Day in the Life of an Internal Medicine Intern

Written by Annie Kopera, DO

Below is a taste of what life is like on the wards as an Internal Medicine Intern at an academic institution!

4:15 am: Wake up and begin chart reviewing with coffee from home.

I like to take advantage of remote access to read about new patients overnight and chart review my current patients. I find that I am more efficient and focused in a quiet space than in a workroom. This gives me time to process and think about differential diagnoses without being interrupted by conversation, monitors, or nursing requests.

5:30 am: Leave for the hospital.

5:45-6:00 am: Get sign-out from the night team. I get a report about anything any of my patients required overnight, and also hear about anything that needs to be followed up on for the new patients distributed to me.

6:00-7:00 am: Continue chart reviewing, begin notes, and place any urgent orders based on labs. I’ll also discuss any concerning findings or unstable patients with my senior resident as soon as they arrive.

7:00-8:15 am: Pre-round on my 7 patients. At my institution, interns are capped at 7 patients which I think is the perfect balance to challenge myself to have more responsibility, but also not be so overwhelmed that I don’t know the details of their cases! I will see how all my existing patients did overnight, and get a more thorough story from my new patients. I like to check in with the nursing staff quickly to see if they have any specific concerns for any patients.

8:15-11:00 am: Rounds with the whole team. We typically start with new or unstable patients. This is when we perform our formal presentations and discuss differential diagnoses and plans for our patients. Applicable bedside teaching happens here as well! We always round with computers to place orders immediately after discussing them and get pages out to new consultants before we head to Morning Report.

11:00 am -12:00 pm: Internal Medicine Residency Morning Report, typically presented by our chiefs or a senior resident. We review a challenging case, practice building differentials, and answer MKSAP (board review) questions. We get lunch here as well!

12:00-1:00 pm: Noon conference with the entire Internal Medicine department including attending physicians. This is a lecture given by a specialist on a certain topic.

1:00-3:00 pm: Time to get work done! Follow-up with consultants, review studies ordered that morning, finish notes, and call families with updates.

3:00-3:30 pm: Run the list with the attending physician. We provide updates on each of the patients about what we followed up on.

3:30-5:30 pm: Continue tying up loose ends for afternoon tasks. Our team will also try to sneak in a 20-minute informal chalk talk here with our medical students!

5:30 pm: Start sign-out to the night team. This is where we tell the night intern necessary information about all of our patients in case anything comes up overnight, and ask them to follow up on urgent tests.

6:00: My co-intern and I head out to the turf for a 30-minute workout. This is a big perk of having a hospital connected directly to the undergraduate campus!

7:00-9:00 pm: Get home, eat dinner, shower, study for USMLE Step 3 for about 30 minutes, and then finally go to bed!

A photo of one of my inpatient internal medicine teams.