Last week, as nervous fourth-year med students were about to learn where they'll be heading for residency, Lloyd Minor, MD, offered some nice words of advice over on LinkedIn. After sharing his own Match Day experience and outlining how stressful the residency years can be, he encouraged young doctors to take care of themselves, build a support system and remember why they went into medicine in the first place. He wrote:
Tending to the sick, scared, and vulnerable is difficult, but it is also a tremendous privilege. Every day, patients entrust physicians with their lives, and we could not ask for a more sacred gift. In his memoir When Breath Becomes Air, the late Paul Kalanithi reflected on his time as a neurosurgery resident and concluded that it must be a calling because if it was a job, it certainly wasn’t a very good one. Paul was right. Medicine is a calling. Despite the long days and even longer nights, today’s young physicians must always remember the reasons why they went into medicine in the first place.
Previously: At Match Day, 70 doctors-to-be embark upon "a tremendously exciting period"
Photo by Holly MacCormick
