The other night I sat in the call room unable to sleep and thought back on the past few years of residency and a number of thoughts came to mind that have helped me through the process. I’ve still got a lot to learn, still feel dumb a lot of the time, but I thought I’d share these in hopes they may be of benefit for all you incoming residents.
Please feel free to add any other tips/tricks/advice that you have found helpful…
These are listed in no particular order…
- don’t compare your work load to your coninterns. Work loads will be different, and residency (and life) is not perfectly fair, be happy for your cointern when they seem to have an easier day, you will have one too at some point
- treat others as if they were the person you want them to be - this was advice given to me by someone much older and wiser and has worked wonders especially with chiefs and attendings
- What goes around comes around. Have your cointerns back and they will have yours, this applies to all phases of residency. So see that consult for them, see that extra clinic patients for them. You’ll need their help plenty of times.
- Validate the complaints of others and do not try and one up their misery
- Telling someone how hard they have it in their roll can be just as valuable as giving them a compliment - you can’t believe how happy it can make a resident at the end of a tough day to tell them their day sucked and you’re sorry it sucked so bad
- Do not become the thing you hate (you’ll see plenty of attitudes you hate and swear you’ll be different but so many people morph over time into that very thing)
- Give consideration to why people are acting the way they do. A senior resident that’s being tough on you may be under even more pressure from an attending.
- You are not your profession. Though time outside the hospital is limited, it’s been valuable to me to detach from work and have experiences that remind me I exist outside of residency lol
- Sometimes you just need to take the blame for something even if it’s not your fault (remember having each others backs). Obviously doesn’t apply to big issues. But for the small stuff it’s better to just take misplaced blame then to encourage an environment of blaming others.
- if you have a significant other at home, NEVER tell them a time you will get home. You will so often be wrong and it can be very hard on them. Give generalities like “I’ll be home late”. If they really want a specific time, give an arbitrary time that is exaggeratedly late. You’ll so often be getting home later than you think and the times you get home early will be a nice surprise for them. Happiness is so often based on expectations.
- you will come to understand which weeks will be extra challenging and you can begin to dread certain things. Just remember, we often underestimate our ability to adapt and overestimate how painful things will be
- be nice to nurses, assistants, etc… they may be bad workers, you may not like them, you maybe would fire them if they were your employees, but they aren’t your employees and they don’t see you as a superior they want to impress. Your life will be so much easier if your reputation amongst them is great.
And finally, advice given to me by a great plastic surgeon resident who managed to stay energetic and uplifting throughout her residency:
- Don’t let residency make you loose your spark
Please feel free to add any other tips/tricks/advice that you have found helpful…
These are listed in no particular order…
- don’t compare your work load to your coninterns. Work loads will be different, and residency (and life) is not perfectly fair, be happy for your cointern when they seem to have an easier day, you will have one too at some point
- treat others as if they were the person you want them to be - this was advice given to me by someone much older and wiser and has worked wonders especially with chiefs and attendings
- What goes around comes around. Have your cointerns back and they will have yours, this applies to all phases of residency. So see that consult for them, see that extra clinic patients for them. You’ll need their help plenty of times.
- Validate the complaints of others and do not try and one up their misery
- Telling someone how hard they have it in their roll can be just as valuable as giving them a compliment - you can’t believe how happy it can make a resident at the end of a tough day to tell them their day sucked and you’re sorry it sucked so bad
- Do not become the thing you hate (you’ll see plenty of attitudes you hate and swear you’ll be different but so many people morph over time into that very thing)
- Give consideration to why people are acting the way they do. A senior resident that’s being tough on you may be under even more pressure from an attending.
- You are not your profession. Though time outside the hospital is limited, it’s been valuable to me to detach from work and have experiences that remind me I exist outside of residency lol
- Sometimes you just need to take the blame for something even if it’s not your fault (remember having each others backs). Obviously doesn’t apply to big issues. But for the small stuff it’s better to just take misplaced blame then to encourage an environment of blaming others.
- if you have a significant other at home, NEVER tell them a time you will get home. You will so often be wrong and it can be very hard on them. Give generalities like “I’ll be home late”. If they really want a specific time, give an arbitrary time that is exaggeratedly late. You’ll so often be getting home later than you think and the times you get home early will be a nice surprise for them. Happiness is so often based on expectations.
- you will come to understand which weeks will be extra challenging and you can begin to dread certain things. Just remember, we often underestimate our ability to adapt and overestimate how painful things will be
- be nice to nurses, assistants, etc… they may be bad workers, you may not like them, you maybe would fire them if they were your employees, but they aren’t your employees and they don’t see you as a superior they want to impress. Your life will be so much easier if your reputation amongst them is great.
And finally, advice given to me by a great plastic surgeon resident who managed to stay energetic and uplifting throughout her residency:
- Don’t let residency make you loose your spark
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