Need support during your medical training journey? Β Check out these resources for free, confidential support:
peer support for physicians and medical students:Β Physician Support Line
Email Tune Rx founder J.C. Sue at:tunerx97531@gmail.com
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Tune Rx founder J.C. Sue after running a 10k to inspire hope for breast cancer patients (now also seeking to inspire hope for struggling medical trainees)
It’s no secret that medical training is difficult, and successfully completing it requires a lot of effort and perseverance. Β If you find yourself struggling during medical training (academically or otherwise), I want you to know that you are not alone. Β Many medical trainees find themselves needing help at some point during training, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Β In fact, I would argue that learning to ask for help is an essential skill to master during medical training because even after completing training, no medical practitioner knows all the answers, and consulting the right specialists can help a patient get the appropriate treatment as efficiently as possible. Β I wrote this post to share my personal experience of going from failing to succeeding during a residency rotation, which I hope will provide encouragement to anyone struggling in medical training.
During the second week out of four of my pediatric inpatient medicine rotation during intern year, the attending physician for that week pulled me aside and expressed serious concern about my clinical skills. Β Not too long after that, I found out from my residency program advisor that there was concern that I was functioning at the level of a third year medical student and would fail the rotation if my performance didn’t improve significantly. Β I hadn’t had much pediatric inpatient medicine experience as a medical student, so this clinical setting was largely unfamiliar to me. Β I had a lot to learn in a short amount of time to meet the expectations for rotation performance.
I knew the odds were against me for passing the rotation, but I also knew that if I gave up there was no chance that I would pass.Β Β Thankfully, during medical school I had become well acquainted with my learning style and was prepared to improve my performance as much as possible.Β Β I was scheduled to have an entire weekend off at the end of the second week of the rotation, which I knew would be the opportune time to build up my knowledge base.Β Β I committed to giving the rotation my all, no matter what the outcome would be, knowing that would be my only chance of passing and gaining the skills I would need as an attending physician.Β Β Even if I ultimately needed to repeat the rotation, I knew whatever knowledge I gained during this attempt at it would still help me in the future.
The first part of my comeback strategy was carefully observing the medical conditions that seemed to be most common among the patient population at the hospital.Β Β I knew there was no way I could learn about every single pediatric inpatient condition in just one rotation, so I did my best to narrow my focus to become competent at managing the common ones. Β (For those who are curious, the ones I noticed most frequently on the patient census included asthma, bronchiolitis, failure to thrive, seizures, and dehydration from gastroenteritis.) Β Once I figured out what conditions were common, I committed to using my best personal strategy for getting information about them into my long term memory: writing songs.Β Β At that time I hadnβt ventured much into composing original tunes, and I needed to lyricize a bunch of concepts quickly, so I contacted a composer whom I knew personally and whose music I knew well: my dad.
For many years my dad had written church choral pieces, and growing up I had sung many of them.Β Β I asked my dad to send me the accompaniment tracks for some of his songs I knew best, and he graciously did so by the weekend.Β Β To this day I am extremely grateful to my dad for sending me the accompaniment tracks when he did, as I truly believe setting the concepts I need to know to music made the difference between passing and failing for me.Β Β Shortly after I received the accompaniment tracks, I began turning notes I had taken on the common pediatric inpatient topics into song lyrics set to the tunes.Β Β Somehow I managed to record 8 songs by the end of the weekend, and since my car at the time had a CD player, I burned a CD of the songs and played them on repeat in my car during the rest of the rotation.Β Β That allowed me to get some extra studying done during my commute to and from work each day, which really helped solidify the concepts in my mind efficiently.
The knowledge I was able to gain from learning my song lyrics served me well.Β Β Both the pediatrics chief resident and the attending physician for the next week of the rotation told me about the improvement in my performance they had observed, and I ultimately passed the rotation.Β Β Though I was grateful to have passed that rotation, I was also grateful for the knowledge I had gained, which I knew would serve me well as an attending physician.Β Β I share this experience not only as an example of how useful medical music can be for learning, but also as a way to encourage anyone who may be struggling academically in medical training.Β Β I want you to know that even if you donβt have the strongest knowledge base or a lot of prior experience, as long as you are willing to learn and put in the work to do that, you will eventually succeed.Β Β In my experience, an interest in learning and a good work ethic will take you farther than natural talent alone ever will.