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Posted on: December 19, 2012

Starting your residency as a hospital intern can be quite exciting, but can also be extremely nerve-wracking and stressful as well. Before you begin your internship, here are five things you need to know before starting.

1) Your free time will be at an all-time low. Even with work hour restrictions and regulations on how much interns can work, the hours put in will be like no other. Get any time-intensive activities or hobbies out of the way before you start.

2) Your vacation time will be unpredictable, and short when you get it. If you have any trips or long-term vacations you want to do before you start your internship, do it beforehand! Once your internship begins, you will only have a week off at most if you get any vacation, and you often cannot pick what week you want off.

3) You will regularly feel dumb and inadequate. This is completely normal, and no amount of reading or preparing will truly get you completely ready for the trials of residency. Everyone goes through a good humbling, but make sure you learn well from it.

4) Maintain friendships and close relationships you have with others during this process. It can get easy to lose sight of friendships and relationships that you have during internship, but your strong relationships will be what gets you through your tough times. Try to nurture and maintain relationships with those you care about.

5) Most importantly, do not lose sight of what's truly important! Internship is only a year, and your hours and duties typically get better as you go along. As well as maintaining your relationships, be sure to take care of your health and other responsibilities like paying bills. Once you finish your intern year, you'll be amazed at the juggling act you had to perform just to get through!

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