July 1 is here! You’ve likely started your first job as a doctor and you are scared (petrified).
Some VERY normal questions that may be going through your mind…
How do I write notes again?
Where is the bathroom on this floor?
Will there be lunch at this lecture?
All of these were questions that were swirling through my mind as I entered my 3rd week of residency (recall that I had 2 weeks on night float to start out).
I have some practical things that I would share with myself if I could do it all over again.
- Keep the patient at the center – remember that this is really about them. Yes, you are like a small fish that feels out of water, but that’s NOTHING compared to what it feels like to be sick and in the hospital.
- If you do nothing else, make sure your patients know you and that they know you are their advocate.
- Make the EMR (electronic medical record) work for YOU.
- This means getting your templates down early, figuring out how best to do your pre-rounding, and formatting and personalizing your medical record to fit your work flow.
- Once you’ve gotten good at collecting information, writing notes, and working on the signout/handoff, try not to dilly dally when it is time to leave the hospital.
- This will be unpopular amongst some medical circles, but truly, when it was time to go home, I wish I had. Instead, I often waited till the last minute to get things done that would prevent me from going home (Updating the signout and whatnot). This was a game changer for me and for my wellness because when you leave the hospital on time, you have more time outside the hospital. *collective gasp*
- This gives you more time to rest, study, and do that thing you love to do when you’re out of the hospital.
- Start on research as soon as you can.
- Hear me out, there is a popular mantra in the field of medicine that says you have to take your time to be a good intern before you start on research. I agree with this to some degree, but I feel that if you lean into this advice too much, you will have gone your entire intern year without even thinking about it and then you have to crunch to get things done in one year before you try and pursue a subspecialty (if that’s something you’re interested in). One year is good, but 2 years is way better.
- ALSO, getting involved in research helps you with knowing the different studies that are important for your field of choice. “Lise, I don’t know what I want to do yet!” Great, this will only help because you can see the topics that the people in your potential field are talking about and what is interesting to them. Also, this will introduce you to some of the people in the subspecialty you are interested in early.
- Find your way of coping EARLY
- I plan to write another blog post about this topic, which is near and dear to intern year (and cardiology fellow) Lise’s heart.
- I DISAGREE that we should pursue the day that we become numb to the suffering of others. I remember that my seniors would sometimes tell me this and I would gape at them. They really were just trying to say that one day you don’t feel things as acutely as you do in the beginning. When patients die, you don’t feel it. When patients leave the hospital, you don’t feel it. Something about that idea didn’t sit right with me.
- Find your way of coping with difficult situations- one of mine is through narrative medicine. The patients who stuck with me, I paid tribute to them in writing, which also helped me process my feelings about what happened to them without ending up a teary eyed puddle on the floor of their room. I still felt. I still feel. I think this prevents me from being callous about patients and keeps my heart in medicine without it being broken constantly. I think this is a little better than the – “Oh, you won’t feel it in about a year” thing that people say.
I’m sure I will think of more things, but here you are for now! Prayers for you guys and I am so excited to see your journeys!
Love,
Lise