my co-residents’ work fulfilling.

I am currently working in a senior resident role on our adult psychiatric inpatient unit. I arrive at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Muhlenberg at 7 a.m. and begin reviewing patient case assignments for myself and my team. Under the supervision of one of our attendings, I lead a team of two co-residents, sub-interns and third-year medical students. As we get the morning started, I check in with my colleagues, triage the plans for the day and head down to the unit to begin seeing patients. As the day progresses, we attend daily multidisciplinary collaborative rounds, check in with nursing/direct care staff on updates about our patients and coordinate with our strong psychiatric case management team. The best part of my day is working and collaborating with all these different disciplines; I cannot empathize enough the strong multidisciplinary team that allows our patients to receive the highest level of care and allows me to be effective in my role. During this busy day, my team will meet up with me and complete preliminary table rounds to discuss patients and solidify plans while also providing an educational component. Then we meet with our attending, discuss our patients further, solidify plans and provide even more education. The day is fulfilling and fun while providing high-quality care for our patients.

While I enjoy going into work every day, in the evenings or weekends, I enjoy spending time with my wife of 10 years and our 2 1/2-year-old son. My son keeps me busy playing outside, while we also love spending time around our town, walking to our local farmers’ market on weekends, boating on local waters or heading to one of the great local restaurants in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding area. When it’s just me at home, I enjoy catching up on some video games or just watching one of the many movies/shows in my backlog; and sometimes I will just rewatch “The Office” for the thousandth time. I cannot overemphasize the work-life-education balance this program has provided me to not force me to sacrifice time with my family or hobbies. My overall positive experience at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) has also led me to sign on to stay as an attending when I graduate. There is no other place I would want to further my development in my career.