[smart_track_player url=”https://traffic.libsyn.com/medicalschoolhq/MSHQ025.mp3″ color=”004075″ title=”Top 5 Keys to a Successful Internship” ]

Session 25

In today’s episode, Ryan and Allison talk about the 5 keys to successful internship after med school and remember their experiences being interns.

A Johns Hopkins study illustrated that residents only spend about 12% of their time with patients which is a pretty crazy thing considering you’re going to be in the hospital for 16 hours a day as intern and only 1.92 hours spent with patients while the rest of that time is spent digging through charts, sitting in front of the computer entering notes, and looking through labs, EMRs, etc. And that’s a saddening fact.

Through the episode today, Ryan and Allison hope to help you become more efficient and hopefully spend more than 12% of your time with patients.

5 Keys to a Successful Internship after Medical School:

1. Being organized.

• Have a system to stay efficient (If you already have a system as a 3rd or 4th medical student, stick to it if it worked for you)
• Have a patient list and keep it at all times (Here’s a sample patient list)
• Write notes about additional things to do
• Be updated as you sign in and sign out
• Don’t rely on your memory. Write everything down.
• Prioritize what you need to do.
• Have a separate page devoted to admissions

2. Teamwork

• Learn to be a good team player as you’re a part of the team.
• Be aware of the different key roles of people in your team and establish rapport with them

3. Knowing when to call somebody

• Figure out a plan versus calling your senior resident
• Coming up with your own plan allows you to start the wheels turning and have a plan in motion to help build your own confidence
• Don’t just call your senior resident. Think of a plan without doing it yet and call your senior resident for feedback

4. Knowing your patient when you call a consult

• Know the patient before you call the consult.
• Have a “consult question” in mind when calling
• Provide some information about the patient to a consult
• Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback

5. Taking care of yourself

• Take whatever system you have for you to decompress (exercise, yoga, talking to your significant other, listening to music, etc.), whatever it is, know when to take a break
• Don’t keep it all in. Have a solid support structure.
• Help your family and friends understand if you don’t have time to be with them

Other important things to remember:

• Learn how to dictate to save you time when writing your notes.
• Do your discharge notes right when the patient is discharged so you don’t forget anything.
• Don’t write orders before you see a patient.
• Don’t sign out follow-up labs or procedures for a sick patient.

Blog Spotlight

Dr. Vineet Aurora blogs at futuredocsblog.com, and is on Twitter. She is the Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship & Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of Chicago. Dr. Aurora was featured on Session 38 talking about writing personal statements. She recently had a great post on KevinMD which you can check out about residency training and how it needs to change.

Links and Other Resources:

Here is a sample patient list that we put together.

Johns Hopkins Study – 12% of Intern Time Spent at the Bedside

ACGME Duty Hour Regulations

If you need any help with the medical school interview, go to medschoolinterviewbook.com. Sign up and you will receive parts of the book so you can help shape the future of the book. This book will include over 500 questions that may be asked during interview day as well as real-life questions, answers, and feedback from all of the mock interviews Ryan has been doing with students.

Are you a nontraditional student? Go check out oldpremeds.org.

For more great content, check out www.mededmedia.com for more of the shows produced by the Medical School Headquarters including the OldPremeds Podcast and watch out for more shows in the future!

Free MCAT Gift: Free 30+ page guide with tips to help you maximize your MCAT score and which includes discount codes for MCAT prep as well.

Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we’ll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us.

Check out our partner magazine, www.premedlife.com to learn more about awesome premed information.

Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep): Get one-on-one tutoring for the MCAT and maximize your score. Get $50 off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website. Check out their 10-full length practice tests and save 10% using the code “MSHQ”.

Listen to our podcast for free at iTunes: medicalschoolhq.net/itunes and leave us a review there!

Email Ryan at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq

Tweet Allison @allison_mshq or send her an email at allison@medicalschoolhq.net.

Subscribe for Free

Listen to Other Episodes

[smart_podcast_player url=”https://medicalschoolhq.libsyn.com/rss” color=”004075″ show_name=”Medical School Headquarters Podcast” ]

Leave us a Review and Rating!

Just like Yelp reviews or IMDB ratings help you choose your next restaurant or movie, leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review is very valuable to The Premed Years. It allows us to be able to share our information with more people than ever before.

I am so incredibly thankful to those who have recently gone into our listing in iTunes to provide a five start rating and a written review of The Premed Years.

Subscribe and Download

iOS/Mac/Windows – You can subscribe to the show in iTunes. Or you could manually add the RSS feed to your aggregator.

Android/Mac/Windows – You can download DoubleTwist and use that to manage all of our past and future episodes

Please help us spread the word!

If you like the show, will you please take a moment to leave a comment on iTunes? This really helps us get the word out!