I Start Surgery Monday and I Have No Idea What I'm Doing...And that's exactly where you should be.

⚠️ THE REAL ANXIETY My Surgery rotation starts next week. I've read Pestana's twice. I know the anatomy. And I still can't sleep — because I don't know where to go, who to find, or what's supposed to happen when I get there.

Let me tell you something nobody said to me before my first surgery rotation: what you're feeling right now isn't about surgery. It's about not knowing the rules.

You're not afraid of the gallbladder. You're afraid of walking into a room full of people who all seem to know exactly what they're doing — and being the only one standing there wondering where to put your hands.

That fear is real. It's also something you can fix before Monday morning.

Send One Email This Week

Before you do anything else, email the chief resident or clerkship coordinator. It doesn't need to be long:

"Hi, I'm a third-year student starting on the surgery service Monday. What time should I arrive, and where should I meet the team? Anything I should review before the first case?"

That's it. Three sentences.

What happens next is worth more than anything you'll read this week. You get the logistics. You make contact before anyone expected you to. And you demonstrate the one thing surgical teams actually notice in students before they know anything else about you — that you showed up prepared.

One email. Send it today.

What to Actually Bring

Forget the stethoscope checklist. Here's what actually matters on Day 1:

Shoes you can stand in for eight hours. Comfortable, closed-toe, something you won't miss when they get blood on them. Foot pain at hour six hits harder than you think.

A small notebook or index cards. You'll get information in hallways, between cases, mid-operation. Your phone is too slow. Your memory at the end of a twelve-hour day is not reliable. Write it down.

Your hospital badge — with OR access already confirmed. Don't find out it doesn't work at 5:50am at a locked OR door.

Food in your pocket. A protein bar. Surgery doesn't pause for lunch, and low blood sugar at hour seven does not help anyone.

Scrubs sorted before Monday. Three minutes with the clerkship office now saves twenty minutes of searching in the dark on Day 1.

The Only Goal on Day 1

Find the intern. Introduce yourself by name — not just "I'm the student." Ask what would be useful. Then do it.

Not the attending. Not the chief. The intern. They know where the pre-rounding list lives, what time the team actually meets, which attending wants students to talk on rounds and which one doesn't. They were standing exactly where you're standing not that long ago. They remember what it felt like.

They're also the person whose morning you can make slightly less chaotic. Look up a lab. Pre-round a patient. Carry something. None of it is glamorous. All of it builds trust faster than anything else you can do in the first week.

One more thing — and this one matters: the team probably hasn't prepared for your arrival. Not because they don't care. Because it's a busy service and no one put "welcome the student" on the schedule. Don't read that as rejection. Walk in, find the intern, ask how to help, and do the work. That's a successful Day 1.

⭐ BOTTOM LINE Send the email. Confirm your badge. Bring food. Find the intern. Look up the first case the night before — just the indication, the anatomy, and one complication. Five things. That's the prep. The learning starts the moment you stop worrying about where to stand.

Cut to the Chase, General Surgery Survival Series, Surgery Rotation, Medical Students, Intern Year, Surgical Training, Black Surgeons, Black Physicians, Diversity in Medicine, Medical Education, Aden Davis MD, General Surgery