 What's that? That's right guys. Finally official. Alright guys, what is going on? A lecture for an empty journey helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. Now as you can see from the introduction, I am finally a medical resident and that actually inspired the title and topic for this video which is what does that even mean? And not only did it inspire this video, but it inspired a whole new series that I'm doing for you guys which is called Ask a Resident. And this series is going to be dedicated to help answer your most commonly asked questions to help you understand what it means to be a residency. But as a quick introduction because I know a lot of you guys may be new to this channel, my name is Luxe. I am just starting my first year as an internal medicine resident and I just finished medical school about two months ago. But I've been doing this channel which is the empty journey and my blog for almost the last three years helping students just like you learn how they can succeed throughout their medical journey and not to survive. So if that message is attracted to you then go ahead and hit that subscribe button and while you're at it make sure you smash that like button too and make sure you stay till the end because I'll be announcing a giveaway and how you can enter. So let's get into this video which is what is a resident doctor? What does that even mean? What do I do? And with that I'm also going to help you answer some other questions you may have which is what's an intern? What's a fellow? What's an attending? What's the hierarchy? How long does this go? So many questions I had it to but you may avoid asking your classmates in the fear of looking stupid. So I promise you'll answer those questions and then you'll look like an expert. So let's get into the video. Let me first start by explaining kind of the structure of the team and the hierarchy because every job has and it's no different in medicine. So in residency you begin with a hierarchy which usually begins at the bottom of the totem pole being the med students and it starts with a third year med student and then the fourth year med student. Right above them and at the start of residency a first year resident is called an intern. So that would be me since I'm just starting. Above that would be just called a resident or an upper level and then if you finish residency you choose to do more training in a specific field. You're called a fellow. So for example, let's say I did my internal medicine residency and I said I really like cardiology. Maybe I want to do that for the rest of my life. I can't just become a cardiologist or a willy nilly. I have to do more training just in cardiology. That's an extra three years after residency and so that's what it means to be a fellow. You are training just to be cardiology oncology. There's a lot of different fellowships you can do. So again, medical student, intern, resident, fellow and then above all that supervising everybody is the attending. These are people that have been in the field practicing medicine for several years if not decades and they're brilliant at what they do and they're supervising everything that the fellow is doing, that the resident is doing, the intern is doing, definitely the med student is doing. So that is the basic structure to help you understand. So the first year of residency is called your intern year. Still residency but you're called an intern and the next year I'll be called upper level or resident. No one claims you're silly but basically that's what that means. So let's get into the second part of the question which is is a resident doctor even a real doctor? The answer is yes. You know I am a medical doctor. I have my MD when I finish medical school and I can practice medicine. You know I can prescribe medications, I can do procedures, I can diagnose, I can manage, I can discharge you. I just need supervision during residency because during medical school I learned a little bit of everything. I kind of dipped my toes in pediatrics, neurology, OB-GYN, internal medicine. Every student does that but once I decided that internal medicine is what I wanted to do now I'm basically learning just internal medicine and so I get to practice as a doctor but I get to do with the supervision of my attending. So while I get to sign the order for somebody to get a specific medication the attending is making sure that that patient is not getting the incorrect medication because I just don't have enough experience here and there. So am I a natural doctor in residency and the answer is absolutely. You're doing everything a doctor does. You just have somebody who's an expert in that field who has been doing it for several years, supervising you to make sure that you learn the nuances that comes to being a physician. Now hopefully that helps any of you guys asking what in the world is a medical resident anyways but I know you probably have more questions and so that's where the giveaway comes in. So I'm getting away my top three selling books which you guys can go ahead and check out the link right here. I'll put a picture right here too. For free for anyone that comments and just puts a question for the future videos in this series. So remember it could be anything simple complicated but anything that'll help me give me ideas on what you'd like to know and as I go through residency you know I'll be more experienced to be able to answer some of the basic questions. I have a list of videos I'll be making for you guys anyways but definitely drop your questions in the comment section and if you enjoyed it make sure you give that video a like. Go ahead and subscribe because the videos are coming out at least on a weekly basis if not more but thank you guys so much for being part of my journey. Hopefully I've been a little help to you on yours and I'll see you guys in the next one. Take care my friends.