Happy Sunday!
We are less than 1 month away from July 1st, aka the day new interns finally start residency🏥.
If you want to make sure you're starting residency at your best, keep reading👀.
It's no secret that residency is hard. If it were easy everyone would do it, right🤨? A brand new environment, a steep learning curve, and long hours in the hospital could create stress for anyone.
When faced with this stress, those of us who have persevered through four years of medical school may find it all too easy to throw self-care out the window in order to focus on the career we worked so hard for.
And that's the absolute wrong thing to do❌.
So this week, I wanted to share my pre-residency checklist. This checklist contains important items new residents should take care of before starting on July 1st.
My pre-residency checklist will also be available on the Med School Moose Resources page, where you can print it out and keep it with you!
Without further ado, here's the list📃:
- Find a primary care doctor in your new city and schedule a new patient appointment
- Schedule an appointment with your dentist for a checkup and cleaning
- Schedule an appointment to get your car serviced (oil change, tire rotation, etc.)
- Declutter your space prior to moving (sell/donate whatever you can!)
- Create a folder on your computer to organize all residency-related documents
- Create a folder on your computer to organize all physician-related documents (ACLS certification, immunization records, etc.)
- Invest in a pair of comfortable shoes for the hospital
- Find the nearest gym in your new city and ask about a membership
- Find out if your hospital has a gym
- Find several healthy, go to snacks for the workday
- Come up with a meal prep plan
- Connect with other residents in your program/hospital
- Spend time with friends, family, and doing the things you love before residency kicks off!
While this list may not be all-encompassing, it does contain many of the high priority items to make sure you don't lose the balance between nutrition🥗, exercise🏋🏼♂️, adulting🚗, and personal wellness⚖️.
All in all, the best way to start residency is by taking care of the random tasks you might too easily put off once you get busy, but also by taking care of yourself❤️.
🛟 Residency Lifesavers: My Amazon Shop features some amazing items that helped me navigate residency without going crazy!
⚡ Stay Energized: These Verb Energy bars have been my go-to snack since residency for great energy without a ton of sugar and artificial ingredients.
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