Day 1 in the hospital…
Set your expectations
Welcome to the team!
The importance of interpersonal relations, team dynamics, and expectations can not be overstated. Open and clear communication is key, especially starting from Day 1. It’s up to you to start the dialogue - don’t wait for the busy residents to open up the conversation!
Set Learning Goals
Every day you’re learning.
That is the best part about medicine. Every single day you should strive to learn something new clinically about at least one patient you saw. It can be a 5-minute review or a 1-hour literature deep dive, but now is the time to build lifelong learning habits.
Set up for success
Professionalism.
Everyone is in the same boat. We are all here to work hard to take great care of patients. Most patients don’t want to be hospitalized. Please be kind, patient, and pleasant. Everyone has a bad day once in a while - if someone is rude please don’t take it too personally.
Set Expectations.
On DAY 1 ask the team what their expectations are for you. Open and clear communication is key. Typically, the expectations are that you will carry a certain number of patients, pre-round, write their daily progress notes, and present daily on rounds.
Some suggestions for topics you can ask your residents:
What 'milestones' you should be meeting by each week?
How many patients should you carry?
What documentation can you update? Does that include operative notes and discharge summaries?
You can even ask residents if there are rotation-long milestones you should be aware of!
Set Learning Goals
Before you start the rotation, what do you want to get out of the rotation?
Sometimes, we focus too much on meeting everyone else’s goals we forget to think about ours. What do you want to learn? What do you want to achieve?
Some goods tips on creating self-goals:
Make them concrete, i.e. “I want to comfortably carry 3-5 patients by the end of the rotation”
Make them tangible and timely, i.e. “I want to learn how to be succint and effectively sign-out my patients by the end of the first week”
Make them reasonable, i.e. “I want to learn one new thing every day” not “I want to be an expert in managing lupus during pregnancy”
If you take the time to investigate and learn something new every day, feel free to share it! A nice way to disseminate your new-found knowledge is to do a quick 1-page write-up of the topic and bring it to rounds the next day. Just say "Hi, I was reading about this yesterday and I made a summary. Can we review this today if we have a chance?” Pass out your handouts and show that you are not just learning passively, but you are actively taking a role in your medical education.
Set up for success.
Professionalism.
What does that mean? It means two things: (1) Essentially, all eyes are on you and (2) Don’t take anything personally.
All eyes are on you
Please be kind. Be pleasant and happy to be there. No one wants to invest in you if you’re not willing to invest in the rotation. Be engaged and excited. It’s your opportunity to soak up as much learning in this concentration as you can!
Don’t take things personally.
We all are here for the same goal: outstanding patient care. However, residency is hard. Sometimes, you are working 80+ hours/week. Sometimes, your personal life suffers. A large majority of residents will suffer from depression or mental health issues at some point. Therefore, everyone has a bad day at some point or another. However, it there is a pattern of “bad days” or behavior that does not seem right, make sure you know the best people to help advocate for you. You can typically start with the director of the Sub-I.
