Sweet little lies

Intern year is hard, no matter who you are or what your specialty.* All year, well-meaning people above you on the totem pole** will ask you how you are, if you're doing alright, if you're coping. And there is one correct answer, as evidenced by the following conversation between an intern (not me) and an attending.

Attending: So, Intern, how are you doing this year? Everything going ok?
Intern: Well, Dr. Attending, it's actually pretty hard. Carrying 10 patients every day is a lot of work and can be kinda overwhelming.
Attending: (with panic in his eyes) Oh, poo. No one's ever said that before. What do I do what do I do what do I do?!?!
Intern: Oh, I wasn't supposed to say that. He's getting all panicky now.
Intern: But I'm doing great. (pasting smile back on)
Attending: Oh, ok. Good. Let's move on.

So when I ask my interns how they're faring, I tell thim it's ok to say, "Not good." In fact, I tell them I won't believe them if they say they're loving staying up all night and spending more time with me than their spouses. And I think that simple acknowledgment that all is not in fact right with the world of residency can sooth a poor little PGY1*** soul. It's ok not to want to work this hard and feel this beat down forever. It really is. What a revelation. This is a means to an end but not the end. Worth it? I dunno yet. I'll keep you posted.

*Pathology is the exception that proves the rule. Talk about a cake walk. They only see like 3 live patients the whole year. They spend the rest of their time with tiny, very quiet pieces of patients prettily mounted on slides.
**Group of people constituted of, well, basically everybody except the med students. And even the med students feel sorry for you.
***post-graduate year 1, ie first year of residency