Resident Spotlight: Dr. Paris Lai, Psychiatry, Schulich Medicine - Windsor Campus
Dr. Paris Lai was born in Hong Kong and moved to Toronto at the age of five. He decided to pursue his residency in psychiatry as it integrated his interests of interviewing patients and pharmacology and he enjoys helping patients navigate the
Did you have a role model or mentor who inspired you to follow your academic path?
A combination of experiences
What has been your most rewarding experience to date in your residency?
I find working with the geriatric population extremely rewarding and I enjoy working with the patient and their family.
While on palliative care, being able to support the patients and be a part of their dignified journey toward
What has been the most challenging experience to date in your residency?
While I was on inpatient medicine, I remember I was on-call and I received nearly 10 new admissions overnight. At the same time, my pager was ringing nearly every hour and there were many issues that needed to be dealt with. It was certainly very stressful and I remember that I was essentially snacking on the go because there was no time to sit down and catch my breath. Successfully surviving the night and ensuring all my patients were safe was a very rewarding experience. It is very helpful that we have our senior residents and the critical care outreach team available for us to ask questions and to work with us so we never feel alone.
What learning from your undergraduate medical education or early residency do you return to often now as you are pursuing your residency?
Reflective practice through journaling my clinical encounters and challenging experiences has been an invaluable skill that I started during my undergraduate medical education and which I continue to
How do you maintain balance in your life?
Work-life balance is very important to me. I have to ensure I take care of myself so that I can be an effective physician. During the week, I work hard - committing myself to the patients I care for. I put everything I need to do
Rapid Round:
If you were to create a slogan for your life, what would it be?
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
What are three albums that give a glimpse of who you are as a person?
I tend to listen to music on the radio. Three songs I would say reflect me are “Happy” by
If you could trade lives with one person for an entire day who would it be and why?
I think being able to trade lives with anyone would be interesting as I could experience what someone else is going through. But if I really had to choose, I think it would be fascinating to switch lives with Doctor Who, so I could travel through space and time.