Anatomy Of An Intern
Dr. Rupali Sachdev
“You’re interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second night until you drop, and don’t complain.” – Dr. Miranda Bailey, Grey’s Anatomy
These are the words that occupied my Gray matter on the first day of my internship. (Well, not quite the same since I started at the bottom of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology food chain, but you get the point). Who knew that the words of a cheesy television series could be this accurate? But fear not, because we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve to make the internship a breeze for you (Hopefully).
The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.” – Internship is Fight Club but on cocaine. You are fighting to get an emergent patients’ blood work done first, fighting to get their references done quickly, fighting with your co-interns to get ward work done smoothly, fighting with the staff nurses to help you with inserting intracaths (better known in my hospital as Jelco), fighting your residents to not make you do unnecessary work and treat you like a naukar, fighting for attendance, signs, stipend, study leave and more.
You will now be working in the hospital. Wear scrubs that say “Dr.” on them. You will be seeing patients in pain for the first time. Patients whom you’ve looked after for weeks will suddenly have passed away when you enter the ward one morning. Patients who can’t afford to pay for catheters, ultrasounds, MRIs, and even basic blood investigations will often come to you asking for help. You will learn the cost of healthcare and understand the fallacies in our current system. You have to learn to be empathetic even after a long night of emergency duty. Don’t let the toxicity of the system change your beliefs. Your values are what will make you a good doctor. Any student can become a good clinician but not every student can become a great doctor. You will be spending nights staying awake, monitoring patients, taking vitals, running labs and making discharge cards. Previously, you would’ve only pulled an all-nighter prior to exams but trust me an emergency duty feels nothing like those all-nighters. You will now be handling emergent patients (almost always under supervision). At first, you’ll be hesitant and lost but you’ll realise that you are a lot more capable than you think. So have faith. It is alright not to know everything – nobody expects you to but it is important to make an effort to learn. Most of the time even you will stumble and make mistakes but you have to learn from them and try not to repeat them. Speaking of emergency duties – the golden rule is ‘Sleep when you can, where you can and eat when you can, where you can’. Gone are the days when you had the luxury of a soft bed to sleep on with your favourite pillows to cuddle with. You will learn to sleep on chairs, benches, cots, beds and even tables. Even a 20-minute nap can feel like manna from heaven. Always have tetra packs of juice or chaas in your bag with bottles of water. My bag is always full of snacks – biscuits, chips, chocolates etc. A 10- rupee bar of Cadbury feels like a luxurious Swiss chocolate when you’re starving. My addition to the golden rule would be to ‘charge your phone when you can and where you can’. You will have to stay connected to residents, send photos of reports and coordinate with your co-interns. Your most important accessory isn’t a stethoscope, it’s your phone charger.
Internship is the best part of your medical school. You are the doctors. It’s intense and difficult but the most fun experience of your life. You will learn more in these 365 days than you have over the past 4 and a half years – not just about medicine but also about yourself, what kind of a person you are – what kind of doctor you want to be. You will learn how to listen to patients, how to survive in a unit with not-the-best residents, how the hospitals function, how organized staff nurses are, how to compromise with your co-interns and how everybody in a hospital is family – a dysfunctional one but family nonetheless.
“I can’t think of a single reason why I should be a surgeon, but I can think of a thousand reasons why I should quit. They make it hard on purpose… there are lives in our hands. There comes a moment when it’s more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit but here’s the thing, I love the playing field.” – Dr, Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy
So, keep fighting. Keep walking forward even when you stumble. Learn to pick yourself up after a fall. Stay curious even when everything feels monotonous. Stay empathetic towards patients and relatives even when you’re exhausted. I know that it sounds daunting but in the words of a little blue fish – “Just Keep Swimming” and you’ll thrive.
