For Internal Medicine Residents
You matched. You showed up. Now let’s talk about what comes next.
Welcome. Whether you are days away from July 1st, halfway through your junior year, or counting down the months to graduation — this section of the website is built for you.
I am Dr. Joyce Cheng, a Board-Certified Internal Medicine Hospitalist and Clinical Assistant Professor. I trained as an International Medical Graduate, which means I navigated every year of residency without the safety net of a home institution or a familiar system. I made mistakes, found mentors, figured things out slowly and then quickly, and eventually built a career I am proud of.
This page — and everything linked from it — is what I wish had existed when I was in your shoes.
What You Will Find Here
Residency is three years of transformation. Not just clinical training — though the clinical training is rigorous and real — but personal transformation. The way you think, the way you communicate, the way you handle uncertainty and exhaustion and responsibility will all change profoundly between July 1st of intern year and the day you walk across the stage at graduation.
This section is organized by year because each year of residency has its own character, its own challenges, and its own growth edges. What you need to know as an intern is different from what you need as a senior resident preparing for independent practice.
Intern Year — PGY-1
The steepest learning curve of your career. Everything is new — the hospital, the team, the responsibility, the pace. You will feel overwhelmed. That is not a sign that you chose wrong. It is a sign that you are doing something genuinely hard.
What you need most this year: practical tools, reliable resources, and the confidence to ask for help.
→ Intern Year Guide
→ A Day in My Life as an IM Intern
Junior Year — PGY-2
The year the panic quiets and something more interesting begins. You start supervising interns, leading teams, and seeing yourself — perhaps for the first time — as a physician rather than a trainee. This is also the year fellowship decisions become real and Step 3 needs to get done.
What you need most this year: clinical depth, leadership skills, and a clear sense of where you are headed.
Senior Year — PGY-3
The final stretch. You are leading the team, teaching the residents behind you, preparing for boards, and stepping toward independent practice. The transition from resident to attending is bigger than most people expect — and this year is where you lay the groundwork for it.
What you need most this year: systems thinking, board preparation, and clarity about the physician you are becoming.
Wellness and Sustainability
Residency asks a great deal of you. Your physical health, your mental health, and your relationships outside medicine all require intentional attention — not when things fall apart, but before they do. This is not a soft topic. Burnout is real, it is common in residency, and it is worth taking seriously.
→ Finding Time to Exercise During Residency
Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)
One of the most valuable clinical skills you can develop during residency. POCUS is transforming hospital medicine — and the residents who learn it early carry a significant advantage into their careers.
Quick Links
A Word About Where You Are
Residency is not just training. It is the period in which you become the physician you will be for the rest of your career. The habits you build now — how you communicate with patients, how you treat nurses and staff, how you handle your worst days, how you ask for help — will follow you into every role you hold after this.
That is not meant to be pressure. It is meant to be permission to take this seriously. Not just the clinical knowledge — all of it. The person you are becoming matters as much as the physician you are training to be.
You are in the right place. You Got This!
— Dr. Joyce Cheng, MD, MPH, MHA, FACP, Internal Medicine Hospitalist | Clinical Assistant Professor
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