You finally did it. After four years of hard, exhausting work, you've graduated medical school and matched into a residency program. Now that all the hard work is done, you can get on to doing what you love, being a doctor. Of course, even in residency there's other problems that you need to solve if you're going to survive. This blog post isn't to scare you out of becoming a doctor, because it's a great profession and you put in the hard work. Instead, we want to prepare you for the next big step in your life of residency and prepare you to succeed through it.
How to Survive Residency
Residency can be intimidating. You may start to doubt yourself and your abilities as a doctor. However, you made it through med school just like every other doctor and you belong next to them. It may be difficult, but that's part of the learning. Residency will test you, but you can get through it.
Don't be afraid to say you don't know. Of course, you should be prepared and study up ahead of time, but it's ok if you're not sure. You're in residency to learn and you will make mistakes. It's important that you collect the information you need so that someone can help guide you to the answer. It's also ok to ask questions, you shouldn't be expected to know everything right away and someone will be willing to help.
Focus on yourself. Why you may get lost working on the health of others, your health is just as important. You need to take sometime to do what centers you; whether that's practicing mindfulness or exercising. Defynance understands how important mental and physical health are for someone's success, so we've spent time curating some of the best health resources around. You can find them all in our resource marketplace.
Residency is tough and it's going to be a challenge, but just know that it will get better. It may take some time to adjust to, but eventually you will get into the swing of things and start to hone in on your craft. And remember, often the most challenging things in life are the most rewarding.
Surviving outside of residency
With residency being difficult as it is, it can hard to focus on things outside of the program. One thing you will want to think about as soon as possible are your financial goals. With residency taking up a lot of time, it can be difficult to get everything else lined up financially. Of course, you still have to think about thinks like finding the right apartment, creating a budget, and everything else that comes with life. The earlier that you get these small things out of the way, the more time you'll have to focus on your residency program and excel as a doctor.
Paying your student loans
We're sure that with all the work of trying to survive residency, student loans are probably the last thing on your mind. But now that you're out of school, you'll also have to come up with a plan to pay for them. If you're like most students, you probably have around $200,000 of debt waiting to be paid. This can be a huge stressor, and while you may be able to push it down the road using income-driven repayment, you'll still have interest accumulating each month.
That's why Defynance has made a student loan repayment solution with you in mind. Our interest-free refinancing solution uses income share agreements, so that your payments are always affordable. So while you're in residency, your payments can stay low without fear of interest building up. And when you start earning more money as a full-fledged physician, your payment will scale, but still be affordable for you. Since the payment is based on income, you never have to worry about whether or not you will make a payment.
You can find our refinancing application here.
