What Shouldn’t I Do During an Internal Medicine Residency?

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Many people that choose to complete an internal medicine residency do so in a totally new area, meaning that they are essentially starting over. This means moving away from family, friends and the life that they’ve known previously. Starting an extensive program like this in a new city can be overwhelming, which causes some people to make decisions quickly, but there are a few things that you should avoid during a residency program so that you may focus your attention where it belongs - on your future career.

Common Mistakes to Avoid During an Internal Medicine Residency

- Do not avoid or put off work duties. This includes everything from studying to paying attention to what you see and hear in the hospitals and clinics from your superiors. These things are important for you to carry into your future, and time spent pushing things to the side or ignoring them can mean a lot of catch up later.

- Don’t make huge life decisions during a residency, as this can add to the stress and feelings of being overwhelmed you feel. While it is possible to maintain serious relationships during an internal medicine residency, it is usually not a good idea to plan a wedding or have a baby during this time.

- Always remember to take care of yourself. You’ll be working for anywhere from 12 to 16 hours a day some days, so proper nutrition and getting as much rest as possible can help to ensure that you’re as alert and aware as you can be. Getting sick or being overtired all of the time won’t help you any.

Ways to Make an Internal Medicine Residency Simple

An internal medicine residency requires you to be sharp and alert at all times, but this takes practice. During the years spent learning from senior residents, hospital staff members and your colleagues and classmates, you’ll pick up many different techniques and ideas that will help you out as you grow and develop your skills.

Internal medicine is all about learning to treat the different ailments and conditions that impact the daily lives of adults, but this can only be done with a clear head and an open mind. While it may seem like a never ending cycle of classes, patients, information and meetings, a residency is the most important few years of your life, and you need to make the most of it. This will ensure that you’re able to help people in the exact ways that they need, time and time again. Take a deep breath, eat a good breakfast and go into each day with a clear head and an open mind.

Getting Through An Internal Medicine Residency

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Depression During an Internal Medicine Residency

The time spent completing an internal medicine residency Baltimore can seem endless, which often will result in you feeling a lot of different emotions. Some days will be good days, others will be great... and some will be downright awful. The awful days might make you feel as if you made the wrong decision or chose the incorrect field, but these feelings will pass as long as you’re able to adequately deal with them. Depression during the residency years is a common occurrence; it just takes some time to learn how to handle it.

Talking about things can help a great deal. Chances are that you’re not the only person that is having these feelings, and a lot of times, letting other people know that you’re suffering can be enough to get you out of a rut and turn your feelings around. Take some time for yourself. This can be anything from getting out to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air to simply stopping to ensure that you’re eating right and sleeping as much as possible. These simple changes can give you a new perspective on your situation, and allow you to refocus and evaluate your priorities. Never, ever be afraid to ask for help. The medical field is about helping others, but you cannot do that without first helping yourself.

Internal Medicine Residency Stress

Like depression, stress can often sneak up on medical residents during the worst times. Maybe you’re overloaded with work, missing having a life, and off of a normal sleep or eating schedule. These are typical stress factors, especially for those completing an internal medicine residency, where people will be watching your every move and evaluating you to make sure that you’re doing what you need to be doing.

Getting through this stress is essential for success, but it might seem hard to think about what comes next when you’re up to your ears in patients, work, and everyday life. A few things that can be done in order to combat stress during your residency include not taking things personally, ensuring that you have some downtime for yourself each day, and learning to appreciate the small things.

It is normal for residents to be reprimanded and pulled aside by their seniors, but this isn’t meant to dishearten you - instead, this is an opportunity for you to learn; they are simply trying to help. Even 30 to 45 minutes each day spent doing something you enjoy like reading, listening to music or sitting outdoors can help to reduce stress, and it can give you a chance to take everything in. The stress you may feel, much like depression and the residency itself are only temporary.

General Surgery Residency: What to Expect

Written By: Sharon Cretsinger

All medical residencies tend to be rigorous and possibly exhausting.  This is usually not a surprise, or a much a deterrent, for individuals who have already completed college and medical school.   General surgery residency DC may vary a bit between facilities, but there are some aspects of general surgery residency that are fairly consistent across programs.

A Typical Day in General Surgery Residency DC

General surgeons invariably put in very long days at the hospitals where they practice.  The same is true of individuals completing a Georgetown surgery residency.  A typical day may start as early as 5:30 am.  Residents will accompany mentoring physicians on morning rounds each day, which means seeing patients who are scheduled for surgery, or who are post surgery.  It is important for general surgical residents to learn how to appropriately prepare patients for surgery, and how to notice possible issues in follow-up visits.

Residents will spend some time observing actual surgeries when they are scheduled.  Mentoring physicians will explain the surgical procedures to the residents as they are performed.  This is, of course, a very important part of any surgery residency Georgetown.

Other activities that may take up the resident's day include various conferences that explore the procedures and related issues for specific kinds of surgery.  There may be surgery clinics, other conferences on topics like emergency room or trauma surgery, and meetings with mentoring physicians or hospital administrators.  General surgeons have to be well-informed on new and developing procedures and standards of care.

In the late afternoon, around 4:30 pm, residents can expect to begin evening rounds.  This means that all of the surgical patients assigned to a mentor physician's caseload will need to be seen again for pre- or post- surgery evaluation.  These rounds will carry on until each patient has been seen and any issues with their care have been addressed.  Taking this into consideration, it is easy to see how an individual participating in a surgery residency DC could put in a twelve to fourteen hour day.

Internal Medicine Residency Options

Written By: Rachael Kaine

The Completion of an Internal Medicine Residency

This field of medicine focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and care of adult patients that are experiencing a variety of conditions that start with basic health issues to complex and serious illnesses. Often, those who complete an internal medicine residency are referred to as a “doctor’s doctor”, because they are able to help other types of doctors figure out what is wrong based on signs, symptoms and test results. Everything from simple allergies and reactions to chronic illnesses and diseases can be seen and assessed by an internist. From common to rare, the most puzzling problems and situations can be taken to someone that has completed a Georgetown internal medicine residency and solved.

Careers After Completing an Internal Medicine Residency

Though there are many different career specialty paths that internists can follow, three of the most common and most necessary include hematology, allergy and immunology and pulmonary disease careers. Many of the internists that practice a specialty area divide their practices, focusing sometimes on the specialty area and other times on general internal medicine practice to serve the largest number of people possible.

Hematology: This specialty field focuses on patients that have blood, bone marrow and lymphatic system disorders. Conditions like anemias, congenital disorders and acquired disorders like coagulation and thrombosis as well as hematological malignancies are also the focus of this area of medicine.

Allergy and Immunology: For disorders related to the immune system, this is the type of specialist that should be consulted. While most internists see only adult patients, allergists can treat patients of all ages for conditions that are common as well as rare. Things like conjunctivitis, respiratory tract conditions like asthma, occupational lung diseases and even sinusitis are all capable of being diagnosed and treated. Adverse reactions to foods, drugs, stinging insects, abnormalities of the immune system and even skin related allergic conditions and reactions are all the focus of this type of doctor.

Pulmonary Disease: When it comes to focusing on, diagnosing and treating conditions that impact the respiratory system, specialists of this nature can be called upon to provide assistance. Pulmonologists are often used to treat and manage the more difficult and complicated conditions that general internal medicine residency graduates cannot figure out. The expertise that pulmonologists have can be an asset to the medical community because it means the difference between recognizing a common ailment and knowing how to treat one less common or prevalent.

Why You Need to Complete a Cardiology Fellowship

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Becoming an Expert After a Cardiology Fellowship

The study of cardiology deals with learning information about the most important organ within the body: the heart. Responsible for pumping blood and keeping your other organs, muscles and parts functioning properly, the heart needs to be as healthy as possible. Cardiologists work toward this ultimate goal, helping patients become and remain healthier, with properly functioning hearts. There is a great deal to learn both academically and through “on the job” experience, and so completing a Georgetown cardiology fellowship is essential to ensure that you are properly prepared to handle the cases of patients on your own. More information about this residency as well as others offered by this organization can be found by visiting http://www.medstarhealth.org/.

Fast Facts Learned During a Cardiology Fellowship

- A cardiology fellowship will prepare you for making important decisions that will impact the future lives of patients. Proper care is essential to being healthy, and the heart is the right place to start.

- Though the first pacemakers plugged into a wall socket, the medical community has come a long way since then. Pacemakers are used to control the rhythm of the heart’s beats via low energy electrical impulses. They are operated via internal sources, making it possible for patients that have them to lead normal and full lives, not stay close to a source of electricity.

- While not all patients are healthy enough overall to exercise, simply putting the body through a little extra exertion is the best way to promote heart health During your fellowship, you’ll learn techniques to get patients moving, what they are capable of doing, and how to help them through their journey.

- It’s not just regular people that have heart trouble and need the services of cardiologists, even celebrities sometimes need help. Open heart surgery to correct different problems has been utilized by Bill Clinton, David Letterman, Regis Philbin and even Barbara Walters.

- Cardiology fellowship graduates will have learned many medical facts and techniques that can be used to help patients, but one thing that must come from within is a genuine desire to help people. Taking care of people must be done completely; learning to listen to, respect and include patients in all aspects of their care is essential to success. Doctor/patient relationships rely on trust and honesty, and must be built and nurtured over time, especially when something as important as heart health is at stake.

What an Emergency Medicine Residency Will Prepare You For

Written By: Rachael Kaine

Choosing an Emergency Medicine Residency

The medical field is filled with opportunities to learn and help others, but no field is as rewarding as the emergency medicine branch. Whereas hospital buildings are filled each day with scheduled patients that have specific needs and questions that they need to have answered, someone that needs emergency care is a whole different story. An emergency medicine residency is meant to prepare health care providers for the unknown, giving them a chance to help people that may come in on a moment’s notice. A Georgetown emergency medicine residency will prepare you to make spur of the moment decisions while working in a high energy, fast paced and constantly evolving environment. This residency will allow you, over the course of roughly three years, to learn new skills, develop intuition and learn to best use skills and abilities to save lives.

What is Covered During an Emergency Medicine Residency?

Comprised of learning in on the job situations as well as by studying past cases and patients, an emergency medicine residency will prepare you for just about anything that comes through the doors of a hospital or emergency room. Though many things are covered throughout the course of training, some of the most important include:

Making a Diagnosis: In many emergency cases, a quick diagnosis can mean the difference between life or death, and at the very least, between immediate pain relief and prolonged uncertainty and suffering. Patients utilize emergency care and providers to find out exactly what is wrong, and you will need to be able to assess situations quickly.

Variety of Patients: The most unique thing about a career in emergency medicine is that no two days will ever be the same, and it is impossible to prepare for the day ahead. Sure, you can be ready and willing to give help, but there is no way to predict what kinds of situations you’ll be faced with when walking through the door. A typical day may include everything from evaluating patients for bodily pain to correcting and managing the after effects of a heart attack.

Preparing for Long Hours: Though emergency medical care providers work long hours, they also have dedicated time off. The residency experience will provide you with the opportunity to become accustomed to working up to 12 hours at a time, which can give you an opportunity to pursue other interests, both related to the medical field and otherwise.

Dealing with Challenges: An emergency medicine provider will be forced to make decisions, and in many cases this will be done before anyone else has the opportunity to work with the patient, aside from the EMTs. This means beginning care, deciding what must be done, and even performing different procedures on an as needed basis.

Family Medicine Residency: The First Step Toward Helping People

Written By: Rachael Kaine

What Comes After a Family Medicine Residency?

You know the drill when it comes to medical school - years of college spent studying and taking tests, followed by on-the-job experience and more studying in real-life situations and opportunities before graduating and being permitted to practice medicine. Many people choose to become nurses and therapists, but even more decide to go on and become specialists with a focus on a specific area. There are even opportunities to continue studying before striking out on your own, focusing on a sub-specialty area, but before this, there is an opportunity to complete a family medicine residency and focus your attention on the care of people of all ages with many different ailments and medical needs.

Completing a Franklin family medicine residency is no different than many other residency programs across the country, but it will provide you with the skills and abilities to be able to provide quality, comprehensive care in many different situations. This is a highly regulated program type with an established board of leadership, and is a branch of medicine that is (and should be) highly respected and revered.

The Scope of a Family Medicine Residency

Unlike medical care that happens with specialists or emergency room employees, family medicine relies on a patient/doctor relationship that is built and cultivated over time. By knowing and understanding the needs of patients, family medicine doctors are able to provide a different kind of care - on a personal level. By staying with the same doctor from childhood into adulthood, there will be no need to explain old ailments and care situations, and there will be no fear or distrust on the end of the patient; the longer this relationship has lasted, the more likely patients are to be open and honest with their care providers.

This residency will give you the opportunity to study and practice in many different areas like pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics, internal medicine and even psychiatry, making you well rounded and able to approach situations from different angles and with different ideas. Not only do family medicine doctors provide treatment and diagnose conditions, they also must provide preventive care like immunizations, check-ups, screenings and lifestyle counseling.

Though some medical conditions may require patients to see specialists, often family doctors are the ones that coordinate this shared care, ensuring that all parties involved are up to date and aware of everything that is going on. In many cases, family doctors are the ones responsible for the “in between” care and monitoring of patients that are suffering from conditions like heart disease, diabetes and even cancer when they cannot see their specialists. This type of care and personalized attention to cases will help patients feel more confident in their lifestyles and the status of their overall health.