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Unsolicited advice for rising M3s: a tweetatorial
#medstudenttwitter #medstudent #orthotwitter #medtwitter #tweetatorial
#medstudenttwitter #medstudent #orthotwitter #medtwitter #tweetatorial
1. Show up: this is more than just beating your resident to the team room. Show up with the attitude of a team member. Be present mentally and physically, even when you’re on a service that you don’t love. There is always something to learn.
2. Take initiative: don’t wait to be told what to do. You’d be surprised at how often I received feedback regarding how rare that is. Look for ways to help the team, and do it (well within your role of course. Don’t go around asking for scalpels or starting central lines).
3. Follow through: if you tell your team you’re going to do something, do it. You often read about med stud complaints to the effect of ‘resident X told me to read up on indications for Y, but never asked me about it later!’ Yeah- residents are busy! Take a second and remind them
4a. Be honest: this is 3-fold. First, if you mess something up or forget to do something, fess up. Second, if you don’t know the answer to a question, that’s okay. Look it up and follow through.
4b. Finally, a big misnomer is that you should lie about the specialty you’re interested in to align with your current rotation. IMO this is absurd. I was honest about #ortho from day 1 of M3, but made it clear that I’m here to learn and to be a physician first, surgeon second.
4c. What did I get? On psych, I got assigned the patient who had a fracture. Family Med? I got assigned to the attending who does sports med. Not once did ortho reflect poorly on me, maybe @medicalcollege is just that awesome, but I have a feeling this will hold true for most.
5a. Embrace it: You will likely work harder than you ever have before, but you’ll also have a greater sense of purpose and reward. You’re paying to be here (unless you got some super cool scholarship in which case that’s awesome). Make the best of it!
5b. Finally, if you’re feeling down or overwhelmed, ask for help. Your course directors are there for this reason. So are your peers. So is #medtwitter . Don’t take it on alone.
6. Thank your mentors and friends: they helped you get here and put time into you. Mentorship is a two way street. THANK YOU @awooldridgemcw @Jayman0827 and many other non-Twitter mentors. Also thank you @mmteacherdoc @mcwquips @MCWDean for making @MedicalCollege a home!
