My two cents: Attitude is everything! Have a great one. Have a positive can-do attitude. You’re smack dab in the middle of the single greatest educational experience a person can have. Remember, if you’re complaining about a long night on call or that backlog of discharge summaries you’ve gotta deal with, there are a thousand people who would’ve loved to have had your spot in med school. Organic chemistry, physics, calculus, vertebrate zoology, P-chem, the MCAT, four years of med school, national boards….and now that all the diligence and delayed gratification has paid off (and you’ve gotten exactly what you wanted for at least the last 8 years), you’re going to complain and moan? Makes no sense. Gratitude, good humor, can-do spirit and a wry appreciation for the absurd will take you far further than self pity.
Btw I loved being a medicine intern. For the first time, I could initiate things. Write orders, transfer patients to ICU, order consults, write prescriptions, etc. I could get the ball rolling instead of waiting on a resident to do it. It was amazing.
I start tomorrow, and a few things that stuck out to me:
-Absence of bitterness in complaining, there are always issues - it doesn't matter where you are, have a sense of humor about it. I see so many residents doing this wrong, vowing now to get this right from day one
-Ownershio/thinking like an attending
-Keeping a pt log, any recommendations for the format of this?
My two cents: Attitude is everything! Have a great one. Have a positive can-do attitude. You’re smack dab in the middle of the single greatest educational experience a person can have. Remember, if you’re complaining about a long night on call or that backlog of discharge summaries you’ve gotta deal with, there are a thousand people who would’ve loved to have had your spot in med school. Organic chemistry, physics, calculus, vertebrate zoology, P-chem, the MCAT, four years of med school, national boards….and now that all the diligence and delayed gratification has paid off (and you’ve gotten exactly what you wanted for at least the last 8 years), you’re going to complain and moan? Makes no sense. Gratitude, good humor, can-do spirit and a wry appreciation for the absurd will take you far further than self pity.
Btw I loved being a medicine intern. For the first time, I could initiate things. Write orders, transfer patients to ICU, order consults, write prescriptions, etc. I could get the ball rolling instead of waiting on a resident to do it. It was amazing.
Excellent advice, and I hope it is heeded!
I start tomorrow, and a few things that stuck out to me:
-Absence of bitterness in complaining, there are always issues - it doesn't matter where you are, have a sense of humor about it. I see so many residents doing this wrong, vowing now to get this right from day one
-Ownershio/thinking like an attending
-Keeping a pt log, any recommendations for the format of this?