I completed my last rotation of medical school. It’s surreal, these 4 weeks between clinical rotations and the start of intern year, as a full-fledged medical doctor. Today I received an email from our registrar “Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements for the degree of the Doctor of Medicine.”
In medical school, we learn how to develop, assessment, and plan. As an M3, I remember being taught to come up with a thorough differential diagnosis. As an M4, I was taught how to develop a comprehensive and aggressive plan. “It doesn’t hurt to throw everything out there, you’re the medical student,” one attending remarked. So the tests I would suggest would often be exhaustive and expensive. I knew that as a medical student, there were plenty of gatekeepers–interns, residents, attendings–who would tell me if I was wrong. But in just a few weeks, my plan will be the plan. If I put in an order, it won’t require approval from an M.D. I will be that M.D. It’s intimidating…part terrifying and part humbling. While I am excited to start the next step of my journey, I know I have a lot more to learn.
The transition from medical student to intern will be a steep learning curve, so I am told. I already received my schedule for next year, and I start on a rotation, fortunately, I’ve been exposed to. Stay tuned.
