미국 병원 여름 인턴쉽/ Hospital Summer Externship Experience

Hello! Today I will be talking about my experience as an extern at a hospital during the summer.

안녕하세요! 오늘은 제가 이번 여름 동안 인턴으로서 일한 경험에 대해서 얘기해보려고 합니다.

My externship was three weeks long and I had to apply for it sometime between February and March of the same year. The hospital I worked at had three groups of students doing the externship at one time. We were split up into different fields depending on what we had applied for. I chose internal medicine because I am interested in that field and I thought it would help me see a general idea of all the types of fields I could do as a physician.

일단 제 인턴쉽 프로그램은 3주였구요, 지난 2월에서 3월 사이에 지원했어요(선착순이었습니다). 제가 일했던 병원에서는 학생들을 분야에 따라 세 그룹으로 나눴어요. 저는 내과를 선택했구요. 의사로서의 전반적인 부분을 배울 수 있을 거라 생각해서 내과를 선택했어요.

As an extern, what we did was pretty much shadow the residents and attending I was assigned to. I would follow the residents when they met with the patients and then go through rounds with them. The most interesting part were rounds because this is the time the attending comes and meet us and then the residents will each talk about their patient to the attending before the attending meets and talks with the patient.

인턴으로서 한 일은, 대부분 레지던트나 attending 의사들을 shadowing하는 일이었어요. 환자들을 만나고, 같이 회진을 돌고 그런 일이요. 회진이 가장 재밌었는데, 그 이유는 attending 의사들을 만날 수 있고, 레지던트들이 그들이 만났던 환자들에 대해서 얘기해줬기 때문이에요.

What I've learned from this externship about the general job of an internal medicine physician/resident is that they figure out the diagnosis and treatment of the patient with all of their labs, medical history, complaints ect. They will also consult with other physicians in more specialized fields such as cardiology, pulmonology, nephrology ect. depending on the need of the patient. Then the attending oversees all this and will correct or approve the treatment and diagnosis the resident makes and makes sure everything is good with the patients before discharging them. Since I was only a medical student with one year of knowledge, they could not assign me to any patients. But the third and fourth year students who do their clinical rotations at the hospital are usually assigned to 2 patients (depending on what the hospital and the attending allows). The medical students will follow these patients and diagnose and treat like a resident would. What I've heard and felt is that the third and fourth year medical students do pretty much the same thing as residents except they have much less patients (and typically easier to treat patients) but they have the residents to help them out in case something goes wrong. Oh. And the medical students don't get paid of course.. t.t

인턴쉽에서 배웠던 것은 내과의사/내과 레지던트들이 환자들을 검사 수치와 의료 기록, 진술 등으로 어떻게 진단하고 치료할 지 알아내는 전반적인 과정이었어요. 레지던트들은 환자의 상태에 따라 다른 전문의들(심장의학, 호흡기내과, 신장학 등..)로부터 도움을 받아요. 그 후, attending 의사들이 그 진단을 검토하고, 수정할 수도 있구요. 저는 의대 1학년 생이었기 때문에, 저는 환자를 직접 진단하거나 치료할 수는 없었어요. 3, 4년차가 되면, 임상 회진을 돌기 때문에 보통 두 명의 환자를 지정받아요 (병원과 attending 의사에 따라 달라집니다). 제가 느낀 바로는, 3, 4학년 의대생들은 지정받는 환자 수가 적다는 것 빼고는 레지던트들과 비슷하더라구요 (그리고 환자도 좀 더 치료가 쉬운 환자들인 것 같아요). 아.. 또 다른 점은.. 의대생들은 배우는 입장이기 때문에 같은 회진이라도 돈을 받지 않아요...ㅠ.ㅠ

Overall, I've learned so much about what an internal medicine physician does but I've also learned the lifestyle of residents. Which seems like it sucks.. The worst part about this externship was the hours. You have to get to the hospital by 7am and some days if you are on call, you stay till 8pm while other days you are lucky to be out of the hospital by 4pm or 5pm. Other hospitals apparently have 32 hour on call days which means that they are on call and in the hospital for more than a whole day.

전반적으로, 내과의가 뭘 하는지를 배웠고, 레지던트가 어떻게 사는 지에 대해서도 배웠어요. 근데 이게 참 별로더라구요. 이 인턴십에서 가장 마음에 안 들었던 점도 이 부분인데요, on call인 경우 아침 7시에 병원에 도착해서 저녁 8시까지 있어야 할 때도 있어요. 운이 좋으면 4~5시구요. 어떤 병원들은 32시간동안 on call인 날들도 있어요. 그러니까.. 하루 이상 병원에서 근무해야 한다는 거죠.

What I really liked about this externship was seeing how the physicians interacted with the patients and also being able to see the diseases and types of patients I've only heard and learned in the classroom. I've only heard healthy hearts or mechanically made diseased hearts with my stethoscope, but during this externship, I was able to listen to a real heart with a murmur for the first time. Actually hearing a heart with a condition in a real patient versus a mechanically made sound was so uncomparable. It's actually much harder to hear in my opinion but more memorable.

이번 인턴쉽에서 가장 좋았던 건, 의사들이 환자와 어떻게 소통하는지 알 수 있었다는 것고, 제가 수업 때 보고 배웠던 것을 실제 환자들로부터 직접 배울 수 있었다는 거에요. 수업 때는 건강한 심장 혹은 기계적으로 병이 있는 것처럼 만들어진 심장의 소리만 들어봤다면, 이번 인턴쉽에서는 실제 약간 문제가 있는 심장 잡음을 들어볼 수 있었어요! 실제 심장 잡음과 만들어진 기계 잡음은 정말 다르더라고요! 알아채기는 훨씬 힘들지만, 기억에는 더 잘 남는 것 같아요.

The attending physician also would quiz me on certain terms or diseases which would keep me on my toe! I really enjoyed this because I was able to interact some with the attending physician and not only stand there listening like a doll.

Attending 의사들은 가끔씩 제가 긴장의 끈을 놓지 않도록 의학 용어나 질병에 대해서 퀴즈를 내기도 해요. 인형처럼 우뚝 서서 듣고만 있지 않고 이렇게 의사들이랑 소통할 수 있어서 정말 좋았어요.

My summer externship at the hospital was really an eye opening experience. It made me realize some things about the hospital life as well as gave me exposure to what I will be doing as a resident and a third/fourth year medical student.

병원에서 여름동안 한 인턴쉽은 정말 좋은 경험이었어요. 병원 생활에 대해 많이 일깨워줬을 뿐만 아니라, 제가 3-4학년동안이나 레지던트 동안 뭘 할지에 대해서 미리 경험할 수 있게 해줬거든요!