When I was in elementary school, I remember often riding past my future middle school and thinking about how I would definitely get lost in all the hallways. But once I actually got to middle school, I found it exciting to explore all the new paths.
The lesson I learned as a child held true years later when I went through the transition from medical school to residency. For me, this was much like other changes I’d been through—there are a lot of unknown variables in the beginning, and then you slowly adapt to your new environment.
As to whether residency is harder than medical school, there’s no hard and fast rule to answer that question. Many factors are at play, and in my opinion, there are plenty of aspects of residency that are a lot better than medical school!
In this article I’m going to talk about some things that change when you get to residency, so you can decide for yourself. Here’s what to expect when you graduate from medical school and begin life as a resident physician!
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1. You’re more like the ileum than the appendix.
While as a medical student you can greatly help the team by following up on tasks from rounds or providing an extra set of hands during procedures, sometimes you may feel out of the loop regarding patient plans or next steps.
As a resident, you take a more essential role in the medical team, just like the ileum does with digestion. There’s more due diligence, such as making sure orders are in properly and all tasks are taken care of.
While as a medical student you normally take on a few patients to follow, as a resident you’re often responsible for a major portion of the patient list (if not the entirety of it). That can be daunting, but it’s also a lot more engaging to have this increased responsibility and ownership. After all, you’re training for the job you’ve always wanted!
All these extra duties can certainly cause some stress and nervousness. Rest assured though, there are safety barriers in place and you’re part of a whole team. It’s important that you learn to triage a situation and know you can always escalate for help. You’re in for a steep learning curve, but it’s also going to be a lot more fulfilling.
2. You won’t have to switch specialties every few weeks.
As a medical student, it can be quite disorienting to switch from rotating on pediatrics to surgery to psychiatry in a matter of a few months. Each has a relatively different workflow.
In residency, you predominantly switch between areas of focus within your specialty. While these also carry their own nuances, it’s a less dramatic change. This helps you get in a more natural rhythm and deal with fewer unknown situations.
(Disclaimer: This may not apply to some interns who rotate on a mix of specialties!)
3. There are no grades for rotations!
A big stressor in medical school is having to worry about grades and evaluations at the end of every rotation. A few interactions could be the difference between honors, high pass, or pass.
The nice part about residency is that while you have evaluations at the end of the rotation, there’s no grade attached to it. You can use those evaluations to determine what you need to work on, and that’s the end of that.
4. The exams are different.
In medical school, you likely became used to having frequent exams every few weeks. This can definitely be a source of anxiety.
Residency is different in that exams are much more spaced out. Likely, you’ll have an annual specialty specific in-service exam in addition to USMLE Step 3. Other than that, you can focus on learning the content of your specialty.
One adjustment is that you might have had dedicated weeks or months to study for your Step 1 and 2 exams. In residency, there’s no such block and you’ll likely have clinical duties in the time leading up to your exam.
All this to say, make sure you create some type of study schedule. And be sure to add wiggle room to it—there will be many days when you come home and just want to sleep!
5. Learning looks a lot different.
In the preclinical years of medical school, you probably had a system of organized lectures you were tested on. Residency learning is more like the clinical portion of medical school, in which you have a combination of on-the-job training and self-directed learning.
There will be protected education time from clinical responsibilities which consists of didactics. As I’m sure you can imagine, this would not cover everything you need to learn over the course of residency. To help guide you, there are outlines by specialty which detail the topics you need to know and resources to study from. Take some time to figure out what study strategies work best for you.
6. The hours will likely be longer.
One of the toughest things about residency is the hours. As a medical student, you may have been released early or had didactics in the middle of the day, which meant you didn’t have to go back to the wards.
Well, that’s not quite the case in residency. You’re frequently holding a pager for an entire shift and have other clinical responsibilities that may keep you slightly longer. So if you were used to working the morning and afternoon as a medical student, the 12-hour shifts (or longer) can certainly take their toll. Sleep and eat when you can!
7. Your location could change.
This one can swing either way, but depending on where you go for medical school or match for residency, you may be closer or further away from your support group. You may even find yourself in a whole new side of the country. Be sure you take this into account when creating your rank list!
8. You’ll finally be earning some cash!
Something that makes residency a lot better than medical school is that after a hard day’s work, you can take comfort in knowing you’re being paid a salary. This is most definitely a step up from medical school when you pay to be at the hospital! Also, most residency positions include medical, dental, and eye benefits.
So, what’s the verdict?
The short of it is that residency is just different from medical school. As with every new change in life, you will have an adjustment period. Trust that you’ve made it thus far and are more than capable of tackling residency—you are one step closer to attending-hood!
And if you’re looking for help while applying to residency, consider working with a Blueprint residency counselor! They’ll walk you through brainstorming your personal statement, preparing for interviews, reviewing your final application, and more. 💡
