Intern Year SUCKS

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Is anyone else dealing with moody attendings and nurses in their new position? Being new sucks!

For me, it wasn't the nurses, attendings, fellows, or senior residents that were a problem, but it was the BA's (business assistants)/secretaries. For some reason they treat all the residents very rudely, and then they wonder why attendings treat them like crap.

the only bad attitudes i've gotten as a med student and as an intern have been (1) from PAs and (2) from the desk clerks (the peeps who enter orders into the computer). Obviously not all PAs and desk clerks are like that, many are very sweet. But i've been pretty fortunate to work with nurses who dont abuse and even try to help sometimes.

Intern year sucks royal.

But if you are feeling this bad about it now, see if you can get a vacation! Otherwise you may be committable by December. At least make certain that you have something to look forward to during the deep dark months of winter.

Had the same feelings when I was a 'tern. For me, it was the nurses that were the worst. They can be really nasty to new interns. They usually get nicer once they get to know you and trust you, and often by second year they're calling you 'honey'.

I think this 'hazing' is completely unnecessary and adds to the stress of an already difficult year. I still get angry when I see nurses do this but I don't see that it will ever go away.

Some of the support staff will just be rude to anyone if they think they can get away with it. If someone is really bad, get together with your fellow residents and make a joint complaint to your PD. If everyone complains about the same person I'm sure your PD will do something about it. At Temple we actually fired a couple of the worst offenders and things got drastically better after that.

Do you guys have any suggestions how I could help my interns?

Originally Posted by beyond all hope

Had the same feelings when I was a 'tern. For me, it was the nurses that were the worst. They can be really nasty to new interns. They usually get nicer once they get to know you and trust you, and often by second year they're calling you 'honey'.

I think this 'hazing' is completely unnecessary and adds to the stress of an already difficult year. I still get angry when I see nurses do this but I don't see that it will ever go away.

Some of the support staff will just be rude to anyone if they think they can get away with it. If someone is really bad, get together with your fellow residents and make a joint complaint to your PD. If everyone complains about the same person I'm sure your PD will do something about it. At Temple we actually fired a couple of the worst offenders and things got drastically better after that.

Do you guys have any suggestions how I could help my interns?

During lunch, tell em stories of how you were when you were an intern... that makes them feel like others went through this and its okay.

check in with them several times a day and see if they are overwhelmed or doing ok.

If looking stressed, even though they admit to being ok - don't offer to do something for them ask them what needs to be done and do a few things for them.

Sometimes - just taking one or two items off the checklist reduces huge amounts of stress and the desire to drop everything and run home and hide under the covers.

They will love you for it.

If you decide to go home at 2pm - just tell them... nothing is more frustrating than having an awol senior and most of the time I don't think they'll give a **** that you went home early as long as you tell them.

Originally Posted by beyond all hope

Do you guys have any suggestions how I could help my interns?

Keep them informed. As residents, you've had at least a full year longer to forge relationships between the nursing staff, other residents, and consulting services, making you privy to information that's not so easy for the intern to get. I hate it when my residents have learned something about one of my patients that he or she doesn't bring up until we're on rounds.

I usually did a group work round in the morning, and then individual rounds in the afternoon. This gave each of my interns some one-on-one teaching and time to ask questions, decompress, etc. Keep reminding them that everyone goes through this- even if it appears the other interns are flourishing (or at least are doing much better). A liver rounds every now and again helps to forge more of a team mentality- something important to surviving intern year. Just make certain you hold it at a place where HIPPA won't be a problem.

I like being taught things. I don't like it when I feel as if I spent all day doing crap busy work and didn't even have time to actually learn anything.

Oh well, at least I am learning drug dosages and how to put in orders

IMO those people who tend to treat interns baddly have been treated baddly themselves in the past. I have met interns with a chip on their shoulder, or with egos so big they don't fit through the door. Those types tend to treat everyone bad and so in response the ancillary staff and nurses may act mean toward all interns because of those few bad apples then soften up towards the ones that are nice, or at least not pissy.

Remember the golden rule... do unto others... if you want them to be nice and helpful to you, do it for them first. It's amazing how well that works.

Originally Posted by beyond all hope

Do you guys have any suggestions how I could help my interns?

I find that doing a little "scut" now and again, when time permits, fosters good feelings among the team and helps get things done faster. No one should ever be "above" doing any chore that needs to be done; I was trained that we are all members of the team and if that means the Chief is doing discharge summaries, then so be it - your interns will love you for it and it will get the patients home faster.

Originally Posted by Kimberli Cox

I find that doing a little "scut" now and again, when time permits, fosters good feelings among the team and helps get things done faster. No one should ever be "above" doing any chore that needs to be done; I was trained that we are all members of the team and if that means the Chief is doing discharge summaries, then so be it - your interns will love you for it and it will get the patients home faster.

Absolutely true!!!

Originally Posted by ekydrd

Absolutely true!!!

Interestingly, I won some award at my Chief Resident's dinner for having written the most H&Ps as a Chief resident. You could hear some of the more traditional faculty murmuring that something wasn't right about that, but I figured if I'm seeing the patient and it gets the job done twice as fast (and I haven't anything else pressing to do), working WITH the junior residents was appreciated and didn't significantly take away from their learning experience.

Originally Posted by Faebinder

During lunch, tell em stories of how you were when you were an intern... that makes them feel like others went through this and its okay.

. . .except it's not ok. But [sigh] it is what it is, and we can't change it until we become Kimberli Cox and do a few H&Ps. Brava!

Originally Posted by Lady In Rad

Is anyone else dealing with moody attendings and nurses in their new position? Being new sucks!

Maybe my response to the starting post on another thread will mean more to you now.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=294860