You are in your fourth year of med school and have been matched. The long arduous journey of applying to different residency positions in different teaching hospitals has ended and you know where you would be spending the next three to seven years of your life.

Residency is one of the most significant periods of a medical student’s life and invokes a lot of emotions including excitement, joy, or even dread. The residency or intern year comes towards the end of Caribbean medical school and can pave the way for your future medical career.

That’s why it is important to be physically and mentally prepared for your residency or medical internship. Here are some pointers to remember before you start your journey as a medical resident.

1. Accept the fact that you might not get everything right: It can be a major transition for you to go from an unprepared medical student to being responsible for your patient’s lives. Therefore, you should avoid being hard on yourself and accept the fact that you will probably get some things wrong even when you had the best of intentions.
2. Things that seem scary at first will become second nature: Going into residency involves dealing with a lot of new things at once, and therefore can be nerve-wracking. You can take comfort in the fact that the duties that initially seem intimidating will eventually become second nature when you do them over and over for a long period
3. You will be tied to your pager for the rest of your residency: As a hospital resident in the US or any other developed country, you will be given a pager that can be used to summon you in times of emergencies. Having to deal with constant pager sounds can be annoying, but you get used to it within a short amount of time.
4. It is okay to be intimidated or scared: Going into residency marks a huge diversion from your life as you know it. Hearing grueling residency stories from your seniors can also add to your dread about your residency. Just remember that it is okay to be a little nervous or scared about you intern year. In fact, not taking things for granted can help you ace your residency.

Apart from these, you should also step back once in a while to reflect on the amazing nature of your job and let your patient interactions guide you towards the right medical decisions.

Your residency period can be further enhanced if you have done your clinical rotations from a good teaching hospital and have aced your USMLE tests. Pursuing an MD degree from a reputed Caribbean medical school can help you on both those accounts and make you a great doctor.

Look for appropriate MD programs in the Caribbean today to fulfill your dreams of being a successful doctor.