It is hard to believe that I completed intern year almost five years ago. I made it, and so will you. Below, in no particular order, are a collection of tips for surviving intern year and residency.
- Learn your environment.
- You already learned the medicine (mostly). A large part of intern year is learning how to function within a new system.
- Be nice to everyone.
- You are not above anyone else. New interns come every year. You are not special. (sorry)
- Ask for help.
- If you are concerned, confused or overwhelmed, ask for help. A life is at stake.
- There are no dumb questions, but there are LAZY questions.
- Lazy questions require other people to do the reading you should be doing. There are textbooks and resources at your fingertips. Use them.
- Introduce yourself to everyone.
- It is incredible how quickly people dispense with introductions. When returning pages, use proper phone etiquette. Introduce yourself, and include your title and role on the team.
- Know who you are working with.
- Identify who you are speaking with over the phone and their role in the healthcare team.
- Listen to the nurses*.
- They know how the system functions and can be our eyes and ears. *However, remember, you are a Physician and are ultimately responsible for the orders you write. Trust but verify. It’s ok to ask, “how do you usually do this.”
- Understand that EVERY resident is overworked and underpaid.
- They were probably good and decent people at one point in life. Now you can decide to suffer together or separately.
- Understand the division of labor.
- Know what is and is not your responsibility. Don’t accept a responsibility that is not yours.
- Remember, it’s only a year.
- *unless, God forbid, you’re doing Internal Medicine. In that case, you chose this life ;).
- Remember the things you loved and hated as a medical student.
- Be the resident you wish you had
- “How can I help”
- This phrase will often deflect anger or irritation in a high-intensity situation.
- Consults: opportunities to help colleagues and patients.
- When accepting a ridiculous consult, first stop and consider everyone to be acting reasonably and logically.
- Never, ever, ever refuse a consult.
- By refusing a consult, you just accepted every possible bad outcome. There is an art to “managing consults”, however it is learned over time.
- The Medscape App
- This app is a Godsend. It is a free hybrid of Up-To-Date and Epocrates. Did I mention its free? It is much more concise than UTD. Perfect for a quick read on the way to the ED to see a consult.
Hopefully these tips will help you survive and even thrive during internship. Whenever you start getting bogged down in life, take a deep breath and look back at how far you have come. Maybe the first time you look back you have only made it through orientation. Then, before you know it you have survived the first month, then six months and finally you have moved on to PGY2.
Best of luck and I will see you on the wards in June –Steven Bradley MD