Any suggestion on how to prepare for medicine in intern year?

[iqureshi7]

Hey folks, does anyone have any suggestion on how to prepare for medicine part of intern year.The program I will be attending has 6 months of medicine versus the 4 months. I've gotten really rusty with my medicine and feel a bit worried.

Thanks for your help.

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[billypilgrim37]

Drink. Hard. Now.

I'm doing a late second medicine Sub-I right now, and I can say that I will be 100% unprepared on day 1 to keep people from dying right in front of me.

When in doubt, give fluids. Unless you shouldn't.

 

[daru1]

I sent an e-mail about 20 seconds after I found out where I was headed to try to get the off-service months first. That way, at least most of us are green at that point.

 

[Chimed]

One thing to keep in mind is almost EVERY new intern feels nervous about starting up, so you're not alone.

If you're really that anxious about it and want to be prepared, I think you'll do just fine reviewing the medicine portion from a Step 2 review book and focusing in on manegment. If you really want to narrow that down, try to review cardiology (especially how to read EKG's, treat MI's and CHF, etc...), review electrolyte imbalances, reviewing acute issues in GI would be helpful.

Also, you might already have it, but I think the best pocket book is the new addition of Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine (Pocket Notebook Series) (Ring-bound)
by Marc S Sabatine. This has served me very well this year.

With that said, I really wouldn't worry too much and think you might be better off relaxing before you start, which is what I did. Nobody expects you to know anything when you start. You'll learn as you go.

 

[whopper]

Starting earlier in medicine vs later is better because you're with IM residents who also don't know what to do. Starting later puts you behind them.

Your program may make things easier for psyche residents. Mine is split into 2 locations--1 makes it easy, the other doesn't. While it may be more comfortable to be in a place that makes it easier for psyche residents, this IMHO handicaps your ability to learn medicine because its only for a few months & you'll never have it again.

Study for it as if you're studying for the USMLE Step III which I assume you got to take anyway.

A PDA with Epocrates & 5 Minute Medical Consult are great & very handy for use.

I actually like the idea that you'll be doing medicine for 6 months. I feel that by the time I was finally getting comfortable doing medicine, I got pulled out of it. My own program has medicine for 4 monhts. I wanted at least another month to consolidate what I learned.

 

[DebDynamite]

I just did my sub I in medicine in February. It was really scary at first because I had a hard time doing anything fast, when I compared myself to the interns. I was freaked out at first, but as the month went by, it was pretty apparent to me that if I'd started when they did (seven months ago), I'd be neck and neck with them. This is a plug, of course, for doing medicine first.

That said, I've decided I just don't care, and that it all works out in the end. For example, you'll know your psychopharm better than the interns if you do medicine last, and they will end up asking your opinion in this realm. There is no way I will set foot on a hospital floor without epocrates.

 

[duiplfrog]

Is it okay to already ask our programs for non-psych rotations first? I haven't heard much from my program (just friendly personal emails) so I don't know who I would even ask about this. I don't want to jump the gun too much but boy would it be nice to get the scary rotations done first!

 

[daru1]

Is it okay to already ask our programs for non-psych rotations first? I haven't heard much from my program (just friendly personal emails) so I don't know who I would even ask about this. I don't want to jump the gun too much but boy would it be nice to get the scary rotations done first!

The only reason I called them is because I got 2 phone calls on match day, and they gave us this years' schedules during our interviews. Since then they've sent out 2 e-mails, with the latter telling us to inform them of our schedule preferences by March 31st. So, I jumped the gun a little bit, but I made my intentions known.

 

[mgdsh]

While this isn't exactly for the medicine months itself, I came across this book on Amazon the other day. The ratings thus far look somewhat promising.

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158562182X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top"]link
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[Chianti]

You'll be fine, provided you work hard and aren't a clueless *****.

I was terrified of doing medicine. Didn't remember that much from med school. The first 2 weeks were quite an adjustment, but after that I was rolling. At my program we do 2 months of medicine wards. The second month I kicked butt. So much that the attending tried to get me to switch to psych-medicine combined. I laughed when she mentioned that.

So relax. Work hard and you'll be fine.