Graduating from medical school and heading into Foundation Year 1 can be nerve-racking – but there are ways to set yourself up for success. Dr Megan Niven, a resident doctor and RMBF volunteer, shares her essential tips for surviving and thriving in your first year of medical practice.
1. Make a summary sheet
Before I started work, I made myself a three-page work document with things I knew I would be using all the time: delirium screening, laxative and antiemetic prescribing, clerking layout, etc. It’s a huge time-saver.
2. Keep up your hobbies
When starting out in such a demanding career, it can be so easy to stop doing things out of work that you enjoy. But without something to take you out of the work headspace, you’re more likely to feel burnt out or dissatisfied.
3. Ask questions
Never feel you are asking a silly question. Every doctor was an F1 at some point, and will remember how daunting it is!
4. Start ePorfolio early
In medical school you can often get away with cramming an essay into a weekend, but in F1 your ePortfolio requires a lot of sign-offs from other members of staff. Make sure you submit around double the required number, and do it early in each block so you don’t have last-minute stress.
5. Plan your annual leave
This was something I didn’t do very well in my first rotation of F1, but try to use your annual leave effectively. For example, if there’s a week where you are only scheduled to work Wednesday-Friday, then taking those days off gives you a full seven-day stretch for only three days of annual leave. Taking random Fridays or Mondays off might not be as recuperative.
6. Think about your future
Don’t feel pressured to plan out your whole medical career before F1 is out. But do start looking at different consultants’ working lives, and consider whether you can see yourself enjoying that speciality (if you want to do hospital medicine).
7. Make friends with your colleagues
Having a supportive group around you makes a world of difference. You will learn from each other and have a laugh at work, which is crucial to your job satisfaction.
8. Document everything you do
It’s easy to remember to document after a large consultation with a 10-point plan, but much easier to forget when only a small thing has changed. Documentation keeps you right and helps those coming after you understand why something was done.
9. Learn from mistakes
Making errors is inevitable in any line of work. The important thing is acknowledging them, dealing with them, and then learning (and teaching) from them.
10. Read up if your memory gets fuzzy
Doctors are only human! You’re not going to have perfect recall of everything you ever learned in medical school. Never be embarrassed to look something up and refresh your memory, so you can be confident that you are doing the right thing.
Good luck!