Read tips that OB GYNs have provided to help you survive (and thrive) during your residency.
- Maintain perspective: this is one day for you, but this is the patient's best or worst day.
- Intern year doesn't last forever.
- You know more than you think you know.
- Do the right thing, no matter the circumstances.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Sleep as much as you can.
- Exercise.
- Visit your family.
- If you think you should ask for help, then be sure to do it. Rationalizing yourself out of asking for help could be catastrophic, and you will likely learn something from a senior resident, fellow, or attending about a procedure, intervention, treatment, or medication that will shape how you do things and care for patients in the future. If something makes you feel bad/small for asking for help, then move on to the next person. Helpers are out there.
- Drink water.
- Don't suffer in silence.
- Breathe.
- Nurses are your teachers and friends. Work together as a team and learn from them.
- A scared intern will be a good physician. Being careful will serve you well.
- Sometimes it's hard to see that you are making a difference. To counteract this feeling, at the end of each day, take a minute to reflect on one thing you learned that day and one person you helped that day.
- Spend as much time as possible outside whenever you're off. Go for a walk or run at the park or study at a coffee shop or cafe with an outdoor patio.
- Travel when you have vacation time, even if it's just an hour away.
- Talk with someone in your life when you have good and bad news, or if you just want to share how your day went.