Blog Post Focus
This blog post focuses on the fear of missing out during residency. Residency is a busy time and unique to anything outside of medical training. While one is busy and tired and stressed during residency it can be easy to think of a life outside of medicine as more attractive than a life in medicine. It can be easy to become rueful of the constraints of residency and medical education as a whole.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Residency
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is the idea that our obligations prevent us from doing things we otherwise could do, particularly things we want to do. As residents we have training prolonged beyond most any other profession. While we are training we could have been making money. Often, we have limited vacation realities compared to people in other professions. We are tied to our clinics or our hospitals for the most part while other people may be working at home. We often cannot even expect a full weekend due to schedule of residency.
Unique Demands of Residency
Any person works for money. However, as a resident, one is living a reality different than pretty much any other profession. Residents are often working longer hours. They often are working more stressful hours because of the reality of affecting patient. In the whole course of residency too, one is a subordinate—a physician, but considered to be something less than a “full” physician by most providers. This puts an additional strain on the resident and can feel like one is missing out on leadership opportunities that would have been available in other fields.
Personal Experience of FOMO and Residency
During my residency training I had thoughts all the time about how if I had chosen a different profession, I could have been doing something enjoyable in the evenings or weekends. However, with residency I often was quite busy on evenings and weekends. When I wasn’t busy, I felt like I needed to be, like there was something I ought to be doing. This feeling made it difficult to enjoy any free time. On the rare times I had a full weekend it was tough to enjoy it or not want to “catch up” on work or some academic demand I hadn’t been able to work on recently. Not fun ways to spend the weekends.
Several times friends would call and discuss weekend and trip plans. Sounded nice, but I generally had work-related stuff. I studied a lot. I worked on projects frequently. Even when I had free time and weekends where I could have had such adventures I may have felt fatigued and just wanted to rest more than to adventure. And to catch up on work so it was one less demand on my time that coming week. Much of the time it seemed like I did not have as much fun as my friends outside of medicine.
Others Envy the Physician-in-Training
Another Perspective: Outside Looking In
While residents are tirelessly working and envying the lives of non-physicians, several non-physicians envy the resident. They wish they had performed well enough in school to consider becoming a physician. They wish they had a job that had meaning and value. They wish they could be certain of high income in a few years.
Others Look and See a Value of Being a Physician
Not everyone envies the physician, but several either wanted to be a physician and could not make it or simply wanted the chance to be considered as an acceptable applicant to medical school. Some make far more money than physicians but want the meaningful nature of a physician’s job. Some people have more free time than any physician could hope and would have liked the chance to be a physician and doing something meaningful.
While residents envy others there are many others who envy the physician-in-training.
Final Thoughts on Residency and FOMO
The fear of missing out during residency probably hits many residents. Thoughts of “is this really worth it?” or “what could I be doing if I weren’t doing residency?” may come to many residents. These thoughts are tough and can lessen the sense of accomplishment one has to get so far in medical education.
I certainly experienced FOMO during residency. When I had free time it was not always fun or relaxing, but a chance to make up work I had gotten behind recently. I thought often that I could be living a different life and that perhaps that would have been a better fit or that in some way it would have been more enjoyable or fulfilling.
Residency has intense time demands and requires sacrificing many other opportunities for the opportunity to practice medicine. Do your best to make your time count. Be proud of what you have accomplished and what you are able to do. Your sacrifices are enabling you to practice the career you wanted and that many other people wish they could have.