A Week Before Internship

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope the start to 2023 has been a great one.

For me, the start of 2023 highlights a week before internship. A week before internship, I finally have my AHPRA registration (medical licence). A week before internship, I am feeling the entire gamut of emotions. It’s normal to feel many (seemingly) competing emotions, especially when embarking on a new journey of uncertainty and unpredictability. Starting internship is definitely the embodiment of that.

During my secondary and tertiary education, I have associated the years with the level of schooling I was in. 2014? That was when I was in year 11. It was like a signpost, a landmark that told me how far into the journey I was at and where the end was. Now with the unpredictability of starting work full-time, I’ll need to find other landmarks to associate with the years now.

I’m feeling excited. I’m excited to learn as much as I can about the art of doctoring. Medical school gives you a strong foundation to build your career on. The realities of medicine, however, intertwined with the mercurial human nature, is learnt whilst on the job. So, that’s something I’m looking forward to. I’ll have my own medical students following me around and telling me that they have a tutorial to attend- LOL - and I’ll say “yeah, that’s all good,”after being in their shoes less than twelve months earlier. There will be so much happening in the next couple of weeks, just like at the beginning of medical school, but times that by the number of stars in the universe.

I’m also feeling nervous and anxious. There was no real accountability of patients under your care during medical school, and all of a sudden, I’ll be thrust into the role of a junior medical doctor looking after numerous patients. Wow! Imposter syndrome is real. I sometimes think how did I make it to this stage? I feel so unqualified. I have to constantly remind myself that I put in the countless hours and years into being in the position that I am in and that I deserve to be here. That doesn’t stop the nerves from intensifying though. Maybe it’s not about the absence of nerves, when encountering a new journey, but the presence of nerves and the mettle to persevere into the unknown-- into being uncomfortable. I think that’s what it is. I know that I will get the support from intern supervisors and other doctors, so I’ll undoubtedly feel more transitioned and used to the hospital life.

We have all our rotations for our internship allocated. I will be rotating through three different hospital throughout the year. There are three compulsory rotations that every medical intern in Australia does: surgery, emergency medicine and general medicine. The other two are electives. Each rotation runs for ten weeks, so I’ll definitely feel comfortable after a while. My first rotation elective this year is Infectious Diseases (ID), which I will start next week. I think it’s going to be an invaluable one to start with. I’ve spoken to last year’s ID intern, and the team is fantastic. It’s important to get a good grasp of antibiotics and antibiotic stewardship, as other rotations prescribe antibiotics quite commonly. So, by the end of the rotation, I should know which antibiotics to use and not use for specific presentations. At the end of the year, I’ll have my psychiatry rotation and I’ll be going back to the old stomping ground where I completed 3rd year psychiatry- a full circle experience! I’ll have third year students from my alma mater on that rotation, so that will be a great experience.

In other news, I have started a side project. I will be interviewing black health professionals in Australia. The premise of this interview series is to showcase to prospective students the various pathways into medicine and allied health, the challenges, the realities of such a pathway and general/useful (hopefully) advice. So, watch this space as the videos will be coming out soon!

Don’t forget to eat your pancakes for 2023.

Anei