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Internship General Internship Tips
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  1. Start thinking of doing your ACLS, AMLS, ATLS, and APLS/PALS short courses.
  • Most of them expire after 2-3 years and will need to be renewed.
  • They will definitely help you feel more confident in running a resus (though as an intern you will most likely only lead the resus until the senior comes).
  • The ATLS waiting list is long, so consider applying early.
  • It would be very beneficial to complete them before you enter community service, or as early as possible during community service.
  1. Make comprehensive and detailed notes! Write down if you discussed a patient with your senior.
  2. The ‘see one, do one, teach one’ rule applies, so see and do many procedures to grow your skills.
  3. Whenever you enter a new ward, introduce yourself to the nursing staff. They often know more than you do, so stay become friends with them and stay humble!
  4. Fill in your logbook as you go. You don’t want to run around during your last week trying to get signatures; the consultants really don’t like it!
  5. Internship is a team sport. Don’t go home until everyone in your team has finished their ward work.
  6. Socialise, exercise, rest! Med school is over, so you deserve it!
  7. Make the best of internship! After these 2 years, you will be expected to stand on your own feet as a doctor, supervising others and making decisions about patients’ health with very little to no supervision yourself. Internship is hard but the learning environment is golden, so don’t waste it!
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Wise words of advice! on point 6, maybe I can just add:
Try not to create divisions or tensions in your team.
You’ll rotate through internship with largely the same squad, especially in the 1st year. Of course there will be differences and disagreements between you, but do your best to build a cohesive atmosphere where you all want to pull together. Snippy little side battles are exhausting and rob you of the joy of finally actually working as a doctor, something you’ve been working to for years!

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