Life Update: Finished Training (and What's Next)

It has been a minute since we've done this. Let's get into it. What is going on, friends? It has been quite some time since I have made a video on this channel, done an episode for the podcast. So, today I'm going to be breaking down exactly where I've been, all the life update, including finishing training, starting [music] my new cardiology job, new kid, and everything that goes around it, studying for board exams, and most importantly, what does all of this mean for how I can better help you on your journey. So, let's get into it. Now, this may be a longer episode, so feel free to go to the chapters down below and go to the [music] part that you care about the most. And this isn't your cup of tea, if the episode we'll get back to our normal study tips and tips for your medical journey, so you can always click off [music] this video, won't hurt my feelings. But today I'm going to be covering basically where I've been and what life looks like now. Because the most important thing is that I've graduated cardiology fellowship about [music] 3 to 4 weeks ago, and so I am officially, officially, officially done with training, [music] which is like nice. And if you add up all the years that I've spent after high school, 3 years of college, one gap year working, 4 years of medical school, 3 years of internal medicine residency, one year of hospitalist medicine, 3 years of cardiology fellowship, that's like 11 plus years of training to get [music] to where I am now, which is like crazy. If you had told me back when I started this journey that [music] I would be sitting here telling you that I am a cardiologist now, have a job I'm going to start in like just a few weeks, we'll get into that, then I wouldn't have believed you. I would have thought that that was meant for people who are significantly smarter, more ambitious, have better goals, but here we are. [music] And so for the first part of this video, I want to break down what that transition from finishing training to starting my new job looks like, as well as with all the added wrinkles of life, including having a new child, and how [music] that all plays a role. So, since finishing cardiology fellowship, which still feels weird to say, I'm now officially in this transition phase where I'm about to start my first job as cardiology attending. Now, I made an episode in the past about looking for my job and signing my job and what that kind of looked like, and I'll give more clarity in probably a different episode as I like to my first [music] week, then I can break down what my weekly schedule looks like, kind of what my call schedule and all that stuff that you guys may find [music] interesting. But long story short, I chose to stick with the same group that my cardiology fellowship was through. One, because they had a job that fit me geographically. It's close by to where I lived, so the commute was relatively short. Two, it fit the interests. I [music] am a general cardiologist that focuses a lot on cardiac imaging. So, if I have [music] to read a patient's echo, if I have to do a transesophageal echo, if I have to read cardiac CTs, stress exams, as well as all the other aspects of cardiology I may take care of. That's kind of my focus. And so, they needed somebody at this other location to be able to take [music] control of that, and man that, and lead that, and improve it. And so, that's kind of where I come in. So, it was a nice kind of timing of [music] geographic location and timing of a role needing to be filled that I kind of molded nicely into. And then the most important probably is that I get to stick with the same kind of mentors and teachers who have trained me that are now my colleagues, and I can just quickly text saying, "What do you think about this? I'm not exactly sure [music] what to make of this. Um how would you approach this?" And that was a big selling point for me to stick to the group that I'm with, because it's just [music] nice when you already feel comfortable with the people versus if I joined a new group, not sure who exactly would be the most available [music] to answer my questions, or I wouldn't feel stupid for asking something as a brand new attending, [music] cuz the most important thing that I need to do is take care of my patients effectively. So, having kind of a village of support system who is already bought in to making sure I'm successful [music] is is huge. And so, I'm excited to get started on this role. Now, as of the making of this episode, we are [music] currently in mid-July. I don't start my official role until mid-August. I purposely took [music] 6 weeks off. One of the reasons being that after graduation, I had a board exam, which I just finished this past week, being my echo board exam, which is one of the toughest ones you take, and I'll I'll talk about that in a second. And the second thing is that I just wanted [music] to be present for my family for a meaningful amount of time with like nothing on the docket. As I [music] mentioned, we had another kid, so now we have a son. My son's approximately 3 months old, [music] and my daughter just turned 3. So, we have two kids, had one at the very start of fellowship, one at the very end, and it has been a very fun past [music] few months of having two kids and being home a little bit more. I took purposeful paternity leave during my end of my fellowship, as well as like made my last month an elective, and so [music] I could be a little bit more present at home while I was studying for the Zaka board exam. And so essentially we'll have 3 [music] months just with the family with some sporadic kind of clinic needs and stuff here and there. Where I've been home, and I can't say I've been [music] able to do that for the past 3 years. And so being home with the kids, helping my wife, and really just being a present dad before I officially go back into work mode has been very nice. Because I probably will never have 6 weeks off in my career, [music] probably until I retire. So I'm really trying to use this time to just enjoy my family and being as present as possible. But in the meantime between now and starting the job, there's like not necessarily nothing that's happening. The most interesting things that are happening in the background are [music] the individuals who are managing the clinics and the hospitals are reaching out to me saying, "What are your preferences?" And this is something that's very interesting that I want to make a point of in this episode is that up to this point I have been told where to [music] be, what my rotations are, what my schedule is, what time I can leave. And now people are asking me, "Well, what days of the week do you want to be in clinic? What time do you want your first patient to be? What time do you want your last patient to be? What days do you not want to be on clinic? How do you want to do it when you're on call? How do you want to do it if you're in the hospital rounding on patients?" [music] And so having somebody to say, "Here's a blank slate, create your schedule. And we'll tell you if we need to make any adjustments based off availability." And so far there hasn't been any issues. And so I can make a schedule that is very Don't want to use the word [music] lifestyle friendly, but something that is able to allow me to prioritize my job in a very focused [music] manner, and then also allows me to have some buffer to focus on family versus just everything in one place, as fellowship and residency and all the training has always been. That's felt really nice. And then other people asking me, "Okay, well, what type of things are you really good at that you want us to prioritize and highlight for marketing purposes [music] and your business card and your profiles?" I'm like, "This is crazy." You finally feel like [music] the work that you've done up to this point now people are trying to maximize how to create the life that you want while also taking care [music] of the patients the best way possible. And so, it's been kind of an odd transition where I felt [music] this kind of mid-ground of being a fellow and feeling like I still have to like appease everybody. And now I can just say like what really matters to me. I want to make sure I help my patients the best, my colleagues, my partners, the hospital systems the best while making [music] sure my family, my kids, my wife are still like the main priority and focus between all of that. And so, [music] it's been fun transition of doing that. And I did listen to kind of where does all this content that I'm making here go? Does it stop [music] because I'm becoming an attending? And the answer is no. If anything, I feel like as we get further and further along, people make less and less content [music] to give more insight into this space. What does it look like being a new attending? I am going to struggle. I am going to not know how to take care of a busy clinic [music] and do it with the right systems initially. And that's the fun part. As I create those, I share those with you guys. So, when you guys are attendings or if you are an attending or kind of learning about this channel and watching [music] this, then you can take anything that I implement that may help you. Hopefully it does. As I become more efficient at taking call and all these things [music] and skills that I have to learn between, you know, now and the rest of my career, I get to share this on this channel [music] while again balancing all these other priorities of my life including my family. So, that's the exciting part about where this channel goes is that [music] I'm no longer just limited by study tips and step one tips which I know help a lot of you guys and there's content [music] that's already on this channel and I'll make more as it's relevant. But now I really get to make content that is interesting to me on my current phase of my empty journey. And hopefully it continues to help you guys out. Now, the last thing that I'll say about the new job is that I am appropriately nervous and come with the right amount of anxiety going [music] into the job. I do not feel that like I am the best cardiology fellow and thus the best [music] junior faculty that's coming into a job. I take that with the amount [music] of honesty and humility that's required because then I can create a system where it says, well, I have approximately three to four weeks before [music] I start seeing patients. What kind of things should I do between now and then, without overburdening myself, make [music] sure I'm sharpening on those skills. And so, I'll share this in a different episode, but between now and my next few weeks, I essentially have a growing list of all the topics I want to sharpen up just [music] a bit more. So, that way I can feel like I'm helping my patients to the best of my ability versus like, maybe I understand this enough better than my patients. I really just want [music] to feel a master of my craft. But, I do want to make sure that I use these next couple of weeks not just for a vacation mode, but really to transition into that because [music] it'll be much easier to study and prep and build that foundation and make it stronger between now and starting versus trying to find the time to do it when I'm already busy seeing patients in the clinic [music] and in the hospital. And so, that last point is really just to illustrate that regardless of how long you've been on this journey, imposter [music] syndrome exists and will continue to persist. The reminder for yourself has to be that you've done this before. You will always feel unprepared until you put enough practice [music] and kind of confidence points behind yourself and saying like, "Actually, I can figure this out." And so, that's going to be something I have to go through and something I will go through, but just a reminder, even [music] at this phase, like I'm still struggling with it. So, if you are, it is completely normal. So, that is the updates about the new job. Again, I am super excited to kind of get into [music] finally attending mode and all the things that come with it, paying off my loans for example, and just feeling like I have control of my schedule and the flexibility that I've worked for for so [music] long, and being able to take care of patients that I truly am interested in the pathology and like, the aspects of cardiology [music] which is like, so fun. So, future episode on that coming on. So, the next part we'll transition is being a dad of two. Um, as I mentioned, [music] we had our son in April, so he's approximately 3 months old as the making of this video. And [music] my daughter who recently just turned 3 years old, which feels crazy to say. It's a fun household. 3-year-old toddler is like, wild and day by day everything changes. [music] And then, having a newborn sleep-wise has been Yeah, it's been [music] it's it's been a journey. And it reminds me that I have no idea how my wife and I kind of went through the first year of fellowship [music] with a newborn and like, I was on call every like, 4 to 5 days and doing a 28-hour managing the newborn sleep schedule, which is wild. My son has finally gotten to a point where he's sleeping [music] more or less consistently through the nights, but even then I'm averaging like 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night, and we're just functioning. For example, this video is being made at 6:30 in the morning because everybody's asleep. And this is just like my time that I get to enjoy. So, if I'm not making videos, I'm working out or doing something else, but really finding the structure of being a present dad and then still taking care of all the other roles that I'm I'm responsible for that I play. But, [music] being a dad is like so, so fun. I think if anything, I've enjoyed medicine more because I get to come home to back then during fellowship which was just to my daughter, and really [music] just being present as a dad cuz those times are precious. Now having two kids, and really [music] making sure that not only am I raising them individually and making sure that they are all capable of living and doing whatever they want in life, but that they like just are best friends. That's like my goal is that I want my kids to just [music] like be their the best companions for each other going forward because frankly, they will be in each other's lives [music] more than I'll be in their lives likely. So, I want to make sure that those years in the future are just like built on very strong core memories that my wife and I can create for them now. So, being [music] present, being goofy, you know, singing songs, dancing, just enjoying time together, doing it as much as possible. It is also very, very challenging. A 3-year-old toddler is wild. A newborn is wild. Both of them together at times becomes [music] overwhelming. And frankly, as I've told my wife many times before, she significantly had the harder job between us in fellowship because she was stay-at-home with my daughter, I was in fellowship, and while I thought being a cardiology fellow was busy [music] and hard, being a stay-at-home parent with a growing toddler that doesn't know how to regulate their emotions, [music] sleep cycles, anger tantrums, all that is is significantly harder. I work with adults, [music] she's basically been with one child that's been dependent on her, and now two. More kudos to her for helping me on this journey. Um but, being home for these past few months has [music] really just been very enlightening of managing kids and being patient and taking deep breaths. Basically, all the skills that trying to teach your kid to do as they're [music] becoming overwhelmed, you're reminding yourself that I can do that. Because then when I go back to work, I was like, "This is a piece of cake. If I can manage a toddler and a newborn crying at the same time and like fight through it, all the cardiology stuff is much more handleable and something that you can be work [music] hard on." But being a parent has been the best thing ever. It's definitely a role that I feel like I've been made for and something I really enjoy doing. It's a role that I really value. And so it's always going to be the priority of everything else that I do. But [music] you guys will start to see it shine more and more through the content because it is a big part of what I do on a daily basis. In [music] addition to just making my content, I learn a lot of tips and advice that I give to you guys in the form of being [music] a parent because it really just shapes how I take things back to the hospital and the clinic and that's the content that I'll be feeding through you guys. And this is a good stopping point to remind that regardless of what phase of the medical journey you're on, there [music] are these repeated systems that I've used since I was a start of medical school and residency, my rotations [music] and fellowship, even as a hospitalist that I'll use as a cardiology attending that I have found to be very helpful as being a new parent, now being a parent [music] to graduating from cardiology fellowship to starting this new job, to balancing creating all this content that I'm doing, managing the fitness. And so if you guys are interested in what those systems are, [music] how to implement them better, I've sharpened them over the past 11 plus years and really made them very effective for me and I'm still building them. And so if you guys are interested in what those systems are, how to implement [music] them in your own life, I include them in their free guide down below called the white coat success guide. Feel free to download it for free. >> [music] >> I'll send it to your email. And in addition to any new systems that I create or sharpen up and that I think that you'd find and helpful, I go ahead and send those [music] to the emails of our 1,000 plus subscribers. So if you guys are interested in seeing what those systems are for yourself, go ahead and click down below to get that guide for free. Now the last kind of part about this episode is board prep and then kind of the new [music] content that will be created for the channel. So first is board prep. I recently took my echo boards in the past week, 2 [music] weeks and it's arguably one of the hardest tests you take cardiology, arguably even harder than step one, mainly because there's so much [music] content. For example, let me see if I can find it. This is like one of the go-to review books that people >> [music] >> use and I think this thing has like 1,100 practice questions. Counting all the other practice questions I had to do, I think it got to close to like 1,500 [music] to 1,600 practice questions. There's like 50 videos that people end up watching each like an hour long [music] and you're trying to do this while in fellowship and I was trying to do it while in fellowship with an extra kid, which is fun. But on top of that, they just ask [music] you questions out of left field that like no one would predict to be on a test. No practice questions despite 1,100 [music] will prepare you for. You just have to be able to like take an exam and just deal with the ups and downs that come with that. And so, it was a fun exam. I think it was okay. We'll see how it goes. I don't get a result until like 2 more months from now. But the most telling part of it is that even being somebody who makes [music] content on how to study, prepare for exams, I had to remind myself repeatedly how to best study for something like this with all the other personal obligations [music] that I had going on. And, you know, it's just a nice reminder of like what really works, what would I have done if the test was [music] tomorrow. And I started using the same skills and tricks and systems that I teach you guys. And if you guys are interested in what the board prep kind of systems [music] that I use, our new WhiteCoat OS program, which has been launched for the past like 2-ish months and been very successful for students, [music] has an entire board prep kind of program section to it, which I talk about things such as Step 1. And in the future I'll talk about things like echo boards and cardiology boards. But [music] really just honing in on how I want to study and I'm doing it in the most effective way possible was very helpful. I was really using these like 4:00 to 6:00 a.m. slots to study. But [music] that test is done. And now the next board exam, cuz I've taken three so far for cardiology, I'll take a fourth one to be quadruple boarded in a way. General cardiology, echo boards, nuclear, and [music] cardiac CT. Those are the boards that I will take. And then in October I'll take my final of those, being my general cardiology [music] boards, which is supposed to be even more encompassing. And trying to balance that while being a new attending, so that's going to be fun. And I'll make more content about how that's going. But studying for boards is a nice reminder [music] of just how humiliating it can be at sometimes of how much content there is and how unprepared [music] you are. So again, just a reminder for all of you guys that are watching this is that I don't always have it all figured out. And um I'll try to use all these phases to remind you of what I'm reminded of of as I'm going through each and [music] every prep. So lastly is this channel. Where do we go from here? Is this channel going to exist in a year? Am I going to stop knowing that now [music] I'm a cardiology attending with two kids and all the other life aspects come go from it. And I'll be honest and I've talked about this in past episodes. This isn't [music] necessarily brand new stuff, but in case you've missed it, I've thought about closing The MD Journey and closing [music] that phase in my journey multiple times throughout the past like year or two. And it's not because I don't like doing it. It's just that you have to ask myself, is it a big enough priority compared to everything else that's going on? And [music] the answer that I've repeatedly come to is that I truly enjoy like doing this where I just sit and talk about my journey and I hope that there's just one person on the other end of the camera or the microphone that is listening that says like that was helpful to me. Because if it was, then it's worth it because I'm literally just kind of journaling my journey. Helps me kind [music] of get my thoughts together and how to approach things. It helps remind myself of what's important, what's not, >> [music] >> you know, puts things in perspective. But I really just enjoy growing something. And having the past eight, nine, whatever years I've been doing this and [music] seeing something that's grown as the way it has is something that I'm not ready to let go, but I do know that the mode of how [music] it works has to change. I may not be able to post a video every week like I used to, clearly, as I've been off the >> [music] >> map of YouTube in the past few months, but I do want to get back to a part [music] where I get to share my perspectives where I am now and how I would use it if I was a medical student or a resident or on my [music] rotations or studying for Step or doing, you know, cardiology fellowship again. As well as kind [music] of welcoming a new phase of the journey and those of you who are about to be attendings or are attendings as I go through that phase and I learn new skills [music] that help me. And and finally transitioning more to the balance of all this. I don't want to just be a a good cardiologist. [music] I don't want to just be good at my career. I want to be good at all the aspects and all the hats you have to [music] play. Because my goal has always been to enjoy the experience and the journey of medicine and be happy. [music] And a lot of that happiness part of the equation comes from everything else outside of medicine. The family, the kids, [music] the fitness, the hobbies, the goals, the finances. And so as those grow, I want to share those and share the systems [music] that have led those to be successful within the field of medicine. And being high performing, being ambitious, being successful [music] both inside and outside of medicine is really where the content of this channel will be going in the future. So that doesn't mean again that I will not be making study tip videos. [music] But it probably won't be the main thing that I'm interested in making about all the time because it doesn't actually apply to me anymore. I'm more interested on the systems of how to be successful inside and outside of medicine and while being happy and being as [music] efficient as possible so that you can shower your love to all of the priorities in your life. And that's really where the direction content of this channel [music] is going to go. And I'm excited to share that because then I get to feel like I'm just doing more journaling. I'm just doing [music] more of this. So while it has been a while going through that question of like, is this it? Like am I done? And if it's not then like what's next? And this is [music] what's next is that I get to have this video form of journaling, this audio form of journaling that hopefully it helps just again one person [music] then it's worth it. And hopefully we can continue to grow this together. So if you do find any of [music] this helpful, anything you can do whether it's like, share, subscribe, or comment down below. Give me more questions [music] and ideas of what you want to see in the future. Those are all helpful. Um whether you check out the free guides or the paid products down below, like you know, no pressure. Enjoy the free content. Let me know how I can help you further on your journey. [music] Hopefully I was a little help to you guys on yours. I know it's been a while since I've been gone. It's nice to sit back [music] and do this again and I'm excited for the next content that I create for you guys um to be able to do more of this. So as always my friends, thank you for being a part of my journey. Hopefully I was a little help to you guys on yours, and I'll see you guys in the next [music] one. Peace.