Dr Vishal M Balaramnavar, HOD Pharmacy Department School of pharmacy, Sanskriti University shares tips to prepare for medical internship
There are around 600 medical schools in the country as of 2020 with more than 50000 medical students passing out every year. The Internship year is a very important part of a medical student’s life before becoming a fully discovered medical professional. After studying for 4.5 years it is finally the time to put oneself to work. Internships give us the opportunity to learn so much more and enable a platform to put our studies into work. Being in a new place where you won’t have your friends or teachers any more but patients and hospital staff, it is a huge shift. Here are some tips that one should follow to have a successful and calm internship.
Be systematic
Being an intern, you would have a lot on mind and since it is new, it is difficult to focus on many things at a time. For this, try to be systematic. Make a to-do list and try keeping a track of most of your work one by one. When in doubt or need assistance always be confident enough to ask for help from your seniors and observe how they have tabs on their device to keep them systematic.
Know the basics
As an intern, if you do not know about diseases that are not common it is okay and is often unlooked at but it is important to learn the basics well that is knowing Symptoms and practices of common diseases like nausea, how to control pain, and more. One of the ways to remember these practices is to refer to intern guides on the internet which gives you a lot of information.
Be observant
It is important, as an intern, to listen and observe all the senior workers and doctors carefully. Being an intern gives you the leverage as you don’t have to know everything about a particular topic since you’re there to learn. In an internship one should always be open to learning. The best and ideal way is to listen more than speaking.
Study your patient
Reading through your patient’s files allows you to have a better knowledge about your patient and their symptoms, medication, reactions, allergies and much more. Patients expect that their care providers know their medical conditions thoroughly and offer the best possible treatments. Reading through your patient’s files not only aids you offer a better help but also expands your ability to identify the weak points and your knowledge to expand on other cases.
Speak to patient’s family
As an intern it is highly possible that you may not know much about the patient and its treatment but most of the time the family just wants to have health updates. It is important to be good and responsive to the patient’s family and build trust. Most of the time the family responds by saying thank you which makes one feel good and satisfied.
Calm yourself down
As an intern the people around you don’t expect you to know a lot of things. So putting lot of pressure on yourself from the initial stage of your internship will make you less confident even if it is your forte which will result in a bad impression. Remember to keep yourself calm and try to keep a smiling face on; have a good attitude and follow up on things well.
Be a team player
While being an Intern you are new to everything around you. During this time, it is important to be a team player. Being with your team will not only help you improve your patient’s health but will also build the trust and bond that is needed for a team to be efficient enough. Nothing would work properly in the hospital if your team consisting of fellow interns, senior residents, phlebotomists, medical assistants, nurses, hospital transporters etc does not work in sync, patience and respect for one another.
The 5.5 years of your life of being a student physician are very crucial and of utmost importance of which that one whole year where you have different residential rotations and meet a lot of different people helps you gain experience and knowledge which is very essential for your development.
Though being an intern, you would have limited time and much more work to do, but practicing these tips will help you widen your skills and contribute to you in the future.