What I wish I had done prior to residency

Residency is hard. It's a lot of work. Many people made it through, some, of course, didn't. However, many people made it. Yes, this bears repeating. When I first heard I matched I was elated. This excitement was then replaced by fear. I was scared because everything I would do had a direct impact on another persons life. That is a huge responsibility for one to have over ones shoulder or ones head. Before I started residency I scoured the net to find a way to prepare for residency. Most articles or blog posts I came across were useless.During residency I have come across a few things that I wish i had seen, read, or known. It will be helpful for you if you are starting out in family medicine residency.

As an intern looking back there are things that you consistently get called for. If you know these things you will have a leg up on others, and feel more comfortable handling the floors. I happened to have a book in my possession that I did not read prior, but after starting residency my voraciousness for reading medical books has increased. The book I found was the "internship survival guide by washington manual." There is a second book that I got even later and thought was even more appropriate for preparing for primary care medicine intern year and that is the "onlinemeded Intern survival guide." Read either of these books if you have it in you and you will be more comfortable.

Another tool, other than the aforementioned books, that can help during residency are apps. The main apps that I currently use are epocrates for drugs, and ePSS for preventative care during clinic. I have also used FPnotebook in the past.

Intern year is almost over. I can barely believe it. It flew by so fast. Soon we will be welcoming the next interns. For all who matched congratulations.

2018 reading list: 6th and 7th book in the bag

Not quite the book or books that were next on my reading list but I finished them non the less. As per my last post I wanted to complete an EKG book called, by Dubins. However, I ended up reading two very different books.

1) Build a rental property empire, by Mark Ferguson: This book has zero to do with medicine. However, I'm very interested in investing so any chance I get I scour through an investing book. The book provided a behind the scenes look at how he bought and how you thought through buying his properties.

2) Washington Manual Internship Survival guide: I read through this whole book. And let me tell you I wish I had read this book before I started residency. Its short, well for medical book its short, and an easy read. It goes over the some of the tools that you need to have in your repetoire: antibiotics, ekg, procedures, and management of some common cases. It is not pocket medicine with hundreds of diseases and pathologies with their management, this is just, in my opinion, a book that touches on many different areas that a resident needs competency in.

I'm technically done with my reading goals for the year!!! I have read the desired 6 books and even read another one on top of that.