Goodbye Intern Year Countdown

[h2oriderz]

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I am 1 week away from finishing a year as a prelim medicine intern. I can finally see the light, and it's coming at me fast.

Congrats to all who are also finishing up -- I doubt any of you will miss getting that page at 3am from the triage resident to do an admission, the endless hours of rounding, doing your best to discharge as many patients as possible only to return the next day to a capped census, calling in consults to the fellow who does everything in their power to block them, and lets not forget the late night calls from the nursing staff to renew a foley order on a patient.

It's almost over...and now its time to start over at the bottom of the food chain again. I gladly welcome it 👍

 

[bigdan]

True that, h, true that.

Where in Philly you at?

I'm on the other side of PA, in Pittsburgh. Mine induction into the world of residency is a blended year, run by the anesthesiology department.

First year is as follows:

-orientation, then:

1. CCM at the VA (Q4...welcome to the real world...)
2. CCM at the VA
3. ED
4. Anesthesiology 😉
5. Surgery
6. Surgery
7. Renal Consults
8. Peds ED
9. Acute Pain
10. Cardiology Consults
11. Medicine
12. Medicine

Good luck to all!

dc

 

[lfesiam]

I am 1 week away from finishing a year as a prelim medicine intern. I can finally see the light, and it's coming at me fast.

Congrats to all who are also finishing up -- I doubt any of you will miss getting that page at 3am from the triage resident to do an admission, the endless hours of rounding, doing your best to discharge as many patients as possible only to return the next day to a capped census, calling in consults to the fellow who does everything in their power to block them, and lets not forget the late night calls from the nursing staff to renew a foley order on a patient.

It's almost over...and now its time to start over at the bottom of the food chain again. I gladly welcome it 👍

Congrats! 👍

About to start mine 🙂 Just got my BLS/ACLS re-certified.

Gluck everyone!

PS - What sup Big D!?! Don't forget to try Fat Head Sandwiches in pitt!

 

[fakin' the funk]

I am 1 week away from finishing a year as a prelim medicine intern. I can finally see the light, and it's coming at me fast

OP: congratulations. Any advice on how the new interns should approach the internship year wrt preparing for CA-1 and beyond? I imagine the answer is something like "learn medicine, do ICU months, and meet ACGME requirements" but maybe there are specific rotations, reading, experiences to focus on so we can get the most out of our year...

 

[lord_jeebus]

Done as of last Friday!!!

FtF: I think the common wisdom about intern year (do lots of cards/pulm/ICU) is correct. Depending on your program, your elective options may be limited. I thought my cards months (did cards consult as well as CCU) were the most valuable, especially as I did not get much exposure in med school. ER and Pulm were also good. Most of my colleagues chose very easy electives like rads and pathology but most are going into rads or derm so who can blame them - I would suggest not using an elective to slack off because I found them to be better learning experiences than most required blocks.

I also did 3 ICU months (2 MICU, one combined MICU/SICU). The first two were very good learning experiences, but by the third there was simply less to learn (not that I am an ICU expert by any means). In any case, ICU beats wards so find out if your program will let you trade a month with an ICU-fearing derm/rads/ophtho/PM&R prelim.

I am interested in Pain so I also did 2 weeks of Psych (yeah we had a lot of electives), which was more educational than anticipated; my first choice for this would have been PM&R if I hadn't done a month of it in med school.

As far as reading, I would just recommend whatever you feel like reading most, when you can. I read The ICU Book cover to cover twice, beyond that I didn't read too much from any one source. I deferred anesthesiology-related reading until about a month ago - I'll have a lifetime for that.

 

[h2oriderz]

LordJeebus post was pretty much dead on. ICU beats floor months any day of the week, however, the call schedule blows. Not too sure its worth the beating to do extra ICU, especially since only 2 months from your PGY1 year count towards the Anesthesiology requirements.

I also agree with doing some Pulm and Cards if you can -- those are probably the most helpful for us.

As far as your other elective months are concerned, I think its not a bad idea to take it easy, especially if you are going to take Step 3 during your intern year. You will be working your bizzalls off all year, nothing wrong with slowing things down a bit.

As far as reading is concerned, if you have time, go for it. You might be too tired though and sleep might rank a little bit higher on your list of things to do. Elective time is a good time to read though since your clinical responsibilities won't be as heavy.

Your #1 goal is really just to survive and get to CA-1, medicine blows a fat one and you will realize on a daily basis why you didn't choose it as your future specialty.

Hope the above rant helps.

 

[mdqueen]

Yah! I'M SOOOO happy intern year is almost over....8 more days for me! 🙂 I can't believe I've made it this far, wanting to slap ppl on a daily basis. Now on to more stress and being back at the bottom, uncomfortable, unsure etc... Well at least I'll be doing something much better than rounding endlessly. 🙂👍

 

[soonerpillow]

Only 3 more nights on call (after I finished this one), and 13 days left for me!

Although, I've actually had a really nice year, but still ready to move on to what I'm actually going to be doing. I mean it seems like I've been rotating every month for forever. I can't wait to be able to focus on something for more than a month.

Plus, it'll be nice to be intubating people in a controlled environment, rather than during a code, with blood and puke flying everywhere.

 

[psychbender]

Plus, it'll be nice to be intubating people in a controlled environment, rather than during a code, with blood and puke flying everywhere.

I always liked doing it like that...made for interesting dinner conversations.

 

[RickKane]

Just Finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm post-call but have never been happier. Time to get the UHAUL packed and head for greener pastures.

 

[Bertelman]

I always liked doing it like that...made for interesting dinner conversations.

Unless the Pt. is HepC +