This started out as a reply directly to @eclipperton but then I couldn’t find his original post and, really, I’m just fucking lazy. Plus I thought other people might benefit from this, and my answer may benefit from the input of others to temper my burnt out answer. So let’s do some real talk about internal medicine residency.
Serving the underserved. This hits home with me. I’ll admit that I also judged placed based on whether they included an underserved patient population in the continuity clinic. Talking from the other side of the fence, having a continuity clinic population made up nearly entirely of patients without insurance, it sucks. Most programs with large underserved patient populations still do a shit job of having programs in place to help those patients. And that makes it so much harder for you to learn how to do your job, which is the point of residency. Just keep in mind that residency is training. No matter how much your heart bleeds, you’re still going to just be absolutely done with all of your patients at the end of an 80 hr work week. Trust me. It’s human nature.
Being close to what (or who) you love. DO IT DO IT DO IT DEAR GOSH PLEASE DO IT. Residency, especially intern year, is a big steaming pile of shit sandwich. Whatever you can do to make that shit sandwich go down easier, FUCKING DO IT. I have family nearby. My dog greets me every day when I come home. I have a boyfriend who is really fucking supportive. These are the things that help me make it through the day, and even then it’s still really fucking hard. Whatever makes this easier, cling to it. You’re going to need it.
