It is no secret that MBBS is a demanding, gruelling and challenging course. It is also no secret that after a learning period of four and a half years, every medical student has to serve as an intern for one year, which has all the previously mentioned qualities of mbbs multiplied by ten. I actually spent the four academic years in blissful denial of what I have to face in the ultimate year of the course, and somehow never actually bothered to delve into more details of internship. Either way, it wasn’t until the last few months of final year that I became acutely aware of what lay in store after the exam. The whole premise of internship certainly seemed intimidating at first, and does still, but now that we have done the herculean task of taking final year exams, internship seems much more doable and also rather exciting. How true this is remains to be seen, but for the time being as I am awaiting my final year results I would rather flatter myself with the fantasy of an exciting year ahead, than ask around for too many details and develop a fear before the exercise even begins.
Final year exams were stressful to say the least, but this vacation after the exam is as heavenly as the exams were hellish. I have not known a more satisfying holiday in entire span of MBBS. Theres a sense of triumph in having cleared final year, relief in knowing that there are no more of college exams and a certain nervous excitement about the paradigm shift that will happen in our lifestyle once we become interns. The fact that we will now also be earning some money of our own, however meagre, is also a welcome change. In all the vacations before this, there was an unspoken urgency of starting the studies of the following year. This time, there is no particular deadlines to follow. Study for NEET is very much upto an individuals ease and whims. For now at least.
From what I have gathered from casual conversation with my peers or seniors, this one year is certainly full of trails and tribunals, but it’s nothing impossible to manage. Many have done it before us, a great many will do it after us. And anyway I don’t think we can quite call ourselves a doctor till we have actually worked sincerely in a hospital. Although we have accumulated a fair deal of theoretical knowledge in four years, our clinical skills serve little to recommend us as dependable clinicians. So I’m really hoping internship betters my proficiency and confidence as a future doc, which as I have been told, depends entirely on how enthusiastic we ourselves are to learn.
MBBS is by nature a very thrilling course, as no two days in the hospital can be similar. There are new patients everyday, even the same patient can be in different condition day by day, there are new procedures to be learnt, new surgeries to be observed, various departments each with its own adventures and challenges, new people, new seniors, new professors with each new posting. And certainly, many new stories to tell. So I thought why not keep a virtual chronicle of internship as it happens, where I would write my own experiences and thoughts – mostly, but not limited to, what all happens at work and also in life in general. Some days would be dramatic, some utterly ordinary – but the combination of these is what makes each one special. Because Internship is a pivotal year in all medico’s life, I would be delighted if my writing should give you all an insight into it. A curious junior, a nostalgic senior, a fellow peer, or a non medico intrigued by the profession – the experiences of internship serve to entertain and enlighten us all.