Being on any kind of social media, you would have noticed that your newsfeed would be riddled by Tygerberg’s student interns’ finishing their first set of exams. Indeed, after five and a half years of studying, seeing many friends, brothers and sisters, and perhaps even nieces and nephews receiving degrees, jobs, and pay-cheques. After witnessing all the other people investing in all of the great things you would expect of the working (and actually getting paid) life, our SI’s have crossed the first mountain to knock the first of two nails into their coffins of unemployment.

But this is no easy affair. Not only did it take five and a half years of their lives, but clearly some deal of commitment, some substantial sacrifice and unyielding determination. There were definitely always some ups and downs.

After a few interviews, a trend was seen on the things some SI’s wish they rather did:
• You will always forget some work. Try to get a set of notes that you can fall back on as a foundation. Do this by making your own summaries so that you can whip through them later.

• Try to study an Internal Medicine module (Cardiology, Gastro etc.) every year after 2nd year. You will appreciate this when you become a Student Intern.

• Watching series steals your time. Discipline yourself to only watching one episode at a time.

• Sleep is under-estimated

• Study hard. When you are in ward rounds, you cannot just pass on a consultant question anymore.

Henno Schutte