Halfway Through Residency

I realized last week that the end of this month marks the halfway point in my 5-year residency. That's craziness! I couldn't even tell you where the past 2.5 years have gone.

I feel like I've hardly scratched the surface of all the stuff there is to learn. But then again, it's been 2.5 years, so I must have learned some stuff? It's actually hard to tell. Residency is so focused on the day-to-day tasks, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.

It certainly isn't hard to think of things I need to work on:

• Setting time aside to read and make notes.
• Getting more out of the cases I see.
• Following through on research stuff.
• Getting to work before 8 am. Not at 8:03 am. (Why is this so so hard??).

But to be fair (to myself), there are also some things I can now do reasonably well non-dangerously:

• Going through the motions of consultations, follow ups, etc.
• Feeling more comfortable with call stuff.
• Contributing to the residency program.
• Being helpful to visiting medical students.

Overall, things are going well. Third year is really a good place to be; you're becoming more competent, but expectations are not yet too high. Something I'm especially grateful for this year is having a little office to work in. The residents have a bit of space in the cancer centre's basement and since our program has shrunk over the years, there was an extra office when our PGY-5 graduated. At first I petitioned to stay in the main residents' room because I didn't want to be isolated from the others, but honestly, moving into an office has let me focus so much better. And I got to decorate it a little bit -- here's how it looks:

that painting of what appear to be dementors holding umbrellas was from my co-resident's office since it creeped her out --
I actually like the painting and most of the other stuff in here (ignoring that brown velvet chair, which should have never left the '70s)

vase from Michaels, hydrangea from Dollarama, & clock from Ikea

fake fern for West Coast vibes

Ikea lamp that I found on Kijiji for $5

A funny thing about this office is that it buzzes, thanks to being next door to the electrical room. I know a lot of residents over the years have hated that, but I honestly couldn't care less. Anyways, I'm just so fortunate to have a nice place to work and good people to work with. I'm sure the next 2.5 years will fly by!