EM Interns/Residents... How do you take/organize your notes?

[TheComebacKid]

How do you guys stay organized?

Do you guys use evernote? I have found it a pain to lug my laptop to conference.

I also just download pdf copies of research papers and sync it across devices with Mendeley, but it seems a little cumbersome.

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[BoardingDoc]

How do you guys stay organized?

Do you guys use evernote? I have found it a pain to lug my laptop to conference.

I also just download pdf copies of research papers and sync it across devices with Mendeley, but it seems a little cumbersome.

What notes?

 

[RustedFox]

JustThePROTip: You're doing it wrong.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

The only notes I take are algorithms I want to remember when my brain isn't working. Very brief, no more than a few lines. Into evernote with very easy names so I can find them when I need them. This is done on my phone, no laptop needed.

For the most part, don't take notes.

 

[Fox800]

I'm old school. I have a spiral but I don't write much down unless it's a one liner about something I think is really educational.

Case in point: I've written 1.5 pages this month over probably 20-25 hours of didactics.

 

[Alvarez13]

Are you an internal medicine resident that's just curious? What is this "notes" you speak of? What is that box on your scrubs that keeps vibrating? What do you mean you're on the call?

 

[AlmostAnMD]

One of the docs at my program noticed another intern taking notes on basically everything he said and told the intern to consider Internal Medicine

 

[deleted547339]

It depends:

If you have a good EMR and a fairly well-contained patient population, you should be writing absolutely nothing. You can pull in the patient's PMH, PSH and Social hx. If you can't remember it, it's not important. I did residency at a place like this and didn't write a word after the first month in the ED.

If you work at a place with a stand-alone EMR (i.e. you don't have access to readily see or import pcp notes or previous admission H&Ps), I use a paper towel. I frequently moonlight at a place where I don't have any helpful records. I pull an extra paper towel down after I wash my hands. I little scribble short hand PMH, PSH and Sx - assuming it's a level 4 or 5 visit.

 

[TheComebacKid]

It depends:

If you have a good EMR and a fairly well-contained patient population, you should be writing absolutely nothing. You can pull in the patient's PMH, PSH and Social hx. If you can't remember it, it's not important. I did residency at a place like this and didn't write a word after the first month in the ED.

If you work at a place with a stand-alone EMR (i.e. you don't have access to readily see or import pcp notes or previous admission H&Ps), I use a paper towel. I frequently moonlight at a place where I don't have any helpful records. I pull an extra paper towel down after I wash my hands. I little scribble short hand PMH, PSH and Sx - assuming it's a level 4 or 5 visit.

I should have clarified. I was referring to notes regarding lectures/conferences etc.

Based on your response and that of most people in this thread, I've come to the realization that taking actual notes based on what we are learning in lecture is a rather antiquated practice.

I have one conference day a week with literally 5 hours of back to back lectures/talks. I have a very hard time internalizing all the information, so sometimes I like to have notes to refer to later.

 

[gutonc]

I should have clarified. I was referring to notes regarding lectures/conferences etc.

Based on your response and that of most people in this thread, I've come to the realization that taking actual notes based on what we are learning in lecture is a rather antiquated practice.

I have one conference day a week with literally 5 hours of back to back lectures/talks. I have a very hard time internalizing all the information, so sometimes I like to have notes to refer to later.

Not sure how it works in your program, but in my (non EM, but 3y, training program), the lectures were organized on a 12-18 month rotation (depending on how big of a deal it was to the curriculum). So in the course of your residency, you'd hear a lecture about each topic 2 or 3 times. And by the 3rd time, you'd wish you weren't staying post-call to listen to this crap you'd heard twice already...which is to say that you'd internalized it already.

 

[deleted547339]

Not sure how it works in your program, but in my (non EM, but 3y, training program), the lectures were organized n a 12-18 month rotation (depending on how big of a deal it was to the curriculum). So in the course of your residency, you'd hear a lecture about each topic 2 or 3 times. And by the 3rd time, you'd wish you weren't staying post-call to listen to this crap you'd heard twice already...which is to say that you'd internalized it already.

Not to mention that the vast majority of your medical knowledge is learned at the bedside. When you hear the lecture on intubation drugs the first time, it seems overwhelming. By the second or third time, you've seen fascinations with sucs, you've heard of someone in the hospital (hopefully not you) killing someone by using sucs in a patient with hyperK, you've used etomidate for a joint reduction and been unable to do it because of myoclonus, you've seen a patient get hypotensive after propofol and you've seen a patient have nystagmus with ketamine, you don't forget the half-life of roc is longer than sucs because the nsgy resident screamed and pitched a fit when you used roc and he couldn't examine a patient.

When you hear that lecture at the end of PGY-3, you're on your iPhone studying for boards....

 

[Zebra Hunter]

Not sure how it works in your program, but in my (non EM, but 3y, training program), the lectures were organized on a 12-18 month rotation (depending on how big of a deal it was to the curriculum). So in the course of your residency, you'd hear a lecture about each topic 2 or 3 times. And by the 3rd time, you'd wish you weren't staying post-call to listen to this crap you'd heard twice already...which is to say that you'd internalized it already.

I'm glad my program does not force people post-call to show up for lectures.

 

[whiplashWhoMD]

I'm glad my program does not force people post-call to show up for lectures.

We get bonus hours if we show up post- night shift.

 

[Cinematographer]

lol I tweet the take-home message from our M&M conference and didactics. Does that count? #FOAMed #emconf

 

[illegallysmooth]

Very very short notes - just blurbs you need your brain to remember, and review it once daily while drinking your coffee.

http://lifeinthefastlane.com/learning-by-spaced-repetition/