One thing that you'll realize shortly after starting medical school, is that it is a bit like undergrad all over again. Of course, you have already started in the profession of your choice (hopefully, your dreams), but the notion that at the end of your four years you'll be putting out your residency applications definitely hits hard. And of course, just like undergrad, your grades won't be the only thing that residency applications will be looking at.
I don't want to scare you. In medical school, the need to have your C.V. filled to the brim with activities isn't really necessary, and a lot of what you have to do depends on what specialty you are thinking about going into. If you already have your heart set on being the next Cristina Yang, you might have to start thinking about how you can get yourself involved in research. But, if you know that your specialty of choice isn't as competitive, you have a bit more laxity in what you can do.
A couple areas that I think are worth exploring over the summer are: 1.) Leadership 2.) Shadowing and 3.) Self-care.
Leadership
As a physician, you are often going to be the head of a team, so being able to show residency programs that you are able to do that is really important. For me, I have quite a bit of leadership experience from this past school year (that will come in a separate post), but for this summer I am helping coordinate the summer program I participated in last summer. I can already tell you that come residency application time, I have plenty of examples for when they start asking me the, "Tell me about a time..." questions. But, just because my leadership opportunity is within the realm of medicine, doesn't mean that yours has to be. You can always seek leadership in other areas, such as your community. The most important goal is just to prove that you can take responsibility and how you handle your responsibility. Also, that you can work on a team. The medical field is very team-oriented and residency programs will want to know that you have the ability to be a team player, so being able to prove this works in your favor.
Shadowing
If you have the free time, this is a great time to look into the things that you are interested. Have you always wanted to be an emergency medicine doctor? Go shadow one! The unfortunate part about your 3rd and 4th year rotations is that you only get a brief glimpse of things before you make a a decision about what you'd like to practice for the rest of your life, so if you have the chance to get exposure to your field of interest early on, that's great. You'll already have an idea of what to expect, but you'll also start building connections for the future. That and like medical schools, residency programs what to see that you know what you are getting yourself into. Being a doctor isn't easy and each specialty has it's own unique challenges. So, having the opportunity to get to know what your future job would be like can give you a bit more certainty about choosing a specialty and will allow you to confidently speak about why you are choosing it come interview time.
Self-care
Medical school is hard and making it through a full academic year takes a lot out of you. So, if you want to take the summer to recuperate before prepping for M2 year, that's totally okay. I know that there's always pressure to do everything that you can to make yourself a competitive candidate, but at the end of the day, you won't be able to do your job well if you're burned out. One of my favorite quotes is, "You can't pour from an empty cup." And I feel like this is so true in the medical field. If you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to effectively take care of others, so remember to make it a priority. If residency programs ask you what you did for your summer, all you have to say is that you took the summer to focus on self-care. I would say that anyone in this field will understand that this is completely necessary. So, don't be afraid to keep this as an option.
Regardless of what you decide to do, remember to enjoy your summer. I know the pressure to add things to your C.V. will be there, but if you are going to spend your last "summer break" being miserable, is it really worth it? So, remember to keep that in mind when you are planning out your summer following M1 year.
- Gen<3
No comments