I'm going to go ahead and ask the very nerdy question....how should one prepare for intern year? I'm not looking to go nuts or anything as time with friends and family and vacation are all planned; however, I was still looking for any thoughts on really high yeild things one should focus on for some quick, last minute preparation for starting intern year.
Sleep. Seriously. I suppose there's something educational you could do but trust me, you're more likely to get the educational stuff as an intern than you are to get sleep.
One thing I would suggest is to make sure you have your "pocket stuff" lined up and ready to go. If you have a PDA, make sure you've got Epocrates (or Mobile Micromedex or Tarascon's or whatever), the Hopkins Antibiotics Guide (or Sanford's if you want to pay for it) and at least one of the pocket reference books (Washington Manual, 5MCC, Pocket Medicine) loaded in there and working (nothing sucks more than firing up Epocrates at 7am on Day 1 and having it crash). If you're going old school (or a mixture which is what most people I know do) be sure you have your Pocket Medicine/Washington Manual, your Tarascon's and your Sanford's all lined up and ready to go.
That...and sleep...are the most useful things you can do at this point.
You'll find most of these things you can bum off of some other loaded-to-the-gills intern or medical student when you need them.
I spent most of my intern year running around with nothing more than a stethescope and a pen. With practice you can even tap out reflexes with your fingers, obviating the need for a reflex hammer. Keep your Palm, books, and whatever else people say you need in your bag in the resident lounge, or locker. If your hospital lets you type and print out progress notes, you may want one of those USB flash disks that can plug in to any computer. I would keep my notes online in email, and print out from whatever floor I was working on.
