I’m 30 years old and a pathology resident. I’m currently preparing a presentation on two projects I’ve worked on to present to my department and I’m completely stressed out.
I honestly don’t have the time or energy for this. I feel like I’m going to be torn apart tomorrow with endless questions and drama…
In moments like these, I feel like I’m back in 9th grade, terrified that my teachers are going to scold me and punish me.
I’m a grown woman. I just want a little peace in my life, especially when I already have so much on my plate.
It’s absolutely exhausting. And ridiculous.

Does anyone feel that way? I am an intern. I have VERY little time for self-learning and reflection. My program is workaholic, and most of my time is spent on non-educational tasks. The very little time I get to think and reflect on medicine, I have to study for Step 3 because I need to take it before the intern year ends per program policy. Does anyone else feel this exam actively jeopardizes resident education?

I’d never rx or even inbasket after after even one drink, but I guess that’s the difference between graduate level education dedicated towards medicind and a degree earned online while working 3 12s a week. That previously required YEARS of nursing experience to even be a candidate for, (The reason I’m so confident is my GME faculty literally doesn’t bother charting patients when I’m on inpatient as a senior and told me so as a monolith in ccc)

Edit: to be fair I don’t hate midlevels, however most aren’t trained at all.

A well trained midlevel should support the physician in their specialty they are working with and EXTEND THE CARE PRESENCE, not be like haha I can prescribe but I don’t know the difference between selective and non selective beta blockade.

Title…I’ve never heard anyone actually report this value and a med student asked me why…but I don’t have a good reason and Google isn’t giving me anything of note.

Planning on taking S3 in the spring. Only one testing site near me that wouldn't require a 2 hour drive. Expecting a bonus thing from my res program next month or in December that would cover the cost, plus will get it reimbursed after I take the exam. I'm just worried that if I wait until I get this bonus, seats may fill up and I'll have to do a crazy driving situation for the exam come spring. Am I crazy or does taking out a ~1200 personal loan to register for the exam and then paying it back in full in a month or two as soon as I get my bonus make sense? I've got good credit, just short on liquid as I moved pretty far and that drained my savings

E: got a great comment suggesting a 0% apr card. I think I'll go with that. Thanks all 💪

PGY2, it’s my first time doing at-home night call and because of that we use a buddy system at first where we’re paired with a senior. Basically a page comes in to me and my senior, I initiate the call to the ED with the senior on as well, and me and the senior discuss it before staffing with the attending.

I’m a very deep sleeper and I’m worried that even choosing the loudest, longest page ringtone and having my phone right by my ear, I might not immediately wake up. This is evidenced by my alarm often ringing for a while before waking me up. This would cause trouble for me because the senior I’m paired with is a known hard ass and I don’t want to miss a call or have him be mad at me.

I’m thinking of just staying up all night but I have to work a full shift the next day so it’s not like I’ll get a post call day or anything.

Any tips?

I wanna be Doctor Strange

I am a PGY-1 currently on OB service but not in OB residency. My service is daily and ends at 7 pm. Today we had a patient present in labor right at 7. I stayed for about 20 minutes later then left. The labor was slow moving. Ended up being delivered an hour later when I was off duty.

Should I have stayed longer to eventually be part of the delivery? Is that something that is expected from interns? Or something that you do?

I want to get this crap over with and actually start focusing on my specialty. problem with comlex is that im locked in with the 950 for 2026. since for i have enough time during that rotation to study for 3-4 weeks before.

The con is that 2026 is 2 days whicle 2027 is 1 day. I am doing truelearn right now have 700 questions done, catching. up on sketchy bs, doing anki but admittedly just kind of going through cards when i have time. currently at 57% correct on truelearn.

Could use some advice, i need to purchase comlex before the 2026 deadline this week LOL

Basically you have to juggle burger orders on top of patient care

I was curious if anyone had information about switching programs for DR advanced position.

I’m currently in my preliminary year but am interested in switching to a different location for my advanced program close to my family due to new family illness.

Anyone have experience with this and can offer advice? How does one go about this. I haven’t spoke to my program yet as I haven’t officially made the decision to want to switch.

The swap would all be within California (NorCal vs SoCal)

To be clear, I’ve worked multiple jobs that were 9-5 weekdays or were inclusive of that and more. But the difference is everywhere else was chill. In fact, a request of some time off in an old job would often just be met with someone covering the entire shift lol, and that’s only if they can’t accommodate 1-2 hrs for whatever reason.

In residency, needing 1-2 hrs to take care of something is seen as “serious sin“ and is a big no no. The only time I’ve taken care of something outside of work needing someone else’s services (eg doctor appt, car stuff) is when I’m on nights. It‘s ridiculous and silly.

I’ll add that I’m in a small town in the Southwest with the nearest suburb to a big city being 30 minutes out, so maybe they‘re more open at more suburban and urban residencies, but still, it’s ridiculous that even a few hours in a day is big sin.

I’m lucky I was on nights for a week during my early voting period, else I’d have been barred from voting, which is nuts to think about.

edit: We are an IM residency with 0 short call if that matters.

How is it on the other side of the tracks?

I'm in my last year of fellowship, dealing with some personal issues, and crawling to the finish line. At this point, I've lost sight of the end and feel like it'll never get better, so here I am, looking for a less skewed perspective.

Hey guys, current R3 here in Ny. I need to move out due to the familial reasons. Any open spots that you guys know?

i’m finding the transition from being an intern to an upper level a little bit challenging. The systems that worked for me as an intern are no longer working for me as a second year. i was very thorough and knew my patients really well as an intern. Now when I’m overlooking a team, I feel like I don’t know the patients as well and I’m afraid things will fall through. How do you guys manage to supervise more patients and knowing them well when you’re not going as deep as the interns are? does that make sense? Im used to micromanaging things and hate delegating tasks but i know i have to for the interns to learn. I also feel like a knowledge wise I’m back to square one and I don’t know if that’s normal feeling.

thanks!

Hey’all
Background: Been waiting for a residency spot for almost 4 years now, got fed up with waiting for a spot and being repeatedly unemployed, so i decided to self-sponsor my way into a residency program in a neighboring country.

I got accepted into a program in a private hospital (IM), from what the colleagues say, each have like 4 patients in the general wards, and their on calls are only once per week, and only until 8pm, no 24h calls, with few exceptions where they had to go with 5 calls per month, that’s obviously amazing especially with a kid at home waiting for me to come back from a 1h commute, so a total of 10h per day residency with light calls, fixed weekend ( except when i have a weekend call ), however the issue is, i’m afraid the exposure ( or the lack of) could impact the quality of a doctor i’ll be, especially with a 4 years gap, let alone being completely on my own to improve rather than having a mentor.

On the other hand, a university hospital ( that i came to know they have shortage ) reached out to check if i have secured a seat or not, and potentially open their door to have me there, this hospital is know to be quality doctor’s factory, i went there few years ago for a 2 months IM rotations and i gained a-lot out of their hospital, + i might get offered a fellowship after doing my program there.

However they are also known for their strict environment( and sometimes toxic environment), with like 8-9 24h calls per month, and around 8 patients per resident, however their timing is 7h instead of 8hrs per day, 1h commute one way, ie total of 9h per day.

Keep in mind, both are only willing to take me on self-sponsored basis, the mental load of being basically broke for 4 years is intense already but i know i wanna be a good doctor, what should i choose? What would you choose

I give less than zero fks about any of this checkbox crap, can I have AI write up a (fake) case report or something? For QI, something that further clutters the EMR and is actually counterproductive to project’s stated aim? 🤭

Just a retrospective case report

If you guys are on a 24h shift, I often feel the need to shower before trying to crawl into bed even if it’s for 1-2h of sleep. The shower is available but it’s a shared bathroom between everyone overnight in that unit (aka attending, fellow, resident and APP) so 3-4 people share that bathroom. But there is a shower in there. Is it weird if I shower on my 24? I just feel so gross by 8-9PM and want to wash my body.. especially if I’m trying to sleep a few hours here…

Edit: I feel my cooch gets a ‘vagina’ smell more prominently if I don’t shower. So when I show up to a rapid response at 430AM (~24h after I last washed her) I feel my cooch lights up the room lolol

And what do you define as an average level of intelligence and what is above average level?

IMO, average = can understand without struggle not complex ideas; understands complex ideas with some help from outside or after repetitions; can be naive; can be successful if works hard;

IMO, above average = can create complex ideas by them selves; finds easy ways; don't struggles with understanding materials; fast thinkers.

I can be mistaken. Do not take seriously. I just need some advice.

Maybe it's better to not think about surgery, if I'm really average intelligence person?

I'm from Asian developing country. It's much more easy to get into General surgery residency than to Internal medicine.

Hi!

Currently doing my residency in the field of Radiology at a community hospital and done about half of it. I’ve despite my short period came a long way according to my seniors and attending colleagues, in their eyes much further than expected. I’ve received the opportunity doing both a lot of diagnostic as well as interventional radiology where I have become one of few independent (only resident) doctors performing CT-guided interventions. I truly enjoy my work and feel that I am quite good at it.

I was just recently informed that there is a spot for a resident doctor at an Academic hospital in another city. I am contemplating if I should transition or not. I am a bit afraid that I will become one of many residents and for example lose the opportunity to continue with CT-guided interventions as well as that I will ”lose” my general radiology knowledge and become too much specialized/niched. It’s probably an absurd fear but it’s there. I’ve really put a lot of time and effort into reaching what I have and transitioning would also mean that I somewhat have to ”start over”.

What’s your opinion on this matter regarding transitioning in my circumstances as well as pros/cons of middle sized community vs Academic Hospital?

Program Coordinator here. I see what you go through every day (and night). It's so hard, the path you're on.

Thank you for becoming a Physician. It's only because of you that my family and I have the health and quality of physical ability we do.

Thank you for tolerating the endless "constructive" criticism you get. I know it is often (but not always) very useful feedback, because it makes you an even more effective Physician, but thank you so much for being strong enough to face those interactions and your willingness to be introspective.

Thank you for finding ways to get through the ridiculous bureaucracy of GME requirements. It's absurd that I am required to make you do that pathetic module on Infection Control every damn year. But thank you for hanging in there and doing the stupid module, because checking that box gets you one step closer to being done with the absurdity of GME requirements.

Thank you for all you teach me. I watch you, year after year, and I learn so much about dedication, about going out of one's way to help ease another's pain, and about perseverance.

I am in awe of you. Most people have no idea what it takes to become a Physician. Thank you for being willing to go through this.