An Overview of This Year's Trainee-Authored Letters to the Editor

Abstract

Academic Medicine 's call for trainee-authored letters to the editor, which has occurred annually since 2016, has successfully provided a forum for collecting and amplifying trainee perspectives. In the latest call in 2022, trainees shared a transformative moment that occurred during their educational journey and how it shaped their identity as a health professional. In this Commentary, 2 members of the journal's staff provide a brief retrospective of the annual call using key demographics of published letters and letter writers. The authors then delve into the published letters from the 2022 call. To showcase the myriad of transformations described, they conceptualize 3 themes that best characterize these special moments: (1) reshaping the trainee experience through advocacy; (2) exploring humanism, morals, and relationality; and (3) finding one's mark within medicine. In addition, to display the depth and richness of transformative moments, the authors include an in-depth analysis of the letters by sampling those that were identified to each theme. In this overview, they hope to present readers with inspiration from trainees around the globe and invite them to reflect on and identify the significant experiences encountered in their own educational journey that altered their professional identity.