What I Wish I knew in Residency

Since I am participating in the Onboarding Summit #Match2021 hosted by Buddies Space, I wanted to write a special blog post for our recently matched doctors! Congratulations on this great achievement! Even if you haven’t matched yet, know you eventually will if that is what you want to do, so this post is for you as well.

The beginning of residency was full of excitement but also nervousness. Will I know what I am doing? Am I going to kill my patients? Why did I do this? All of these thoughts were quickly replated with exhaustion as I started my intern year. It seemed like part of being a resident was sleeping as little as possible, skipping all my meals, barely having time to exercise, and never seeing family and friends.

Looking back on my 6 years of medical training, I wish I would have taken my own well-being more seriously. I knew residency was a fixed period of time, so I figured I could suck it up and get through it. I guess I did, but not without consequences. I have spent the last 5 years as an attending working on fixing all the mistakes I made in residency, so that I can be my best self. My blog is all about all the different strategies I have created to get the sleep I need, eat healthy and delicious food, work-out, and have enough time do the things I want to do.

Below are three things I wish somebody told me when I was in residency!

1. Protect your sleep! Between 28 hour calls, only 4 days off a month, and long, days in the hospital, sleep barely happened. Many years later, I am still in a constant state of fatigue thanks to years of sleep deprivation. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you get 8 hours of sleep minimum any time you are not doing overnight calls. Sleep more when you can. Whatever you are doing when you get home, set a sleep routine as if you were a baby and keep it!
2. Don’t feel bad if you can’t spend as much time dedicated to learning. You are no longer in school when you are in residency. You are actively learning all day every day! I knew I wasn’t going to work 16 hour days and come home and be able to study for an hour. Make sure you go to your daily or weekly conferences, take notes, and participate. Your residency will likely have journal clubs. Read up on your specific patient’s disease (hello Up-To-Date!). Later in residency, fellowship, or even as attending, you will have more time to read all the latest research article.
3. You don’t have to sacrifice your body to medicine. Many of my colleagues survived residency by eating hospital food they found in pantries, like peanut butter crackers and tiny juice cups. I was pretty good about packing breakfast, lunch, and snacks but was also guilty of not drinking water all day or going long stretches without any food. The best way to make sure you give your body the proper nutrition is to meal prep and pack healthy foods. If you meal plan and prep once a week, your brain won’t have to make decisions while tired and hungry. As well know, we end up choosing fast or junk food, or skipping food altogether. Check out my blog to find different blog posts on easy breakfast recipes as well as how to meal plan and prep for the week
4. Bonus tip: make time to exercise! You don’t need a gym membership or a Peloton bike to do this. You don’t even have to do it every day but some type of exercise at least some days of the week will make you feel great. Whether it is a short Yoga class on YouTube, a run outside, or using a cheap app for different types of classes you can do in your living room, anything is better than nothing! Or you can do hikes or bike rides on your days off with loved ones.

Hope these tips are helpful. Residency is one of the hardest things you will ever do but if you have gotten this far, you can do it! Feel free to comment or reach out any time.

•