Residency - if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

[Womb Raider]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Take better care of your health? Sleep more? Drink more? Spend more time with family? Form stronger connections with peers? Drill down solid physical exam skills? Investing money?

As someone that will be starting residency in a year, I'm curious to hear the responses from attendings and current residents/chiefs - what would you do differently? What are the precious opportunities that often go unnoticed until it's too late?

I'll be going into radiology (so radiologists - speak up!), but I'd love to hear from everyone.

 

[username456789]

Make sure you embrace the difficult or complex cases. Especially with a traditionally “cushy” residency by comparison to others, savor the longer more trying days, try to learn as much as you can from experts in the field and sub-fields, and push yourself to focus on weaknesses you may identify along the way.

 

[mvenus929]

I would have converted my traditional IRA to a Roth when I was a med student and didn't make any money. Or intern year when it seemed like I didn't.

My path would have been a little easier had I taken some initiative for research/QI/teaching stuff my intern year, but otherwise, I wouldn't change much.