Feeling More Confident Than Ever Before

I am currently a PGY2 in Preventive Medicine in Southern California, having recently completed a preliminary intern year. Before starting, I was aware that my anxiety during inpatient rotations in medical school had affected my learning and confidence. Going back to inpatient care as a resident, I knew I needed support to help me think like a doctor—to develop my internal algorithm for tackling various diseases and clinical presentations. To my relief, OnlineMedEd helped me do just that.

As I prepared for my first inpatient rotation of intern year, I wanted a concise resource to guide me through approaching different health conditions and scenarios I knew I would encounter. Naturally, I turned to OnlineMedEd because it had worked for me in the past, and BAM! There it was: Intern Content - Approach to Complaints. It felt tailor-made for my exact needs. My next steps were clear: go through every video in the section, take notes, and review anything that required extra attention.

Using my tablet I brought to the hospital, I took detailed notes of the videos to be able to glance at when needed. I’ve always found OnlineMedEd's materials to be presented in a way that is informative, logical, and approachable, and these were no different.

Thanks to this preparation, I was able to show up to the emergency department feeling more confident than ever before. Even though emergency medicine isn’t my specialty, I received amazing feedback. One of the attendings even told me that if I ever wanted to switch to EM, they’d happily write me a letter of recommendation! If that doesn’t demonstrate how prepared I was, I don’t know what does.

I’m so glad I didn’t follow the advice of colleagues who told me to just “show up and learn on the job.” For my learning process, the workflow, and my confidence in caring for patients, going through the Approach to Complaints video series made a significant difference for everyone involved.

If you’re like me and have struggled with confidence or anxiety, you’re not alone. While we can’t prepare for everything we’ll face during training, we can address what we can control by using materials that resonate with us. This preparation helps reduce negative feelings and, ultimately, allows us to grow into better providers.