Residency

Advice for the New Residents

Posted by svenimal on

Congratulations! You worked hard, you put in the hours, and now you are here, ready for your first day. Your head is full of knowledge and, oddly, you feel so unprepared for what comes next. That is okay; trust that everyone is feeling that same way. Residency is not a multiple choice test and these are not standardized patients. There is no one good way to be a resident, and responsibilities and duties are in a constant state of flux that even your seniors might not know what comes next. If residency is one thing, it is adapting to an ever-changing string of interactions and experiences and it can feel just as your are getting a handle on things, BAM! you are on a new service.

But fear not here is my advice for excelling at this medicine game…

  1. Residency is hard but can also be a lot of fun. You will see and learn things that few know and be a part of people’s lives in a way that few ever will. Remember that this is a privilege. Stay humble and be appreciative.

  2. You can stop at any point. Sounds dark but this is one of the most comforting things about residency for me. I choose to show up but I could also choose at any moment to not show up. Yes, you did all this education. Yes, you have loans. At the end of the day you have the power to leave and do something else. You have the control. This could be the rest of your life. Make sure you like it. You have my full support.

  3. Be kind to yourself; you will make mistakes— sometimes small ones, sometimes big ones. Learn from these mistakes, be attentive, be vigilant, do your best, and notice when you are in over your head and get help. Don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t be too hard on others. Remember we are all on the same team.

  4. Don’t compare yourself to others. At this point medicine has assembled a motley crew of brilliant people with a huge array of skills, knowledge, and backgrounds. Some things you will be really good at, others might come more difficultly. EVERYONE feels dumb in residency at some point in time. It is not just you. As a quote commonly mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein says, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

  5. This is a training experience. You will really only get out of it what you put into it. Make sure you learn the things you need to be independent at the end. There are skills you will need to be successful that are neither on the tests nor in books.

  6. Life does not magically stop because you enter medicine, and it never “gets easier”. You will always be juggling multiple things. Find a way to balance your life now. People find love, have babies, get cancer, lose loved ones, get married, and even go on vacations in residency. Don’t forget to live your life.

  7. This maybe the 100th time you have done something but for the patient this is likely their first cancer, heart attack, surgery, etc. Be sure to treat it with the same gravity as you did your first time.

  8. “A little” is always better than none. Even when you are tired, you can always do a little workout, study a little, play a little bit of a video game, and make a little call to your mom. A little can actually be a tremendous amount.

  9. People outside of medicine will likely not know what your life is like. That is okay. Find people that do. Debrief your experiences, and learn from theirs. Get a therapist. You are going to do a lot of very, very weird things, it is nice to have people that understand and are willing to listen. Most people do not know how to react to the things you see everyday.

  10. Treat yourself. You work hard, don’t forget to acknowledge this. Be proud of yourself. You’ve done a lot to get here, and you’re going to do even more. You are worth it.