First Year Attending What to Know

[Bougiebuster]

Graduated residency this past summer.
This is my first calendar year as a new attending. Clinical pearls aside - What am I supposed to know? what do you wish you had known?
How much CME do I need per year, when do I start, how to I log it?
When do I have to start with the concert (or whatever they have now) exams?
What else do I need to do?

Feel free to post anything else you wish you knew early in your career!

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[Apollyon]

CME is per your state. My first license was in SC, and they gave 60 CME credits for residency (which means you were clear for the first one to two years of your license (because all SC licenses, like all, or my best guess is all states, all renew on the same date)). Your state might do something similar. Any way you keep a record is sufficient, as long as you can produce it on demand. Every renewal period has people filling out the form stating that they have done their CMEs, and most have, but, a few haven't, and there are random audits. When that happens, the renewal applicant gets a censure, and, in some states, a fine, like $500.

As far as ABEM, you have to get board certified first. ConCert and LLSAs and all that start after your pass your oral boards.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Agree with @Apollyon above. Would add that if you have a login to UTD that you get through work, make sure you use it. Specifically, use your own personal login whenever you access the site. It tracks CME for you automatically. I haven't had to obtain any additional CME in several years because of what random UTD searches generates.

 

[Tenk]

As mentioned above, uptodate is the easiest cme tracker and gives category A which is what you want.

 

[Alvarez13]

You're supposed to know how to use the search button because this gets asked every year.

For CME just do those easy EMRAP tests. You keep up to date and it stores it in a nice neat little PDF that you can submit.

 

[Birdstrike]

Feel free to post anything else you wish you knew early in your career!

How much more this is still to learn.

 

[namethatsmell]

Feel free to post anything else you wish you knew early in your career!

Prioritizing a job primarily based on $ right out of the gait is usually unwise.

Pick a place that will pay you fairly, seems safe to work at (good staffing, easy transfers, decent local medmal environment, etc), and has a chair/med director that is trustworthy and able to successfully advocate for his/her docs.

And, perhaps most importantly, do whatever you can to eliminate/minimize a non-compete.

 

[RustedFox]

Don't buy a house, for at least a year.
"Good" jobs can go bad in a hot minute; save up 4-6 months of "get out of Dodge" cash.

 

[namethatsmell]

Don't buy a house, for at least a year.
"Good" jobs can go bad in a hot minute; save up 4-6 months of "get out of Dodge" cash.

Having several months of FU money saved up + no non-competes of consequence has made life infinitely better over the years.