Training the trainer: five practical considerations for your first five years in practice.

Congratulations, you’ve made it! After years of studying, subspecialist training, and rounds of interviews, you have a staff position. If you are lucky, you also have your own office, a nameplate on the door, and an administrative assistant. Pharmaceutical representatives are lining up to see you! Your hard work has finally paid off. This is what you have been working toward your whole life ... your dream career, right? It won’t be long before doubts begin to set in. The “imposter syndrome” will soon percolate to the surface of your mind1. You may find yourself questioning your own abilities. Are you really ready for this new role? Do you deserve it? Believe it or not, the answer to both questions is yes. You passed all of the medical rituals and trials by fire to get here. But now what? Although the oncology literature contains guidelines addressing the “ideal” management of cancer, there appears to be little practical advice to guide physicians through their first years of practice. Given that those early years are pivotal to the rest of your professional career, we offer 5 practical considerations on which to reflect: responsibility, productivity, mentoring, criticism, and self-care. Those 5 categories were chosen by a group of physicians at various stages of their own careers who simply cannot help but ponder “If only we had known....”