Internship & Residency - Tips & Strategies for New Doctors

Don't blow this off. This is a tried and true way of quickly choosing which patients to see first.

1 - See the sickest patients first.
2 - Next, see the patients possibly going home.
3 - Finally, see everyone else.

Of course, this requires knowing what "sick" looks like and what "going home" looks like.

If you don't have a PDA/handheld device, you should get one general pocket reference, one on-call pocket reference, and one drug pocket reference. Avoid having too many sources - too distracting.

Money Saver Tip - If you don't have a handheld device (Palm, Pocket PC, Blackberry, etc), you should probably wait until your stipend kicks in from your internship or residency program. (Make sure they cover it)

Until I bought my PDA, I had...

Mass General Pocket Medicine - I scrapped the Washington Manual after about a week. I like Ferri's better. But nowadays, I'd recommend this one... The full title is Pocket Medicine: The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Internal Medicine

Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia - I kept this one in my pocket even after getting a PDA.

The Sanford Guide - I pretty much only used 6 pages (the charts in the middle), but I used them almost everyday.

It's too good to be true. It's too simple to have such a far reach... That's what a lot of people think, anyway.

But having an excellent bedside manner is ultra important. It has a super far reach. If you master having a good bedside manner, you stand to make your patient feel better, potentially heal quicker, and certainly complain less. Your patient will trust you more, and therefore, offer a better history.

If you have a good bedside manner, your patient will tell other people. Your patient's nurse will tell other people. And guess what? It will absolutely impact how your attending evaluates you.

You will be sued less, get paged less, and be respected more.

And it is so simple to start. Here are three quick tips:

1 - While sitting a patient up to listen to their lungs, just say, "Hey. While I have you up, let me flip your pillow to the cool side."

2 - When you plan to order some medications, don't just tell them you're ordering them. Explain that it will take a little while for them to come up from the pharmacy.

3 - When you're all done in the room, put things back the way you found them. Put the call bell in reach, move the phone closer, and, if their allowed to eat/drink, move their tray closer to them.

So try sweatin' the small things when it comes to bedside manner. It'll serve you, your patient, and your patient's nurse well.