2022 Intern Year Survival Guide. I’ve been meaning to write this entry for a while now. But now that I’m halfway through CA-1 year I feel like my head is little above water and I can finally breathe again. The transition from intern to full time anesthesia resident is no joke. But I’ll save that post for another entry. For now let’s focus on how to survive intern year in 2022.
With match day being yesterday it brought me back to my memories of 4th year! I remember wondering what it would be like to be an intern and be an actual doctor. I’m the first physician in my family so I had no personal reference or memories besides the few times I rotated with residents during medical school. If you’re wondering why I didn’t work with a lot of residents it’s because I went to a regional campus throughout my medical school years (they only had family medicine residents). Again, another story for another time, so let’s dive in!
When you do start intern year? -June
Every residency program is different so after you match make sure you pay close attention to your e-mails over the next few months. 2022 Intern Year Survival Guide .Your residency program will be sending you correspondence that often times is time sensitive. Within the emails there should be a few that talk more specifically about the start date of your intern year and things you need to have completed prior to then. Most programs list on their website, July 1st as the automatic start date but from my experience, you actually start sometime at the end of June. I say this so you can plan moving and any last minute trips appropriately.
Intern year survival tip prior to starting
Don’t try to prepare. This may sound like a weird request but please don’t worry about studying, learning the EMR, or anything really. As mainly type A personalities I know this will be a hard request for most. Whatever you do in my opinion won’t be super helpful. Being successful during intern year is a process that you can’t really prepare for. It’s something that you just have to be thrown into and experience it for yourself.
Network. Prior to intern year if you know any current interns or senior residents at the program. Ask them how they felt their intern year was. You’re more likely to get a better response from residents who are not so far removed from intern year because programs change and our actual memory of events tends to fade quickly.
Use your co-residents. Prior to starting each new rotation during intern year reach out to your friends/co-residents for tips and tricks that they thought were helpful to do well on the rotation. This may have been the single more useful thing for me. I really learned a lot about what to expect. Learn from the things that people did do or even didn’t do and apply it. You can also serve as a great resource for your classmates as well.
Starting intern year in 2022
The day you’ve all been working for, your finally officially a doctor! Refer to yourself as so (to patients). It took me a little while to stop calling myself Janelle and refer to myself as Dr. Masuka. I say this because when you are pre-rounding and have left and the patient is talking to other team members most likely they will say that they haven’t seen the doctor yet. When in fact they have, it was YOU. It just decreases confusion, and plus you’ve earned it.
PS just be on first name basis with the nurses, they don’t “care” that you went to medical school and they probably know more about your job than you do at this point.2022 Intern Year Survival Guide.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
You have so much more responsibility than previously. As a med student often the things you didn’t pay attention to become super important. Putting someone on DVT prophylaxis when they’re admitted to the hospital is important and something that as a med student you probably know to do. But in a patient with ESRD do you chose
Lovenox or Heparin? And if you don’t know the answer that is OKAY too. There will ALWAYS be someone there that you can ask for help, so please don’t be shy. We have all been there and after all you are in residency to learn.
Nurses are your best friends
Most the nurses have been doing their jobs for at least a few years and they are very skilled at it. Some of them have been in medicine longer than you have even been alive. Utilize them as a resource, ask their opinions, communicate with them, and include them as a part of the team (because they are). The nurses spend way more time at the bedside then you do as an intern and essentially they will be the ears and the eyes throughout most of the day for your patients.
Burn out – It’s a thing – Don’t ignore it
After a few months into intern year and you actually realize there will not be another year like 4th year of medical school anytime in your life haha, things get real. Burnout is a real thing and I encourage you to make sure you are able to recognize the signs and put yourself first. In order to be a good physician you need to take care of yourself. In medicine often times there is so much asked of us that we will put our own health needs aside to conduct patient care.This is one thing about medicine that we should definitely add to the cancel culture.
Don’t let someone tell you it’s okay to not be okay because it’s not. I’m not just talking about the “I’ve been on call for the 3rd time this week type of tired.” I’m talking about that on top of seeing patients die, having tough conversations with loved ones, and managing your own household when your barely even there to see it. It’s super easy to loose site of the reason why you entered medicine when all of this happens. I’ll be the first to admit it happened to me. After not having a vacation for 7 months straight after maternity leave, I was BURNT out to say the least.
It wasn’t until I forced myself to make some time for me, sought help, and acknowledged my feelings that I began to slowly see the light again. I think the topic of how to handle burn out in the medical field deserves its own post so I won’t go into many details here. I will say pay attention to the signs and seek help. Make time for the things and people you love. Studying or looking up patients at home on EPIC can wait. You will thank yourself later.
Getting over the hump and seeing the finish line
By February or March of intern year you are over the halfway hump, hopefully have had at least one vacation AWAY from the hospital and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
For me this was a busy time as I was preparing for Step 3, while working in the SICU with minimal days off. Haha fun times, but I made it and passed the test. Things that once, had your stomach turning will seem like a piece of cake.
Such as someone coming in for a COPD exacerbation. It’s always good to take a moment to reflect back on just how far you have come and give yourself some praise. I know you are tired of writing all of the notes, rounding for hours, and having now control of your one day (if that) off a week. But you are almost there and you can make it a few more months.
I hope you enjoyed this 2022 intern year survival guide. Current interns drop your top tips below!
Xoxo,
TheActiveMedic