Intern year is touted to be the hardest year of medical training.

I agree. Intern year is an absolutely challenging year that pushes many energetic, optimistic, freshly minted doctors to burn out.

As a new graduate and a newly minted doctor (yay!), I urge you prepare physically, mentally, and personally.

You are in medicine for the long haul, which means taking care of yourself so you can take care of your patients.

Intern YEAR.

One of the toughest years of your medical training.
Fear not.
Here’s a quick guide to get you ready for intern year physically, financially, academically, and personally!
New DOCTOR, you got this!!

How can you prepare physically?

You absolutely SHOULD establish a relationship with a primary are doctor (PCP) in your new city, for so many reasons. It’s true, doctors are often are the worst patients.

Get your physical, renew your chronic prescriptions. Develop a relationship with your PCP, all before starting intern year. You never know when you need a TB test OR when your kids give you mono (…been there).

While you’re at it, visit a dentist for the cleaning you’ve been avoiding. Fill the cavities, replace your retainers. Many of these visits happen during banking hours, and honestly, you will not have access to it unless you ask special permission to be absent.

Lastly, it seems simple, but please sleep. It’s free, it’s the best thing you can do for your mind, body, and soul.

Avoid Vegas redeye flights. Try to control your urge to netflix binge until the sun-rises. If you take care of your sleep, you will be ahead of your peers.

How can you prepare academically?

First, think about the feedback you received as a fourth year. Is there anything you were working on? Medical knowledge? Presentations? Organization? Try to develop a system to record data about your patients. I took the outline proposed by Online MedED, and made it my own.

You can also become familiar with your field’s popular reference text(s).

NOTE: This does not mean read them cover to cover.

I suggest paging through so you can acmes information and chapters quickly, when you need them. Here are a few speciality specific resources:

Speciality Specific Resources:

Internal Medicine: Pocket Medicine | Harrisons

Pediatrics: Harriet Lane | Ziltelli Physical Diagnosis

Emergency Medicine: Rosen’s EM | Tintinalli’s EM

Surgery: Sabiston Textbook | The Surgical Review | Absite Review Book | Behind the Knife Podcast

If you have a month in the ICU, which you likely do as an intern, I recommend The ICU Book

How can you prepare personally?

First off. Do you have children? I am purposely ignoring you. Intern year with kids deserves a completely separate rant and blog post, which is currently under construction. However, the following applies. In short, your personal wellbeing will feed forward to your children, but I digress. Stay tuned for more.

Moving on!

Financially:

This is likely your FIRST paycheck, ever. How old are you?? I kid, I kid.

But really, it’s not to be taken lightly. You likely have a boat load of student loans, monthly expenses, and now are making MONEY! Bring on the Starbucks habit! Right? No.

Okay, seriously, it’s time to get smart about money. Residency can either set you up for financial freedom, or it can hinder your retirement.

I know, you’re thinking - retire? I haven’t even started my job?!? What?!?

Residency has so many retirement benefit opportunities. Once you earn at an attending levels, some of your contribution options will change. Starting thinking about retirement and your resources now!

PS. If you can learn to pay yourself first on a residents salary, which is a damn good salary comparatively to the median household income, you will be much better off as you progress through your career.

A few resources for learning about finances are as follows:

The White Coat Investor: Website | Book | Podcast

Physician on Fire: Website

The Physician Philosopher: Website | Book | Podcast

Financial Residency: Website | Book | Podcast

David Bach: Website | Smart Women Finish Rich (not physician specific, but a great read!)

Housing:

Try to settle into housing more than 24 hours before your start date. No seriously. Why stress yourself out?! You will not need much. I recommend getting cheap, safe housing.

Sure you can buy the luxury apartment with room services and a built in gym, but why? So much of your time will be at the hospital. Look for gyms that you can integrate into your daily routine. If you’re moving to a warm place, consider outdoor running. Residency is a great time to save money, and over indulgent housing can set you back, substantially.

Food:

Freezer meals. Don’t be shy, ask your parents, friends, or Trader Joe’s.

Grocery delivery. If you want to save money, I beg you not to eat at the hospital cafeteria. If you have to it is probably cheaper and easier to turn to prepackaged foods. However, I would urge you to take the three minutes to toss a lunch together in the morning. Your body, your energy, your wallet, and your waist line will thank you.

Pets:

No doubt, your pets are about to be neglected. Unless, you have an extremely supportive spouse or partner. So you can be fully present at work without the mom/dad guilt of pet ownership I would recommend a dog walker. Ask around, ask other residentsfor reliable dog walkers with a good reputation. Otherwise, I have had success using the Wag Walking App for instances when you didn’t not anticipate getting stuck at work very late.

Some doggy daycare is also offer pick up And drop offservices which could help you fit doggy daycare into those long workdays. Imagine arriving home to a calm dog that happens to smell like 12 other dogs, however, nonetheless. Might be worth splurging on that post daycare bath, hah!

No pets? Consider working for Wag for some pet therapy? Just make sure you have disability insurance incase a dog bites your hand off. Or maybe you’ll never walk a dog again after doing your month in the Emergency Room?

Preparing for your day off:

Generally you’re working 6/7 days a week. Occasionally, you get a “golden weekend”. Your day(s) off will consist a few things: sleep, groceries, laundry.

Number one, trying to sleep past your internal alarm. If you have kids, sorry. No sleeping in ever again, until they become teenagers and you have to drag them out of bed.

After sleep its on to grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning the sink full of dishes that you left all week, and finally dedicating more than 15 minutes to your dog or cat if you have one.

I urge you to make purposeful time for your family and your friends. I’m not talking about your co-interns. I mean your high school besties, your college roomie, your MOM and your DAD! Don’t forget your grandparents.

Connect. Send a text, give them a call, be intentional with this time to nurture those relationships.

I have seen too many people put their blinders up to life around medicine and lose touch with their loved ones. Medicine does not love you back. Your “ego” may grow as you acquire new skills and knowledge, but this is not love. Please, I beg you, do not forget to invest in those precious, irreplaceable relationships.

Sorry, ending on a deep note, but this is life.

Most importantly, take a deep breath. You have senior residents. Ask for help. Be humble. Be authentic. Enjoy the growth you are about to experience!

What did I miss?!

Do you have great advice for interns? Think I’m WAY off?! Let’s show this year’s interns some love!

I want to hear your feedback in the comments below!

Love this post? Subscribe for more awesome content!