In this episode, Dr. Ashley Womack describes her path to OB/GYN as a faithful Catholic, from college through medical school and residency. Her residency experienced a culture shift after interviews and she had to get creative and stay diplomatic to navigate her family planning rotation. Learn about this and more in this exciting episode.

Hear Dr. Voltz’s whole story of a journal to medicine out of police work, going through residency with conscience-based decisions, and practice in conformity with his conscience. This episode is filled with references to Dr. Voltz’s beliefs, but also full of evidence that professionals who practice in accord with their conscience are focused on good things for others, not on saying “no.” Find out how Dr. Voltz made residency work with a family and without doing abortion, contraception, or sterilization.

Have you ever doubted that you could do OB/GYN, dismissing the idea that you can be an OB/GYN because of your beliefs and choices? Do you wonder how to phrase things, how to follow up after interviews about your decisions, and how to navigate interview season? How do you tell your co-residents? Then this episode is for you.

Dr. Elizabeth Champagne walks us through her dramatic journey from believing she couldn’t or shouldn’t go into OB/GYN, through the decision to go into OB/GYN, to the details of her interview season in OB/GYN.

CIR’s biggest demographic is third- and fourth-year medical students who want to go into obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), but who also want to make choices about their practice based on their consciences. They have heard other senior colleagues say they have freedom to choose not to do abortions, sterilizations, prescribe contraceptives (some or all), or provide methotrexate. But these students don’t want to wait until they are attendings or faculty, to be happy with their choices at work. They want to enact their free will and act according to their consciences even as interns, but they don’t know how to ask permission to do that in a culture that might stand in a very contrary direction. This episode discusses this in detail with Dr. Abigail Finder, an OB/GYN resident at Tulane. Find out how she navigated interview season: how did she word her questions, how did she choose her rank list, and how did CIR help her?

If you think CIR can help you, just email [email protected] with a request for coaching. It’s free and focused on you and your beliefs.

We are introducing a way to learn about Conscience in Residency on the go, because students’ and residents’ time comes at a premium. Listen to us on your commute or when you’re resting at home, maybe when you get a chance to exercise or tidy up. In today’s episode, we spend just a few minutes talking about CIR itself and what we do, and about what this podcast plans to provide for you. We hope you stay tuned!

Reach out to us at [email protected] with questions about this episode.