Tips for Surviving PGY-1 and Residency
Residency will be one of the most stressful times of your career. This will also be the time when you will form your habits, both in your professional and personal life. To help you through this time, we have prepared several tips based on our collective experiences here at COMQUEST. The more that you can incorporate into your life, the better off you will be.
Sleep? Yes, Sleep.
Get adequate sleep! This is, by far, the most important tip to surviving residency. Start first by admitting you are not a superhuman. No human being can perform well with little sleep, no matter what your colleagues say. Second, know the time you need to wake up in the morning and select the appropriate bed time so that you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep. Third, make sure to turn off your pager and cell phone when you go to bed unless you are on home call. Fourth, when you are post-call and at home, don’t stay up. Take a nap. You need it. Finally, make time to catch up on sleep on your days off. If you are chronically sleep-deprived, it will catch up to you.
On-Call
Prepare for being on-call. Know the most common calls and admissions you will get in your specialty. If you perform well on-call and do a good job taking care of patients, you will gain substantial credibility with your colleagues and really increase your confidence. Start doing this from the first day!
Narcotic Prescriptions During Residency
Learn about narcotic pain meds. You will be asked countless times by patients for pain meds. Some will even lie to you to get these. This is something they don’t teach you in medical school.
Residents and Attendings
Know the expectations of your senior residents & attending physicians. Don’t guess. Ask! If they won’t tell you, talk to other residents who have worked with them to find out what they expect.
Personal
Don’t forget your family and friends. Make them aware that your time is very limited and that they need to adjust, and that you will do the same by periodically spending time with them.
Don’t neglect your favorite activities and/or the things that make you happy. Schedule these into your life periodically. It’s not all about working. You need time to “sharpen the saw”.
Budget From Residency Income
Make a budget and stick to it. Try to save about $100 per month to help pay for your professional expenses. These include the COMLEX Level 3 Examination, FCVS application, state licensure application, state-controlled substances registration (if required), DEA registration, AOA board examination, and COMLEX Level 3 study materials. These costs can add up to about $4,000+, so by saving $100 a month, you’ll have the money to get these. If your residency program pays for some of these expenses, then this will help lessen the burden. You don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t get your COMLEX Level 3 exam completed or your medical license simply because you don’t have the money.
Job Search During Residency
Start looking for a job at least 12 months prior to your residency graduation date. The hiring process in medicine is extremely slow, the licensing and credentialing process is extremely long, and you’ll need time to research and consider various options. Don’t be surprised if the hiring manager you negotiate with for your first job uses your graduation from residency as leverage against you in the negotiation by stalling. Since he/she knows you need a paycheck after residency ends, they will use this pressure to get you to concede. The only ways around this are to start your job search early and to have lots of options so you can walk away when one option begins to fall through.
Outcome
Above all, remember the goal is how well-trained you are once you graduate (“the final product”). It takes a long time to get there, so just enjoy the journey the best you can. If you make mistakes, that’s okay. What matters is the end-goal. If you are a highly competent physician at graduation, you have succeeded!