Intern Year vs PGY2 and beyond

[klumpke]

Intern right now at an IM prelim program. Pretty burnt crisp atm and looking for some reassurance that things will get better once I get to my advanced PM&R program.

You guys got anything for me? Thanks in advance.

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[DMBandFan86]

It’s February, you’ve almost made it!

 

[Iamnew2]

Intern right now at an IM prelim program. Pretty burnt crisp atm and looking for some reassurance that things will get better once I get to my advanced PM&R program.

You guys got anything for me? Thanks in advance.

It should get better in PM&R. It should get even better once you are an attending!

 

[lal4life]

It gets better. Way better. Pm&r pgy 2 is way better than intern year, but still sucky compared to pgy 3 and 4. You’re still at the bottom of the ladder, no one is below you, still dealing with a lot of the stuff from intern year but adjusting to the things you can and can’t do from intern year.

Each year in training my life got so much better than the year before. That doesn’t mean that parts didn’t suck, but getting through it was definitely worth it.

 

[MusicalMed]

Echo above. Currently a PGY-4. Things got much better with each passing year. Intern year was pretty tough, PGY-2 was better but still relatively tough compared to PGY-3 and PGY-4. Then PGY-3 and PGY-4 years in PM&R are amazing - plenty of time to learn/take on new responsibilities.

 

[j4pac]

You’re in peak burn out territory of internship year…February is rough. It’s cold, reduced daylight hours, still pretty far until the end of the year without immediate end in sight. It’ll get better as the year approaches its end and warms up. And assuming you like PM&R, it’ll also get better

 

[PainDoc2025]

It gets way better --- PGY4 > PGY3 > PGY2 > Intern Year universally

 

[RangerBob]

It gets way better --- PGY4 > PGY3 > PGY2 > Intern Year universally

Eh, PGY3 was rough for someone like me with inpatient rehab preference. All outpt, no electives. Still had to be onsite from at least 8-5, but now I had to pre-chart on scores of clinic patients and stay late to finish notes. I found the days far busier and more stressful in clinic.

PGY2 and 4 were my favorites.

I’d still take PGY3 over internship, and I did a rather enjoyable TY year.

 

[j4pac]

Eh, PGY3 was rough for someone like me with inpatient rehab preference. All outpt, no electives. Still had to be onsite from at least 8-5, but now I had to pre-chart on scores of clinic patients and stay late to finish notes. I found the days far busier and more stressful in clinic.

PGY2 and 4 were my favorites.

I’d still take PGY3 over internship, and I did a rather enjoyable TY year.

I loved PGY-3. I would have been a terminal PGY-3 if they would have allowed me lol. 6 months of EMG, a couple months of Peds, Sports Med. Just amazing

 

[Kissmyabjj]

PGY-2 was the worst for me. That was probably due to the fact that I had two absolutely horrible inpatient attendings for four months out of that year though. I basically ran their very busy complicated services on my own. One of them eventually got fired for incompetence and the other lost his SCI fellowship director position.

 

[lejeunesage]

Hang in there!

I'll give you some advice I was given at the beginning of med school: just keep showing up.
It sounded really pathetic at the time. Only later did I realize just how golden the advice was.
It gets better.

Intern year sucks balls no matter how you slice it. I had some nice rotations but it was a lot of hard work.
In retrospect, since all I do is inpatient, it was probably my most important year, and I should probably have paid more attention on my ICU rotation. But you're more than halfway done.

PGY-2 year seemed awesome at first. It was so much better than intern year. But it was still hard work.

Hours and call got even better in PGY-3 and better still in PGY-4.

As an attending, you don't have to staff. Your life is your own. Lots of flexibility in your type of practice, what time you show up, call, etc.

So keep showing up!

 

[Iamnew2]

PGY-2 was the worst for me. That was probably due to the fact that I had two absolutely horrible inpatient attendings for four months out of that year though. I basically ran their very busy complicated services on my own. One of them eventually got fired for incompetence and the other lost his SCI fellowship director position.

Did we go to the same residency program? Jk! I had some rotten attendings too in PGY2 - one of them got fired unceremoniously and another one essentially was promptly replaced with a great dept chair who made the program so much better. Now working with residents for a part of my job, I vowed myself never to be like some of my old attending and to never be a nasty attending who is petty about stupid things that don't matter.