E is for Empathy. . I always tell people that the thing that prepared me most for IM residency was not my illustrious medical education, but my time working at Borders during liquidation. My team was great () but we were understaffed, the environment was high stress, and the customers were p-oed all the time. . . The hospital is the same way. Thing about the hospital is that my patients do not leave in 15 minutes, and they are undoubtedly sick. It is easy to be empathetic to some, even when they’re cranky. But then there are others who wear you out. Who test your professional veneer. Because you’ve been dealing with some genuinely dark stuff all month, you’re running up a sleep debt, and all those lectures on maintaining empathy you got in med school are feeling pretty distant right about now. You’re pretty sure you’ve got hypertensive urgency in those moments. Do they notice that you’re talking to them through gritted teeth? . . How do you all keep your feelings in check and maintain empathy even when you are being tested? . #hospital #patients #empathy #resident #intern #pgy1 #medicine #residencylife #inpatient #doctor #relatable #uchicago #pritzker #womeninmedicine #blackdoctors #graphicmedicine #premed #premedmotivation #im #residency #internyear #internalmedicine #medschool #medicine #medicalschool #medlife #md
I.M. Resident only a little jaded.