interns!

[scared3rdyear]

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[mules05]

My boyfriend is an intern who started work a couple weeks ago, and he's been pretty much scared sh**less that he's going to kill someone, and I'm sure he's not the only intern who feels this way. Now, not that this excuses the kind of behavior you're describing, but I can see how someone who's not completely confident yet in their own role might take it out on you- asking questions to make him or herself seem smarter, keeping you away from patients they themselves may not be comfortable handling. As you said, these guys were med students yesterday. Cut them some slack, help them out wherever possible, and maybe in a couple weeks they'll loosen up some- just like you probably have since starting third year.

 

[colbgw02]

N = 1

 

[velo]

I, obviously, wasn't there so I don't know if this intern was being a dick or not. However, my experience has been, 9 times out of 10, if an intern or resident says a patient "isn't appropriate for a student" what they mean is "this guy's going to be a pain in the ass and there isn't much to learn from taking care of this patient."

 

[raidermedic]

If you happen to be this guy's med student he's probably afraid your going to f up and make him look bad. So maybe thats why he's only giving you the cake cases. As for pimping, hey welcome to 3rd year. Everyone is going to try and pimp you this year, interns, attendings, residents, nurses, PAs, the guy in the hospital coffee shop etc etc.

 

[excalibur]

uh, OP, ... and who are you to say all this stuff about the intern?

as per above, most of the time when the intern is saying something like this patient is not really for you, they're helping you out.

i'm glad you were finally able to accept that the residents and fellows who respond to the consults go to the upper levels and attendings instead of the 3rd year student to give their opinions.

 

[Dr JPH]

Keep in mind that despite the fact that the intern may only be 2 years ahead of you chronologically, they are light years ahead of you when it comes to dealing with patients and clinical issues.

I know its tough to imagine, but 2 years of medical school doesnt teach you everything. In fact, compared to what you will hopefully learn in 3rd year alone, the first 2 years of school will look like kindergarten.

Youre a 3rd year medical student. You are the bottom of the food chain and you will be there for the next 12 months, so get used to that role.

The best advice I ever got about being a 3rd year medical student was this..."If you died tonight we would still make rounds without you tomorrow morning."

Show up early, observe, learn, watch, listen and do as youre told.

There is no quicker way to screw up your reputation and become labeled as a problem student than to start bitching about those people ahead of you, especially interns. Interns talk and word gets around. Youre a transient part of the hospital...they live there for a year.

The fact that you are taking things like this so personally and making the comments you are shows that you may not be ready for 3rd year emotionally and mentally. Perhaps you can learn something by remaining silent and respecting those who came before. The responsibility of an intern is more than you can imagine at this point. An intern is much more than MS4 + a few weeks. I imagine its a similar leap from resident to attending. A whole new level of responsibility, accountability and stress.

You have a long road of ass kissing and tongue biting ahead of you, dont start BS now. Dont be "that guy".

- Your friendly neighborhood intern

 

[musm2008]

Oh goodness, leave the poor guy alone. I thought med students and interns were supposed to be helping each other. He was a med student like 2 weeks ago.

 

[ericdamiansean]

If you happen to be this guy's med student he's probably afraid your going to f up and make him look bad.

I try to be pretty modest and politically correct when suggesting stuff or whenever I find something which the residents missed, I usually tell him/her first rather than blabbing it out in front of everyone during rounds because that makes him/her look bad. Of course, you would have the occasional gunner or "excretory opening of the alimentary canal" within the group who is out to make everyone look like a *****.
I wouldn't want to have that happen to me when I am a resident

 

[lord_jeebus]

Think of pimping by your intern as practice for getting the same questions from your attending, when knowing the answers will help your evaluation.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

They should give entering 3rd year students the same speech R. Lee Ermey gives at the beginning of Full Metal Jacket.


"You are pukes! You are the lowest forms of life on earth. You are not even human f-ing beings! You are nothing more than unorganized grab-asstic pieces of amphibian S**T!"


Which describes our place in hospital life to a "T."

I have an attending who's a flat-out nazi on my first rotation, and enjoys kicking students around simply because she can, and only pimps us on things we have no chance of knowing just to prove what idiots we all are and how we have no place mopping floors in the hospital, let alone practicing medicine.

It sucks, but the other two attendings are very cool and laid-back. So all you can do is look forward to the nice docs, grit your teeth when the Dr. Kelso-wannabes show up, and remember you'll eventually move up the food chain yourself.

 

[Medikit]

I draped a banner that says "YOU ARE NOT IMPORTANT" on my wall so I see it when I wake up in the morning. It's really helped me figure out my place in the hospital so far.

 

[surgdo]

Med students started in my program this week. Its really amazing how far we have come and yet still only interns. I know there is only 2 years difference but the third year students have no clue, and I mean absolutely none! In my situation I try to remember what it was like on my first rotation and on my surgery rotations. Remember it is always better to be pimped by a junior resident because they are usually less benign. And in my own case, pimping is just a form of teaching. I'm not doing it to be mean but just the opposite. I think med students in general hate this in the beginning because this is one of the first times in their entire education that a teacher is directly engaging the student and not just second hand through an exam or by lecturing to a whole class. Bottom line buck up and shut up or it will be a very long year!

 

[lumbering]

Wow. I wish my interns pimped me. Then I might learn something. Right now, they just ignore me because they are under so much stress.

 

[smq123]

The fact that you are taking things like this so personally and making the comments you are shows that you may not be ready for 3rd year emotionally and mentally. Perhaps you can learn something by remaining silent and respecting those who came before. The responsibility of an intern is more than you can imagine at this point. An intern is much more than MS4 + a few weeks. I imagine its a similar leap from resident to attending. A whole new level of responsibility, accountability and stress.

I wonder if the OP would have taken it "better" if the intern had said that "this patient isn't appropriate for a 3rd year." That might not be so bad. But for a newly minted intern to say "this patient isn't appropriate for a student" is kind of funny, seeing as the intern was a student just a few weeks ago. It reminds me of my 14 year old cousin who used to say, "Well, back when I was a teenager...." What, a whole 3 months ago?

 

[Dr JPH]

Looks like the OP retracted his bitch fest.

Must have been embarassed by how ridiculous and whiny he sounded.

"Im a 3rd year and the interns think they are smarter than me." 🙁

 

[colbgw02]

I wonder if the OP would have taken it "better" if the intern had said that "this patient isn't appropriate for a 3rd year." That might not be so bad. But for a newly minted intern to say "this patient isn't appropriate for a student" is kind of funny, seeing as the intern was a student just a few weeks ago. It reminds me of my 14 year old cousin who used to say, "Well, back when I was a teenager...." What, a whole 3 months ago?

I always found it odd at my school where 4th-years were not called students, but rather "4th-years" or "sub-Is". Only 3rd-years were called students. The distinction was so entrenched that I actually heard things like: Is she a student? No, she's a sub-I.

 

[ForbiddenComma]

Interestingly enough, I actually got more respect as an M1 or M2 on a preceptor rotation than I do now.

When I screwed up then, it was because the doc didn't explain it well enough or didn't give me enough support, but they'd try to make it right because they sure liked having me around.

When I screw up now it is because I am a hopeless incompetent, and my mere presence in the hospital is enough to triple the workload of every resident, attending, nurse, janitor and other real employee who would rather do anything than babysit a useless deadweight like me!

 

[Top Gun]

Interestingly enough, I actually got more respect as an M1 or M2 on a preceptor rotation than I do now.

When I screwed up then, it was because the doc didn't explain it well enough or didn't give me enough support, but they'd try to make it right because they sure liked having me around.

When I screw up now it is because I am a hopeless incompetent, and my mere presence in the hospital is enough to triple the workload of every resident, attending, nurse, janitor and other real employee who would rather do anything than babysit a useless deadweight like me!

That's because they didn't really expect much of you as an M1 or M2. Also, you were in the hospital then for only short periods of time, so you weren't around long enough to "bother" any of the staff. When you become an M3, you spend all your time in the hospital, and somehow they get the idea that you should be good at H&P's, progress notes, and other tasks now. Yeah right. Like you get enough practice at history-taking and physical examination to be an expert at it in your third year.

 

[raidermedic]

Looks like the OP retracted his bitch fest.

Must have been embarassed by how ridiculous and whiny he sounded.

I wouldn't call it whiny as much as I would call it misinformed about his real responsibilities. He did make a comment about how consultants never talked to him even though he managed the pt all on his own (hope this isn't true a new 3rd year managing a pt?). A lot of med students don't seem to understand that they are pretty much just playing on the wards and have little to no input into pt care. I mean as a student I could go around writing that all the pts in the MICU have Kuru and a resident would just come scratch it out or it would be outright ignored once they saw the MS3 or MS4 tag.

 

[smq123]

I always found it odd at my school where 4th-years were not called students, but rather "4th-years" or "sub-Is". Only 3rd-years were called students. The distinction was so entrenched that I actually heard things like: Is she a student? No, she's a sub-I.

Hearing what goes on at other schools is one of the things that makes SDN pretty interesting. We use the terms "Junior medical students" or "senior medical students" sometimes, but the administration would never let the 4th years forget that they're students. Sometimes they use "Sub-I" but only on actual Sub-I rotations.

 

[bjackrian]

I love my intern! He's great about pimping us nicely and explaining things when we don't know (which, honestly, is most of the time). He even thanks us for writing notes and making his life easier (which I'm pretty sure is a total lie since we, as brand new third years, are pretty close to useless, I think). He preps us for what he thinks the senior, chief, and attending will ask us. In short, interns can definitely be huge helps to you, if you get a good one!

 

[SoCuteMD]

A lot of med students don't seem to understand that they are pretty much just playing on the wards and have little to no input into pt care.

It's easy to forget that you are "just playing" when even the smallest transgression on your lowly third year part evokes a temper tantrum worthy of my brattiest cousin by the attending - it's as if the world ended simply because you forgot to dot your i. It's pretty hard to reconcile said temper tantrum with "just playing."

 

[Samoa]

It's also annoying to be given responsibility without authority, which is what all of third and 4th year are like. It's all fine and dandy for a while, because it's new and you really are learning a lot. But then comes the morning when you wake up and think, "this is bull****. I know what I'm doing, and those interns are getting paid for doing the exact same thing as me."

I don't know, I guess some of my rotations were just WAAAAAY too long. Like beating a dead horse.