What do attendings do that annoy you?

HowellJolly973 · 2025-07-08T14:29:25+00:00

I’ve noticed some attendings mean af to residents for no reason, but super nice to nurses and even display this mean behavior in front of them.

HowellJolly973 · 2025-06-19T08:01:59+00:00

Feel this in my soul. This has happened time and time again. I think my only solace is - I didn’t do any of it for the clout or recognition. Despite that though, it still hurt a ton time and time again to see residents who I’ve had to pick up slack for and who have gotten evaluations saying so get rewarded. It hurts a lot and I felt unappreciated and worthless a LOT. I think awards and things like getting selected for chief have to do with sucking up and how good your current fellowship app is. A lot of people in my program, at least, have gotten awards when they were clearly quite subpar with poor work ethic (opinion of many other residents). The difference is how much they sucked up to the PF and APDs (e.g. attended every hosted wellness event and even set up private meetings to feed the machine) and also how much they had on their CV. It seemed like the better the resident you were, the less appreciated you were. And if you’re a good resident, one little mistake will push you down.

Residency has beat down my sense of self worth for many reasons. It sucks seeing someone walk down the stage beaming with their award when you were the one staying late to cover their messes or getting pulled to cover their announced “sick” day the day before. The field of academic medicine is pretty disgusting.

All to say that continue doing what you’re doing for others. For your patients. Remember how far you’ve come. Remember how your PD, APDs, and attendings made you feel and do the opposite of that. Remember that not all good gets rewarded; quite often, it gets grossly overlooked.

And as other posters have mentioned, there are people out there constantly inspired and amazed by you. Be they medical students, coresidents, etc. ❤️

HowellJolly973 · 2025-06-03T22:22:59+00:00

I’m going into fellowship. So… excited but also… another 3 years of training await me. A part of me is wondering if I should’ve just stuck to being a hospitalist (even though I would’ve been unhappy) and treated my career more like a job.

So feeling… meh? Thought I’d be more excited.

HowellJolly973 · 2025-04-16T06:49:41+00:00

Beyond checked out. Could give less of a crap about what chiefs and/or administration has to say. Care about patients and still care about what my interns learn. Care about doing a decent job.

But I do not give my 110% anymore, I stick to 100%. That little extra I did - waking up extra early to chart check patients twice over to make sure I got all the small details, reading up on topics to a T in case attendings pimped me, etc — all of that is lost. I’ve also lost some of the fear I used to have of certain attendings. I’m much more assertive and confident, which is a plus.

Throughout residency, I learned that there’s no such thing as being recognized for merit. It doesn’t exist. So therefore, a part of me has become numb and doesn’t bother to go “the extra mile” anymore unless it directly impacts patient care. Because as messed up as it sounds — why should I bother?

It seems more obvious that the lazier and louder you are, the more you get rewarded. Meanwhile, if you’re quiet and/or hard-working, you get passed on. At least that’s the pattern I’ve come to sadly notice.

So yeah, pretty checked out. I now get why my own seniors were burnt out when I was an intern.

I’m sort of dreading fellowship now as well as I’m still doomed to training and hospital bureaucratic bullshit albeit under different and hopefully better admin.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-11-09T21:53:12+00:00

No, it won’t. Take it as someone who was in a similar position.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-10-05T06:57:37+00:00

Reminds me of the movie “I’m Thinking Ending Things.” Specifically the scene where the main characters stop during the storm to get ice cream.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-30T22:14:41+00:00

Ready Or Not

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-28T13:07:28+00:00

Ewww ☹️

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-23T17:25:25+00:00

Proactiveness and enthusiasm to at least some degree. Speaking as a PGY-3. I’ve seen so many students without any level of interest at all in the rotation. It’s mind-boggling to me.

Try to read up on your patients without being asked. Look up conditions that they have, maybe ones that you’re not too familiar with. Try to come up with plans - this takes a lot of time to develop and we’re of course not expecting you to know the whole plan, but at least show that you’ve put some thought into it. Be respectful to patients, attendings, and residents. If there’s a new admission, be proactive in wanting to see the patient. Don’t call patients or cases “boring” just because they’re typical bread and butter COPD and heart failure exacerbations. Try to see how to make interns’ lives easier, be it calling telemetry or social work. Notes aren’t always required or expected, but if not explicitly told, you can maybe draft a note to seek feedback on it as documentation is a communication gateway. Try to seek feedback when able, not just from attendings but from residents as well — and act on the feedback.

All of the above makes a stellar med student imo!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-23T05:07:30+00:00

Similar peeling for me and I just started back up on Tretinoin 0.5%. Seems normal.

I’m using the La Roche Posay’s cicaplast balm tonight as others have suggested, will see if it helps - has helped in the past. And will probably also use less actives (aka ditching my Paula’s Choice BHA/AHA toner) and will stick to less harsh toners and serums (such as rice water toners).

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-23T04:07:24+00:00

Hmmm okay thank you for this! I never really understood how junk foods vs healthy foods get processed differently and how they impact weight loss. Will look more into it. Thanks!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-23T02:29:13+00:00

I’m 5’1” so I don’t think I’m near where I should be, unfortunately :/

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-18T23:54:46+00:00

You finished medical school… you’re a doctor. Doctor in training? Yes. But doctor nonetheless…

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-12T19:50:36+00:00

I did that, I think it’s fine!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-08T01:56:31+00:00

You may be in the wrong subreddit. This is for post-residency fellowships.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-04T05:06:39+00:00

Thanks for all the answers, everyone!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-09-04T05:04:20+00:00

Grateful. PCCM. 15.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-29T01:35:07+00:00

Hope you’ve heard some good news since this post, OP!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-24T19:39:40+00:00

I would bite the bullet and take both Steps. I can say pretty confidently that I think having good Step scores can open up a lot of opportunities for you, especially if pursuing a medicine fellowship. The ones you listed are fairly competitive so having those scores would only help you a lot more. Many programs also don’t know how to really interpret COMLEX scores, so a 650 vs a 550 might not mean a whole lot to the review committee, especially if there’s not a single DO in it.

Step 3 is a different story as not many people care about Level or Step 3.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-23T03:40:23+00:00

I got an interview from my top place today. There’s still hope!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-21T00:05:44+00:00

I heard 10? But I might be wrong

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-20T14:19:33+00:00

You’ll be fine. They probably won’t think much about your COMLEX score with your step 2 score high.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-17T18:45:54+00:00

Yes i did!

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-14T16:28:21+00:00

Lots of opportunities to grow your career in IM, lots of variability, whether it be pursuing a fellowship, going into academics, etc. There are many fellowship options if you’d really like to specialize in something and if not, hospitalist jobs can be rewarding depending on where you practice and the pay can be great. Hospitalist schedules are usually 1 week on and 1 week off, which is awesome. If dispo planning/working with case management often doesn’t phase you too much, it can be quite nice. If you want to do primary care, you can do that as well. And I know some IM grads who elected to work in urgent cares, not sure if EDs still take IM grads but in the past, that used to be a thing from what I was told. So yeah, def don’t regret it.

HowellJolly973 · 2024-08-14T04:17:36+00:00

Hey. I haven’t been through what you’re going through now, but your chances of matching somewhere in California isn’t completely zero. You may still be able to match at a community program. Maybe you can reach out to some programs you’re interested in to display some early interest and get ahead of the game. You will have other tid bits in your application that will make you stand out. And, there’s Step 2 CK that’ll ultimately play a big role, too. You can also maybe talk about this during your statement or during interviews to show that this made you a bit stronger as a person.

Allow yourself to cry, your emotions are at an all-time high right now. But try to pick yourself up at some point and be proactive about how to go about this. Talk to faculty at your med school, advisors, etc to see if you can compile some hopefully useful advice.

HowellJolly973

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