tips for intern year

[jackb1985]

Hi everyone-

I'm getting pretty nervous about starting intern year next month. I'm not nervous about the psychiatry part but the medicine months have me pretty terrified. I always felt weak in medicine and it's hard to imagine myself managing patients on my own. We have four months of inpatient medicine at my program and I start with one. Any advice for reading, ect? What are the expectations for new interns? Are you pretty much on your own right away? Thanks in advance.

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[Leo Aquarius]

I'm starting in a few weeks myself. Any suggestions from residents and attendings?

 

[nitemagi]

Hi everyone-

I'm getting pretty nervous about starting intern year next month. I'm not nervous about the psychiatry part but the medicine months have me pretty terrified. I always felt weak in medicine and it's hard to imagine myself managing patients on my own. We have four months of inpatient medicine at my program and I start with one. Any advice for reading, ect? What are the expectations for new interns? Are you pretty much on your own right away? Thanks in advance.

Depends on the hospital. Much less so with new work hour restrictions, which requires in-house supervision for a while. There's some other threads on readings, including a sticky.

 

[vistaril]

you won't be managing patients on your own. They will know that you are both an intern and a psych intern. As someone once told me "don't worry, we won't let you hurt anyone"

 

[nitemagi]

you won't be managing patients on your own. They will know that you are both an intern and a psych intern. As someone once told me "don't worry, we won't let you hurt anyone"

That's mostly true...mostly.



They mostly come out at night...mostly.

 

[markglt]

you will be fine

 

[Slingshot]

I think starting with a medicine month AND being a psych intern really sets the bar pretty low for you. Keep in mind your "seniors" will probably be freshly minted 2nd years and were just interns the month before. So they will be nervous as well and learning a new role. The best thing you can do is to make their life easier. So the easier going you are, the more scut or help you are willing to provide to them etc. Grabbing an extra coffee for them. Not saying to make that the focus of the rotation but the more pleasent and happy your senior is, the nicer they will be and less stressed you will be.

The less stressed you are, the more learning you will do. If you are so stressed than you are going to be worrying every second and therefore learning nothing.

So while technically doing scut and coffee runs is cutting from "potential" learning time. If you look at the whole picture this stuff actually maximizes your learning due to having a happier senior and a less stressed life.

In general being easy to get a long with goes a long way in life. Starting with techs, nurses, colleages, attendings. The know-it-all, constantly arguing or making things difficult will make your own life difficult.

My .02 and I made it through residency!