My Lessons as a Unwilling Intern

[Medstudent9]

So I guess I am an old Millennial as my residency started in the last days of industry lunches (good) and 30+ hour shifts (bad)?

Anyhow, I did a transitional internship and then advanced training at a (different) place regarded as toxic by many.

My thoughts here are about internship. I had to do 3 months of pediatrics. Didn’t like it. Spent the first month complaining the whole time to my co-residents. So I complained and complained. Got bad evaluations. Didn’t make me any happier.

Then I decided to suck it up, embrace the suck and learn what I could, show up and do my best. Got great reviews, enjoyed my job more and I still remember (some) developmental milestones now that I have my own kid.

So I guess my lesson is: 1. You will never do well as a fount of negativity 2. There are interesting things to learn in all fields depending on your attitude 3. Holding grudges just makes your own experience and other people’s worse.

Don’t suffer through actual abuse but if you just don’t like part of residency, remember your attitude is the easiest thing to change. Don’t assume malicious intent when it’s probably not there.

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[BigRedBeta]

RE point #2 - at no point during one's training (and probably for at least another 3 years as an early career attending) is there a patient encounter you can't learn from...regardless of attitude. Even if it's just becoming more efficient at writing a progress note, there's something worthwhile from every patient.

 

[gutonc]

RE point #2 - at no point during one's training (and probably for at least another 3 years as an early career attending) is there a patient encounter you can't learn from...regardless of attitude. Even if it's just becoming more efficient at writing a progress note, there's something worthwhile from every patient.

At 8 years in, I would say that if you can’t/don’t learn something from every patient encounter, you should either get a therapist or a different career.

I learn from every single person I see. Sometimes I learn about medicine , sometimes I learn about people, sometimes I learn about myself, sometimes I learn about a new trail to hike or restaurant to try.

It’s not all groundbreaking or mind blowing. But it’s always learning

 

[Dral]

Good experiences and lessons to remember and work towards. Thanks for sharing.