Scared of graduating from med school...is it normal?

[DWB]

I am a fourth year and I feel like I really know nothing! I come in early and stay as late as I need to, but I still feel so incompetent. I offer to help and do scut work on the floor when they're busy.
In some surgeries, I don't know what is what until the attendings point it out for me. I still get the instrument names confused in the OR and have NO IDEA how these interns know when to use what. I do feel comfortable closing the skin, but I'm so slow and I can feel the residents and nurses glaring at me when I'm the last one finishing up. During rounds, I'm not usually sure what kind of dressings to get for wound care...
This time next year I'll be an intern and I feel like there is no way I'll know how to manage patients like my interns do right now. Is it normal??

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[NICUfello]

Normal.

When I started my NICU fellowship (even after having been in NICU during residency), I FELT I knew nothing. Once I was thrown in the fire, I did allright. My peers and bosses liked me enough to offer me an even Academic Position to stay on.

Have self confidence.

 

[surg]

It is absolutely normal to feel insecure about your fund of knowledge. So long as it motivates you to read and practice, you will eventually gain the confidence needed to be an independent surgeon. Also, just as a note, it is likely that your peers mostly feel the same way, they just aren't sharing....


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[DarknightX]

I am a fourth year and I feel like I really know nothing! I come in early and stay as late as I need to, but I still feel so incompetent. I offer to help and do scut work on the floor when they're busy.
In some surgeries, I don't know what is what until the attendings point it out for me. I still get the instrument names confused in the OR and have NO IDEA how these interns know when to use what. I do feel comfortable closing the skin, but I'm so slow and I can feel the residents and nurses glaring at me when I'm the last one finishing up. During rounds, I'm not usually sure what kind of dressings to get for wound care...
This time next year I'll be an intern and I feel like there is no way I'll know how to manage patients like my interns do right now. Is it normal??

You have the right attitude. Nobody expects you to know anything; you're an intern. I still remember I had no idea what dosages were for medications when I started intern year, and I had no idea what the instrument names were or what the different types of sutures, staplers, or anything else was in the OR. People are going to assume that you know absolutely nothing, and tell you exactly what they want you to do. A good intern is one who writes everything down (a good list) and gets everything done that they're supposed to do. You're pretty much a secretary and you just need to follow up on things. Nobody is going to expect you to make any decisions.

 

[HighPriest]

I am also scared that you are graduating from medical school.

I was also scared when I graduated from medical school.

There's a reason that complications incresae in the summer, and it ain't firecrackers....well, sometimes it is....But echo what was said, you're doing a formal apprenticeship as a resident because e'rybody know you don't know what you're doing yet. I would be more concerned if you felt like you knew everything. I knew some residents like that, and they were invariably wrong and invariably harder to teach.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

I'm a PGY5 (clarification: 2nd lab year after 3 clinical years), and I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing a good portion of the time.

Similar to what others said, that feeling is going to get worse before it gets better. The best advice is to embrace that knowledge/comfort deficit and use it as motivation to continue to read, practice, and ask questions.

EDIT: Just wanted to add this. I have one attending who many in our program consider the most technically skilled surgeon within our training program. He routinely does insane stuff, and generally is the guy that get crazy referrals from both within and outside the institution regarding cases that no one else will touch. He will openly admit that before these big cases, he still gets nervous and doubts whether he can do it.

 

[HighPriest]

Agree with that. If you're not nervous enough already, keep in mind that your attendings are often nervous about practicing medicine, too. That ought to settle you down.