I Graduate Residency Today

Three years ago, I packed up everything I owned and moved from Chicago to New York. It was June of 2014, and I was preparing to begin my 3-year residency at a hospital on Long Island. Of all the accomplishments I had achieved up to that point, none would be as meaningful or challenging as completing a residency away from my family and friends. Whether your field is internal medicine, surgery, dermatology, podiatry, radiology, or any other of the ever-growing list of specialties, residency is often a hurdle that can break even the brightest medical students.

I remember so clearly receiving my pager, and choosing the alert tone. That night I posted a picture of my new pager on Facebook, receiving a few laughs, a couple thumbs-up, and a comment of “I’m having palpitations!” Funny how a relic of technology is still so integral to saving lives. I spent nights carrying pagers for multiple hospitals. I spent one night managing a floor patient at one hospital, and my pager buzzed for a consult at a hospital 30 miles away… but that is just a fact of life for residents. Sometimes by necessity, we are over worked, pushed to our limits. I can’t recount how many times patients have asked if I was a read doctor- YES, just not licensed to practice on my own until I graduate. Even yesterday, OR nurses have asked if I completed the OR scrub-class… YES in 2014! Patients often whisper to each other- “He can’t be a doctor, too young!”

But life goes on, patients get better, and then they get sick again. Addicts come in asking for pain medication. I met a heroin addict a few days ago who in 2010 committed Arson. I’ve met countless diabetic patients who lose a toe, then half their foot, then a below knee amputation. Eventually some of them die, but some will live to congratulate us on graduating.

To a certain extent, the weirdest parts of residency are the friendships thrust upon us. Suddenly, my co-residents and co-workers became the people I trained with, partied with, cried with, and bonded with. I lived in a hospital dorm for 3 years, making some amazing friendships. But we weren’t college students anymore. We had responsibilities, some of us were married, had kids, other jobs (Yes in addition to residency). And just like that, people I would see everyday, I might never see again. It is a weird feeling for sure. But it must be harder for the attendings at my hospital. Each year at this time they are forced to say goodbye to the people they mentored so closely for 3 years. It never ends.

So as I approach my graduation in 2 hours, I look back fondly on the hardest and most challenging 3 years of my life.

So now I ask you, what was is your greatest accomplishment?