Acceptable Level of Incompetence as an R1

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

New R1 here, about 2 weeks in and I've never felt more stupid in my life. I'm fortunately at an amazing program and the faculty so far have been super nice (suspiciously nice) and generally happy to teach. How do I know if I'm on the right track though? I'm not expecting to be perfect by any means, but I'm not sure where the line is between the typical learning curve and floundering more than the average R1.

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[Gadofosveset]

You’re not really going to know for sure until you’re an R2. Then you see all the new R1s and you think “Wow — I’ve learned a ton over the past year!”

 

[SirGecko]

New R1 here, about 2 weeks in and I've never felt more stupid in my life. I'm fortunately at an amazing program and the faculty so far have been super nice (suspiciously nice) and generally happy to teach. How do I know if I'm on the right track though? I'm not expecting to be perfect by any means, but I'm not sure where the line is between the typical learning curve and floundering more than the average R1.

If you don’t feel dumb as an R1 you are either a super rare genius or overconfident. It’s ok o feel incompetent as an R1 on your first month. You need to harness that feeling and use it as motivation to read and learn. Radiology is one of those specialties that people don’t really learn in medical school so this is sort of like the equivalent of you being an MS3 On the ward for the first time again. Don’t worry, if you apply yourself I’ll get better.

 

[PhysMatMan]

You can objectively measure with radprimer questions or radexam if your institution purchased that. Take these with a grain of salt however and just focus on improving yourself

 

[GadRads]

Very normal feeling as an R1. Don't be discouraged. Just keep studying and reading around cases. Make your studying image-rich while reading about the relevant pathology.

 

[Dr. USMLE]

You can see how you are performing in terms of volume and quality of reports compared to your peers.

You get a sense of your relative performance during case conference.

The in-training exams will give you an objective (but of course imperfect) relative standing.

Your rotation evaluations will also give feedback.

 

[Dave1980]

New R1 here, about 2 weeks in and I've never felt more stupid in my life. I'm fortunately at an amazing program and the faculty so far have been super nice (suspiciously nice) and generally happy to teach. How do I know if I'm on the right track though? I'm not expecting to be perfect by any means, but I'm not sure where the line is between the typical learning curve and floundering more than the average R1.

extreme incompetence is expected and tolerated up until you start taking call.

thats when the rubber hits the road. no other way to know for sure.

 

[GadRads]

Your rotation evaluations will also give feedback.

Sometimes these can be imperfect or even tainted. Back in residency, a particular attending, for some unknown reason, actively disliked a co-resident and gave her a horrendous evaluation as an R1 while telling other attendings in this subspecialty service that she was bad. Some almost believed him. Obviously with time it became clear that wasn't the case. Sometimes evaluations should be taken with a grain of salt.

To the OP, the aggregate of evaluations across multiple sections and multiple attendings may be more useful, but I honestly never found them that helpful. It's best to actively do an internal review of yourself and skillset, constantly assessing weaknesses and how to improve them.