5 Wellness Tips For Your Residency Training

A resident doctor is a medical graduate and doctor in training who participates in a graduate medical education (GME) program. They are typically called residents by healthcare facilities and work at doctors’ offices or hospitals to complete their education and medical speciality training. This often takes about three to seven years. Longevity Live Paid Content.

Likewise, there are steps you must take if you’re about to train as a resident. One of these is maintaining wellness. Becoming a resident is one of the most taxing experiences you can have. As a resident, you must work for an extended period and push your resilience, work ethic, and stress-coping skills to the limit.

Whether you’ve finished preparing for Match Day (a yearly event for medical students that helps them find out where to finish their residency training) or are already in the process of residency, knowing how to maintain wellness is crucial. This article will discuss some tips for achieving this goal, so read on.

1. Sleep Properly

It can be challenging to sleep when you’re busy as a resident doctor. However, getting a good night’s rest is crucial to ensure you’re more productive and can provide the best care for your patients. Sleep allows you to become physically and mentally prepared.

If you’re wondering whether you lack sleep, some symptoms to look out for include:

• Weight gain
• Fatigue
• Serious mood changes
• Challenges with making decisions and reasoning

To address these concerns, some essential steps to get proper sleep are:

• Go to bed 30 minutes before bedtime, allowing time to relax and prepare for sleep.
• Train your body to recognize bedtime by practising a ritual. For example, maintain consistent sleep times during workdays and days off.
• Avoid electronics before sleeping.
• Enhance your sleeping environment for better rest.
• Stop drinking and eating at least two hours before bedtime.
• Use medication if all other steps to improve sleep fail.

As a resident doctor, you must prioritize sleep as part of your overall well-being and professional success. By applying these steps, you’ll be better prepared before and during your residency training. 

Remember that making sleep a priority is an investment in your long-term health. Both physically and mentally. Moreover, it will help you avoid burnout and maintain the energy and focus needed to thrive in your field.

2. Spend Time on Exercise

Exercise is proven to offer many health benefits. From managing body weight to improving mental health and reducing stress, there are various reasons why you should incorporate this activity into your daily routine.

Although you’ll have a busy schedule as a resident, engaging in some exercise is crucial. Ideally, you should participate in aerobic exercises combined with low-to-moderate weight training, even for a few days each week.

Below are some examples of aerobic and weight training exercises:

Aerobic Exercises:

• Running
• Walking
• Cycling
• Swimming
• Using an upper body ergometer

Weight Training:

• Sumo squat
• Step-ups
• Overhead triceps extension
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups

Ultimately, doing these exercises ensures you reap the health benefits mentioned earlier, helping you be more productive as a resident doctor. It will also give you more strength to continue taking care of your patients.

3. Practice Self-Care

As you face many changes during training, it’s easy to neglect your overall well-being and health. Thus, it’s essential to find balance. Engaging in self-care activities is one way to achieve that balance and maintain joy even under stress.

To begin caring for yourself after you’ve matched and started residency training, follow these steps:

• Start a Journal

Just as with communicating with others, using paper to express your thoughts and feelings is an excellent way to de-stress. This is especially helpful when you can’t share a specific situation aloud.

• Take a Day Off

 If needed, take a day off to support yourself mentally and physically. Although you may feel obligated to help your colleagues and patients even when you’re ill, it’s crucial to rest occasionally. This way, you can recuperate and become more productive.

• Engage in Leisure Activities

Leisure correlates with well-being. It’s not about neglecting your responsibilities during residency training; it’s about finding balance amid the challenges.

Overall, proper self-care helps maintain balance, and following these tips will ensure you avoid burnout.

4. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of feelings, thoughts, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment with a nurturing perspective. Practice it without judgment or elaboration. Incorporate present-centred awareness while acknowledging and accepting the sensations, feelings, and thoughts that arise.

As a resident doctor, familiarize yourself with mindfulness practices such as:

• Body scan meditation
• Walking meditation
• Sitting meditation
• Mindful breathing
• Visualization
• Sensory exercises

Be aware of the benefits this practice offers, including:

• Reducing depression
• Lowering anxiety and stress
• Improving cognition
• Enhancing emotional regulation
• Boosting memory
• Improving satisfaction in relationships
• Enhancing physical health

Practice mindfulness as much as possible to obtain these benefits.

5. Connect With Friends, Family, and Colleagues

As a human being, it’s natural to crave social connections and human touch. Especially with friends, loved ones, and colleagues. Make time to connect with them.

There are many reasons to maintain social connections. For one, they improve psychological health by combating loneliness and social isolation and providing a sense of purpose. They also reduce stress. Allowing you to share negative thoughts and feelings about your training, which can act as a cushion.

To connect with those physically distant from you, avoid using emails and chats for more serious topics. This ensures that they understand the tone of your message and minimizes misunderstandings.

Final Thoughts

Residency training is part of becoming a fully qualified medical professional. It’s the final stage of one’s education and typically lasts three to seven years, taking place in a doctor’s office or hospital.

Whether you’re a recent graduate about to begin this training or someone already participating in it. Knowing how to stay well is crucial. Luckily, you can apply some steps to achieve wellness as a resident. For one, you can connect with friends, family members, and colleagues during this period. Practising mindfulness and self-care also helps. Lastly, you can also sleep and exercise properly.

Ultimately, applying these tips will enable you to better care for your patients and increase your productivity.