Starting residency can feel overwhelming. New city, new hospital, new responsibilities, and suddenly everyone expects you to know what you're doing.

In this episode of Cut & Tell, graduating plastic surgery resident Dr. Liz Malphrus shares her most requested advice for incoming interns. Drawing on six years of residency experience, she breaks down the physical, cognitive, and psychological strategies that helped her survive, and ultimately thrive, during training.

From building sustainable study habits and protecting your sleep to finding community, seeking therapy, and learning how to navigate the constant feeling of not knowing enough, this episode is a practical guide for anyone beginning residency.

Topics discussed:

• Intern year survival tips
• Physical readiness: sleep, food, movement, and gear
• Building effective study habits during residency
• Learning from your patients
• How to study when you have no free time
• Finding community in a new city
• Managing stress, anxiety, and burnout
• Why therapy can be an important part of residency
• Personal mantras that helped through training
• What every new intern should know

Whether you're starting residency this summer or simply remember what it felt like to be an intern, this episode is a reminder that you don't have to figure everything out on day one.

Host: Liz Malphrus, MD

Connect with Liz: https://www.hippocratic-collective.com/members/liz-malphrus-md

IG: @dr.malphrus

Produced By: The Hippocratic Collective

Subscribe to @hippocraticcollective on Youtube for all of the other shows and content the Hippocratic Collective has to offer.

Residents today earn roughly the same inflation-adjusted salary as residents did decades ago. So why does training feel so much more financially difficult?

In this episode of Cut & Tell, plastic surgery resident Dr. Liz Malphrus explores the economic realities facing modern trainees—from exploding medical school debt and rising housing costs to childcare expenses, delayed financial independence, and the growing gap between resident compensation and the true cost of becoming a physician.

This is the second installment in the "Back in My Day" series, examining how residency has changed over time. Rather than debating which generation had it harder, Dr. Malphrus argues that the conditions surrounding medical training have fundamentally changed—and that understanding those changes is essential if we want to improve graduate medical education.

Topics discussed:

• Resident salaries then vs. now
• Medical school debt and rising education costs
• GME funding and resident compensation
• Housing, childcare, and cost-of-living pressures
• Why many residents struggle financially despite being physicians
• The changing demographics of residency training
• Single-parent households and residency
• Why "back in my day" misses the bigger picture
• Moving beyond the suffering Olympics in medicine

Cut & Tell explores the realities of surgical training, medicine, and the systems shaping physician life today.

Subscribe for new episodes and visit the Hippocratic Collective for more conversations about the future of medicine.

Attendings often tell stories about residency "back in the day" - more autonomy, more responsibility, more independence. But was training really better, or has the entire system changed?

In this episode of Cut & Tell, plastic surgery resident Dr. Liz Malphrus explores why modern residents often report feeling less prepared for independent practice despite performing similar case volumes to previous generations. From duty-hour debates and supervision requirements to RVU-based compensation and the growing pressure for clinical productivity, she examines the structural forces reshaping surgical education.

This isn't a conversation about whether residency is easier or harder. It's about understanding how the training environment has changed, and what that means for autonomy, burnout, and the future of medical education.

Topics discussed:

• Why case numbers don't tell the whole story
• Resident autonomy and surgical confidence
• The impact of RVU-based compensation on teaching
• Academic medicine's productivity pressures
• Why more residents pursue fellowship training
• The relationship between autonomy and burnout
• How surgical education has evolved over the past two decades
• What attendings and residents can learn from each other

Cut & Tell is a podcast exploring the realities of surgical training, medicine, and life beyond the operating room.

Subscribe for new episodes and visit the Hippocratic Collective for more conversations about the culture of medicine.

What if the most important lessons of residency aren't found in a textbook?

With graduation just days away, Liz shares the three pieces of writing that most shaped her understanding of medicine, residency, and life beyond training. From the realities of surgical culture and physician burnout to the hidden history of American healthcare and the power of personal agency, these recommendations offer a framework for understanding not just residency, but your place within the system.

In this episode, Liz discusses:

- Why Surgeon on the Edge by Frances Mei Hardin is the residency memoir she recommends over The House of God

- What The Social Transformation of American Medicine reveals about the forces shaping modern healthcare

- Why the essay How to Be More Agentic by Kate Hall may be the most important 10-minute read for physicians

- How understanding systems can make you a more effective doctor

- The mindset shifts Liz wishes she had before starting residency

Whether you're a medical student, resident, attending physician, or simply interested in the realities of modern medicine, this episode offers a practical reading list for anyone trying to make sense of the profession, and build a career with intention.

🎧 New episodes of Cut & Tell every Thursday.

What makes a good resident? And beyond that — what actually makes someone great?

In this episode of Cut & Tell, Dr. Liz Malphrus breaks down the unwritten skills of residency that no one formally teaches: anticipation, adaptability, reading the room, emotional resilience, communication, and learning how to survive medicine without becoming robotic in the process.

From OR etiquette and closed-loop communication to social anxiety, burnout, and the strange art of staying positive during training, this is an honest conversation about the human side of becoming a doctor.

Whether you’re a medical student, intern, resident, or just trying to survive a high-pressure environment, this episode is a candid look at the traits that actually matter — and why all of them can be learned.

Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest.

https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/my-six-stages-of-learning-to-be-a

Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest.

In this episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus opens up about the failures, regrets, rejections, and detours that never make it onto a CV. From getting a C in biology at Columbia, to losing out on a White House job she thought would define her future, to walking away from a career in music — Liz reflects on the moments she once believed had ruined everything.

This is a conversation about perfectionism, identity, career pivots, rejection, and the pressure in medicine to package every setback into a clean success story. Instead of a polished resume, this episode is an anti-resume: a candid look at the messy reality behind becoming a doctor.

If you’ve ever felt behind, rejected, uncertain, or like your path hasn’t gone according to plan — this one’s for you.

🎧 New episodes of Cut & Tell every Thursday.

Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest.

In this episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus gets real about the hidden economics of residency training, and why so many residents feel trapped, undervalued, and burned out before they ever become attendings.

With just weeks left before finishing plastic surgery residency, Liz reflects on what she wishes someone had told her on day one: know your worth.

She shares:

• Why residency is a job—not “just training”
• How the system keeps residents financially powerless
• The reality of working 80-hour weeks for low pay
• Why residents can’t simply “leave” like other professionals
• The emotional and financial cost of medical training
• How healthcare depends on resident labor
• Why anger about the system may actually be justified
• What needs to change for the next generation of physicians

From pandemic ICU shifts to the culture of silence in medicine, this is an unfiltered conversation about labor, identity, sacrifice, and the true cost of becoming a doctor.

If you’ve ever wondered why residents are burning out, or lived through it yourself, this episode will hit hard.

🎧 New episodes of Cut & Tell every Thursday.

Cut & Tell is where medicine gets honest.

In this first episode, Dr. Liz Malphrus, a plastic surgery chief resident, opens up about what residency is actually like, beyond the polished narratives. From the hidden curriculum of training to the emotional weight of becoming a surgeon, this is a candid look at the parts of medicine that are usually left unsaid.

She shares:

• Why residency culture is built on silence
• The paradox of learning on real patients
• How competition and comparison evolve over time
• Why the first year in practice may be the hardest
• The problem with traditional “advice”
• And what it means to document this transition in real time

This episode sets the tone for the show: unfiltered conversations about training, identity, and the reality of becoming a physician.

If you’ve ever wondered what residency is really like—or lived it yourself—this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.

🎧 New episodes of Cut & Tell every Thursday.