Quoted: Future intern procedure anxiety

[Doodledog]

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Hello,

I'm an 4 yr, allopathic, US med student from a decent midwest school. I've always been a solid (not stellar, but never struggled either) student. I will be going into psych. My problem is I have a HUGE fear/anxiety about doing procedures...from minor things like IV starts, suturing and foleys and above & beyond. Note that I've done these things a few times, but I'm def one of those ppl who lacks manual dexterity and can be a bit clumsy initially. I feel like during clinical rotations, there are hardly ppl patient enough to take the time and allow me to work through my awkwardness. I'm really nervous as a soon -to- be- intern, how do I work through this? I'm so nervous about looking like an incompetent intern that I'm finding myself not even excited about matching! I will try to work through these issues before starting intern year but I am wondering: are you expected to "jump right in" intern year? am I expected to be fully independenly competent with LPs and such? should I do some extra "work" to get better exposure/practice before intern year or am I overly anxious? FYI I know as a psych doc I won't do tons a procedures, but I really want to be a good reliable intern during those required medicine/emergency med rotations.

I can only tell you that this is extremely common. Lots of new interns have little experience/skill at procedures. You will get "good enough" and bottom line is that for the most part, others will be there to help. Then, after the one year it'll be over. Do me and others a favor and post again in December and tell us how it went relative to this issue.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

As a psych intern, your exposure to procedures might be relatively limited. Many psych internship include only a few medicine months. While on medicine, I expect there will be another intern who would love procedure experience. If you mention that you are going into psych, have no need/desire to do procedures, ask one of your colleagues if they'd like to do it, and offer to carry their pager while they do so, I expect others may be thrilled with the swap.

 

[michaelrack]

As a psych intern on a medicine ward, you will not be held to the same standards as a medicine intern. As long as you show up on time and know your patients, you should be ok.
Lumbar puncture would be a good skill to have for you inpt neuro rotation, but you can get by without being good at this- as long as you help out your team, especially with the scut work