Intern year PGY1

Essential Textbooks

OnlineMedEd Intern Guide — Practical, digestible, and written for the realities of intern year. A great complement to bedside learning.

MKSAP (Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program) — The gold standard for internal medicine knowledge. Work through questions in your downtime; it doubles as Step 3 and ABIM prep.

The Only EKG Book You’ll Ever Need by Thaler — Simple, clear, and genuinely the only EKG book most internists need. Read it early in the year.

Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine — Not a cover-to-cover read, but an invaluable reference when you need to go deep on a topic.

Essential Apps

Keep these on your phone. You will use them every shift.

UpToDate — Your most-used clinical reference. Evidence-based, regularly updated, and worth every cent of your institution’s subscription.

DynaMed — An excellent alternative or supplement to UpToDate with strong evidence summaries.

Johns Hopkins Guide — The definitive antibiotic reference. Know it well; you’ll be prescribing antibiotics constantly.

MDCalc — Clinical calculators for everything from Wells criteria to GFR to CHADS2-VASc. Reliable and fast.

Epocrates — Drug information, dosing, and interaction checker all in one place.

Choosing Wisely — Helps you avoid ordering tests and treatments that don’t add value. Good for developing clinical wisdom early.

Podcasts for Long Commutes (and short ones)

The Curbsiders — Excellent internal medicine interviews with leading experts. Practical, entertaining, and high-yield.

Core IM — Deep dives into core internal medicine topics. Great for reinforcing clinical reasoning.

IM Reasoning — Focused on clinical reasoning and diagnostic thinking. Highly recommended for developing your thought process.

Bedside Rounds — Medical history and clinical medicine together — engaging and educational.

The Curbsiders Digest — Shorter episodes for when you only have 15 minutes.

A Day in the Life of an IM Intern

→ Read: A Day in My Life as an IM Intern

A candid, hour-by-hour look at what a typical hospital day looks like during intern year — the routines, the chaos, and everything in between.

Honest Advice for Making It Through

Live close to the hospital if you can. The commute adds up fast when you’re running on four hours of sleep. Every minute matters.

Build a support system before you need it. Identify co-residents, mentors, and people outside medicine who you can talk to. Don’t wait until you’re struggling to reach out.

Work-life balance is not a myth — it’s a practice. It won’t look the same every week, but protect time for yourself consistently. Schedule it like a shift.

Eat. Sleep. Move. These are not optional. Create a routine that includes all three, even imperfectly.

It is okay to feel incompetent at the start. Nearly every intern does. It is not a sign that you made the wrong choice — it is a sign that you’re doing something genuinely hard. Talk to your program director, your chief resident, your co-residents. Ask for help.

Don’t let anyone make you feel inferior. There will be difficult people in every hospital. Carry on. Tomorrow is a better day — and eventually, you’ll be the attending setting the tone for the next generation.

Learn something every single day. The day you stop learning is the day you stop growing. Even the worst shifts have something to teach you.

“Even on the worst days, I am living the dream.”

— Dr. Joyce Cheng, MD, MPH, MHA, FACP, Internal Medicine Hospitalist | Clinical Assistant Professor