Medical Residents Burning Out, Missing Life

“I got my PANCE score on June 4th. I was very naive to think I’ll be working by July lol. My parents and friends have been giving me a hard time while I sit at home waiting for my credentialing to happen. I have a job lined up but even they are becoming a bit pissed off that I’m taking this long… Just wanted to ask if this has been a normal experience after passing your guy’s PANCE submitted by /u/squibbiee [link] [comments]”

“Starting outpatient geriatrics job soon. Any tips or resources similar to geriatrics at your finger tips? Or anything I should look up/study during my orientation week? Thank you submitted by /u/bionichelper [link] [comments]”

“#unpopularopinion MD schools have become overly publication focused. imo the whole process has genuinely become insane. why is there 50 billion different requirements to be a doctor when other countries don’t require even half of this bs? back to the publications point, i feel like publications etc should only be important for md/phd not md, except at most research schools its become practically a soft requirement now even for just MD. No other country has nearly as hard of a ‘pushing for pubs’”

“Was hoping to get some perspective. I'm about 3 months into a per diem inpatient medicine position, and to be honest, I'm miserable. I have a lot of anticipatory anxiety before every shift, and while the team has been incredibly supportive, I'm realizing that inpatient medicine may not be the best fit for me professionally. On top of that, balancing this role with my full-time job has been much more difficult than I anticipated, especially with some personal and family responsibiliti”

“Am I selfish for leaving a location after a year being there post-grad? I’m afraid i’ll be seen as selfish or “not a team player” for choosing my lifestyle and health by choosing part time work instead of FT. I just to work less and see if it will help my burnout and decreased mental health/energy. unfortunately I can’t get an alternative schedule where I work at, and I’m there five days a week for like 9+ hours a day. My drive is long too. i’m just afraid that when I notify of my resignation, I”

“Hey everyone, So there’s this really weird thing where when I think about medical school I get a sense of anxiety and start to feel overwhelmed. I start to feel like I won’t be able to handle the rigor, pace, etc. sometimes my mind goes as far as saying I’ll flunk out and all the research, volunteering, and clinical hours were all in vain. My clinical job made me fall in love with medicine, I look forward to going to work everyday to learn more about medicine. I’ve worked other jobs with first r”

“May I ask how is a doctor not in fear of losing everything, including the time spent in medical school? What am I missing?”

submitted by /u/Big_Hope_2059 [link] [comments]

“You can discuss your residency or how medical school was. I’ve noticed that with regards to medical students, older attendings are much nicer than younger ones, but with regards to residents I think that flips. I do feel like younger attendings sometimes forget what being a medical student is like but may be nicer to residents as they were just there. submitted by /u/Early-Possibility367 [link] [comments]”

“Like one of the secondaries is asking for motivation... How is that different from what I wrote in my PS? submitted by /u/Key-Western7202 [link] [comments]”

“Graduated recently and decided to move out of state mostly due to family reasons, trying to prep for mcat testing sep 12th but feels like I just don’t have any motivation my study was going decent for last few weeks finished my content review of bio, chem, ochem, doing bchem at the moment and trying to implement Uworld but everyday it’s like I try to drag myself but just can’t seem myself to really get together and study, I miss my friends from the state I attended college 😞 (was very socially”

“I just really want to feel like i know my stuff and i want to be able to flow nicely.”

“I am nervous because i don’t know anyone. And the ER is very cliquey with drama. I picked that up when i did my internship. Just don’t wanna end up on the wrong side of things”

“It’s okay to feel like that. It’s very normal. I would just try to remember 4 simple rules. 1. Ask yourself WHY are we doing/giving “X” 2. How are you keeping pt safe? (Ie, Vital signs, purposeful rounding, rounding note, monitoring, etc) 3. What can you anticipate? (Admit? Discharge? Multiple IVs? Septic work up?, etc) 4. If you don’t know then ask questions. VERY IMPORTANT Please don’t be scared to ask, it’s normal unless you have had countless of exposure and repetitions. Please ask and just”

“unfortunately, this is a common feeling for at least the first few months. try to be kind to yourself and remind yourself that you’re fresh and new to this! everyone has started fresh and has been in your place before. asking questions is GOOD and means you care and are being thoughtful. the confidence will grow over time. you’ve got this!”

“Hi all! Incoming M3 (canada) feeling very conflicted. I’ve done probably 100+ hands on shifts in EM through my school (small class size, community hospital w lots of opportunities for pre-clerk students in EM). I genuinely enjoy EM a lot. I love the variety, the acuity including trauma and resus(especially), but I can’t help but always looking back at the board and wondering what’s going to happen to the patients I saw. Further, I always feel like “that’s it?” After we dispo a patient: I underst”

“I’m 10 days into my first job in internal medicine, small private clinic. I thought showing up a couple days a week for the month leading into my first actual working day (for free mind u) would help me adjust and learn and while it did I still feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck and then run over a million times. While also feeling so utterly lost and overwhelmed. I’m someone who appreciates having written rules that I can refer to and nicely charted charts that I can seamlessly refer back t”

“as someone who just graduated with my bachelors and is applying this cycle, i was planning up until a year ago to go straight through college -> med school. now, looking back on it, im so happy i made the decision to do a gap year instead. even though im only taking a year, i feel like it’s given me so much more time to prepare, study, and explore what im interested in. im very lucky to have landed a funded research position for my postgrad year, which has opened doors for me that would never”

“So far such a hard change. Im FM. Appointments are shorter and I have no time to read up on things as much and then I feel like all my attendings think Im stupid. There are things I read about months ago and then forgot about. Any tips on how to stop feeling like a dumbass? submitted by /u/Icy-Anything-2019 [link] [comments]”

First year resident in the states is $55-65k USD.

“Thanks. I know it maybe seems irrational but with everything that's happened to me I'm constantly on edge, constantly waiting for the next disaster if that makes sense? I get worked up and my thoughts spiral. I talked about it with a friend who was also an ICU RN during Covid and she referred me to an EMDR therapist who helped her. So I'm due to start with that, hopefully it will help.”

“I know this sounds like an insane post, every person I have talked to says I am crazy for wanting this. But after a full year of radiology I can honestly say this shit sucks ass. Sitting in a chair all day for 9 hours straight (11+ on call) makes for the most soul sucking job imaginable. On top of that I feel we add very little value and mostly read studies that are negative or being performed for cover your ass reasons. I guess I should be happy for our relatively "light" schedule com”

“Freaking out about ITE cuz i haven’t taken step 3 yet and my step 2 was in 2024. I’m a new intern and I feel like the gap in my knowledge is too large when it comes to test taking. In actual clinical practice, i’m doing okay. With floors coming up, i have no time to study. submitted by /u/endlesssundays [link] [comments]”

“Sorry if this doesn’t belong here. Im 35 just finished residency and am doing a 1 year fellowship. I’ve moved to a different state and am pretty isolated. My fiancé broke off our engagement. I’ve been feeling pretty isolated and depressed for the aforementioned. Does fellowship always feel this isolating? Please give me hope that it possible to find a new life become a wife and mother at this age while trying to start over. I’m starting to feel like it’s too late. submitted by /u/Kin”

“Had one of the worst weeks in residency in terms of chaos and call. Missed my niece's birthday dinner and party, missed every World Cup game, slept in the clinic's reclining chair overnight, got constipation, and my car tire popped the other day. To treat myself for this hell of a week, last night I bought myself a nice 16 oz Prime grade ribeye steak, basted in garlic butter, with asparagus and several slices of sourdough bread with salted butter. Two mexican coca colas served ice-cold.”

“IM Intern getting my cheeks clapped by my first 6 12s, got called by psych as I'm packing up to go home asking me to change every med my patient is on and to ask the pharmacy how to taper it all. Subsequently to catch shit from pharmacy on why I thought all these changes were indicated. It didn't help that I felt like a dementia patient trying to remember this guys PCPs crazy ass justifications for the meds in the first place. 🤡 submitted by /u/thejewdude22 [link] [com”

“I’m having a hard time coping with negative reviews from patients. I don’t have many reviews since I’m a new early career doc and while the vast majority have been positive, the 3 negative ones have been weighing heavily on me. All three have had a common theme - patient is billed an obscene amount and patient wonders if the testing I ordered was necessary. It’s hard because I empathize with where the patient is coming from since no one wants to be stuck with a $900 bill. I know that if my for-p”

“Any docs here with a good relationships with their family (mom/dad/bros/sis)who moved away from home due to the job being insufferable? Do you regret it or are you thankful you did it. I am trying to get as close to full time at one of the satellite hospitals as it is much better there but the institutional rot still affects things. edit for clarity submitted by /u/SpudTryingToMakeIt [link] [comments]”

“I was reflecting on our responsibility, and obligation, to provide continued care to our patients until relief arrive and proper hand off occurs. Does anyone have stories of moments where personal stuff happened and you were already at work? Was a substitution promptly found? Were you stuck and had to soldier on? Anyone just left without a second thought? submitted by /u/SketchyKronk [link] [comments]”

“As a recently graduated MD, I wonder whether working in a hospital is really as terrible as I hear everywhere. By "everywhere", I mean from my attendings, professors, social media (Instagram, TikTok, Reddit), mental health support communities etc. I constantly see people describing extreme working conditions, being sleep deprived, hungry, denied human rights almost. I witnessed senior doctors become very unhappy and borderline neurotic. I have to admit it is all scary for someone just”

“I know we're heading into application season. And with that begins the new year of stress, anxiety, and confusion. With that, sometimes, comes tragedy. So I'd like to present a little different of a topic. How are you guys taking care of your mental health through the application season? Any reminders you'd like to give younger people, from older people? submitted by /u/Weary-Cauliflower153 [link] [comments]”

“As a new RD, I know it’s not just me who still makes silly and embarrassing mistakes. In rounds the other day, I was stuttering so much because I was so nervous to speak up about a patient needing nutrition support. They didn’t even understand me and moved on and I ended just telling the nurse afterwards. I was so mortified. 😭😭 What are some mistakes y’all have made or embarrassing moments you’ve had as a new RD? submitted by /u/_virtuoutslymade [link] [comments]”

“First off, give yourself some credit for recognizing it's the job , not the patients. That's an important distinction. A lot of new grads end up in a specialty that just doesn't fit their personality, and that's okay. Since you're already applying elsewhere, I'd treat this as temporary. Focus on doing right by your patients, leave work at work as much as you can, and remind yourself that this isn't forever. Nursing is one of the few careers where you can completely ch”

“Context: I work at an institution which has a med school I am currently applying to (working on secondaries). Short summary of my life lol: lost my dad to cancer 3 years ago, felt disillusioned with medicine and didn’t know if I had it in me to contribute to a system that failed my dad (he had a very rare and aggressive cancer and got turned away from a cancer center which has a clinic specifically for his cancer bc of insurance…when I asked if we could appeal or something his oncologist said “T”

“Currently in my last year of residency. Have heard multiple people say “residency clinic sucks compared to real life.” Is this true and if so, what makes clinic better once you’re an attending? submitted by /u/MadScientist101295 [link] [comments]”

“Anyone else an introvert here, who feels socialized-out by the end of every clinic day? Besides the decision fatigue, I feel like I have little socialization capacity left outside patient visits, and often feel somewhat anti-social in the office with colleagues because I want to preserve what I have left for my family after work (and also so that I can focus on charting/inbox and get outta there on time). Wondering if anyone else also feels similarly. submitted by /u/oatsoatsgoats [l”

“Yeah this is my genius friend in med school (graded) who stays getting honors on everything basically. He was also your traditional stat whore applicant with a 4.0 and 519 so he’s at a school that’s also very much filled with those archetypes. I love him but GIRL HOW IS A 278 STEP 2 SCORE NOT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT. 😭 I think he likes me boosting his ego because he asked me a few hours prior what I thought he was going to get and I said 260+. He then said, “Why not 270? 😭” Okay now you basically go”

“HCA is a meat grinder, nobody's gonna side-eye you for bailing before you even clock in. Take the better offer and don't think twice eh.”

“Hi, I just started IM residency in the ICU. I feel overwhelmed most days with pre-charting, presenting and notes. I am trying to get a hang of those. But another major issue is I feel like I don’t even know the basic stuff like GI prophylaxis indications. How to balance knowing at least the bread and butter learning along with learning the emr and being efficient? I have been low ever since I started 2 weeks back. I feel as if my 2 weeks in the ICU have gone to waste, I have showed zero improvem”

“I am in a very specific situation. I am in my last year and I am afraid that my program may extend my end date due to improvement in education. Also my program may shut down end of this year due to Acgme probation. If it does shut down this PGY year, how will that work if I have a couple more months to make up? submitted by /u/Just-Student-1322 [link] [comments]”

“Guys, i stuggled really well when i had to choose my medical speciality. after that, the ones who chose the same one started bitching about it (we haven't even started yet) that made me question my decision 🥹 how did you deal with that? submitted by /u/lazy-efficient [link] [comments]”

“Just got my step 2 score back and pretty disappointed. Scored a 245, but is below my predicted score and was really hoping for higher. Really bummed out I really want to go to Chicago for residency. Was hoping I could do great on step 2 and have a chance at UChicago, Cook, or Northwestern, but I feel like this is definitely out the picture now. Is this matching at other residencies in Chicago realistic with this score? Would love to go to RUSH or Loyola but they are pretty good programs too. I f”

“PGY-16 here. I did full spectrum family medicine with a lot of peds for the first 10ish years of practice. Then took a little detour and was only seeing adolescents (inpatient psych) for about 5 years. Came back outpatient and inherited a geriatric panel and am slowly building my pediatric panel back up. I feel a little rusty on some of the basics of young pediatric care. Has anyone done some sort of ”boot camp” or primary care review they’ve enjoyed? I‘ve tried Pediatrics in Review but need som”

“a few years out of residency and in primary care... and i just can't do it anymore. from time restrictions, poor management, inbox messages, long lists of concerns, and so much more. i know it is a big system issue. i don't know that switching jobs is the solution. anyone with success stories switching primary care offices, or other unique jobs within family medicine? submitted by /u/Fast-Salamander-1197 [link] [comments]”

What happened? submitted by /u/DrDreamsComeTrue [link] [comments]

“I’ve met quite a few residents that have been harassed and were afraid to say anything because they didn’t want to be kicked out of a program after trying so hard to get in. submitted by /u/DrDreamsComeTrue [link] [comments]”

“Hey guys, I'm a gen surg resident and I just had a serious complication in one of my patients. How do y'all cope? I'm absolutely reeling and idk what to do. submitted by /u/roemily [link] [comments]”

“Hello there everyone. Hope yall are having an amazing time. As I said in the title, I'm having doubts and anxiety about starting out. For context, I'm a fresh grad doctor going into residency but I have always felt like my calling is in entrepreneurship and business. I'm also very passionate about the subject in general and often read and consume media about it. As I was saying, I currently want to start a side business that would hopefully scale to a full time career in the future.”

“that shift from knowing your stuff on the ward to feeling like a student again in ED is a special kind of whiplash, drains you fast and leaves zero energy for the small talk”

“Havent been to the gym since surgery residency started, went back today to drop all the weight I've gained. All I did was some compounds with just the bar, basically warm up type stuff. I am so sore. I can't walk. Guys I'm supposed to do a CRS with HIPEC tomorrow please help. submitted by /u/False_Technician [link] [comments]”

“I’m a resident in surgical specialty year 5 out of 6 just started and I’m so miserable at work towards basically everyone i interact it. It’s kind of sad. I’m also afraid if it jeopardizing my chances to continue with the program or not get fired if I piss off the wrong people enough (I really have a shitty attitude towards both faculty and patients). I know the easy advice is to just stop but it’s like I can’t help myself. I also know how insane this sounds. submitted by /u/Remarkab”

“I’m around 6 months off orientation and I feel like this is my lowest point yet, especially since they are so close together. I honestly just feel really bad because I didn’t realize what I did was wrong and I know this is a big gap in my knowledge. The first mistake that came up was that I was giving dilaudid and I had to waste to give the appropriate dose. I wasted with another nurse and unfortunately I accidentally threw away the bottle in the med room. I realized this in the pt’s room and re”

“Just started TY year (basically IM prelim before a specialty), and this daily noon conference requirement drives me insane. I get that it’s an ACGME requirement, but now the seniors in the program are telling us, “no computers, no phones, etc” during the conference because it might make the speakers not want to come back? Meanwhile we round on patients up until the start time, I have to rush there to sign in on time (the admin removes the sign-in sheet after 10ish minutes so late comers don’t ge”

“Just came off a 2 week stretch of night float to my clinic block as an IM intern…. And first of all why am I so STUPID? was I stupid on my last rotation yes. But I figured it out pretty quickly. Here in clinic I immediately fell behind by over an hour, I have no idea how to manage my time, and feel like an absolute idiot staffing with my attendings. Today I feel like they had to nurse me through every decision. I will say I do think my clinic is well supported I have great nurses and MAs I’ve me”

“Just ended my 1st week in the ED. I'm not even inexperienced or new grad. That's all. Just wanna let shit go today. </3 submitted by /u/Top-Spinach-5747 [link] [comments]”

“Hey guys, started my intern year in a surgical subspecialty and it’s been a grind. I feel like I’m making a ton of careless mistakes on the floor and needing the team to double check even the most basic things. When presenting patients, I feel anxious and all over the place. I’m slow, keep forgetting basic things like how to dose certain drugs, mix patients up sometimes, and worried I won’t be able to make the most of training or be a “good resident” let alone surgeon if simply managing the floo”

“Im in my mid 30s with no plans to have kids. PA of almost 6 years in various specialties. Even switched to working in sleep medicine remotely and still not a big fan of working in healthcare. I’m financially stable at this time with no debt aside from mortgage. My plan was to go part time when I reached 1m in investments (hopefully end of next year).. but im already burned out now. for those who went part time, what made you finally decide to take the leap? submitted by /u/bglgene [l”

“I’m an M4 trying to figure out where I want to go for residency. There’s a lot of factors to consider but my biggest one is where I can go that will make me the best doc I can be. I’d define “best” here as intelligent, competent, and driven to serve their community. Just hoping to get some anecdotes that might open my eyes to programs I hadn’t considered. submitted by /u/hopscotch_hero [link] [comments]”

“I’ve been in touch with a resident for a research project. At first, she was super enthusiastic, very willing to get me on board, and offered to teach me. But after about two weeks, her responses became pretty spotty. On the bright side, she did put me on a couple of abstracts and told me she’d have me write a manuscript and get me onto more projects. But here is where I’m stuck: I sent my first follow-up regarding a specific project last month. She said she would send something over the next da”