Guiding the First-Year Doctor: Reflections on Supervising New Interns
As supervisors, the way we show up during those early months can shape how interns practice medicine, ask for help, and see themselves as doctors for years to come.
Every February, medicine resets in Australia.
New interns arrive with fresh badges, well-worn textbooks, and a mix of excitement and fear that’s almost palpable. As supervisors (consultants and registrars, we stand on the other side of that threshold — not just as clinicians, but as guides. The way we show up during those early months can shape how interns practice medicine, ask for help, and see themselves as doctors for years to come.
Remembering What Day One Felt Like
It’s easy to forget how overwhelming intern year is. The knowledge is there, but translating it into real-time decisions, pages at 3am, and conversations with families is another matter entirely. What looks like hesitation is often cognitive overload. What feels like a simple task to us may be the tenth “first time” they’ve had that day.
Effective supervision starts with memory — with remembering what it felt like to be new, uncertain, and very aware of your own limitations.
Setting Expectations
New interns want to do well, but they often don’t know what “well” looks like yet. Clear expectations are one of the most powerful tools we have:
- How and when to escalate concerns
- What can wait, and what cannot
- What independence looks like at this stage
Explicit guidance prevents silent anxiety. It also builds psychological safety, making it more likely interns will ask questions before small issues become large ones.
Teaching Judgment, Not Just Facts
Interns don’t need us to recite guidelines — they can look those up. What they’re really learning from us is clinical judgment: how to prioritise, how to tolerate uncertainty, and how to make reasonable decisions with incomplete information.
Talking through your thinking out loud — especially in routine cases — helps demystify this process. It shows interns that good medicine isn’t about knowing everything, but about reasoning carefully and reassessing often.
Feedback That Builds, Not Breaks
Feedback during intern year lands heavily. Delivered poorly, it can shut someone down. Delivered well, it can accelerate growth.
Specific, timely, and balanced feedback works best:
- Name what was done well
- Identify one or two areas to improve
- Offer a concrete next step
And just as important: normalise mistakes. Interns need to know that errors are opportunities for learning, not character flaws.
Modelling the Doctor You Want Them to Become
Interns watch everything — how you speak to colleagues, how you handle stress, how you admit uncertainty, how you treat patients who are challenging or afraid. These moments teach as much as any formal lecture, if not more.
Supervision is not just about oversight; it’s about example. Whether we intend to or not, we are showing interns what is acceptable, sustainable, and human in medicine.
The Privilege of Being Someone’s First Consultant or Registrar
Most interns will remember their first supervisors long after they forget specific cases. They will remember who made them feel safe asking questions, who corrected them with respect, and who trusted them just enough.
Guiding new interns is a responsibility — but it’s also a privilege. In helping them find their footing, we quietly influence the future culture of medicine itself.