Gift ideas for college graduates who are getting ready to start medical school and medical students getting ready to start their residencies are surprisingly similar. Medical school and residency are both times of hard work, less free time and increased stress. The following are gifts that should make life a little easier (and more enjoyable) for medical students and residents:
- A maid or housecleaning service once a week. No one in medical school or residency has time to clean (or likes it)! This will be one of the most appreciated gifts you’ve ever given someone.
- A smart phone (if they don’t have one). Not only for the usual reasons, but because of the apps available that can help students and residents.
- Along the same lines, a highly functional laptop computer is a critical piece of equipment. For new medical students, the laptop they had in college is probably not going to be enough. For residents, if it has been several years since their last computer, an upgrade will make studying and research easier. To avoid getting the wrong computer, a hand-made certificate that you will pay for the computer of their choice may be a better idea (to make sure they have a computer that really meets their needs.)
- A year’s subscription to EverNote premium (to allow them to store notes on a cloud server)
- An iPad. There are a lot of uses for the iPad in the hospital… and even more personal uses! This is a great gift for any medical student or resident.
- If they are avid readers (of non-medical works), consider a Kindle, Nook, or other electronic reader. (If you are considering an iPad, it can be used as a reader, so this might be redundant). These devices can easily go into a backpack or call bag and make it easy to take 5-minute breaks from studying or work.
- A really good alarm clock.
- Membership to a gym for a year. Working out is important both for physical and mental health during medical training. But – unless you know which gym is the closest to where they live (or most used by their friends), it might be better to create a homemade “gift certificate” and let them decide.
- Anything to help promote more exercise. A bicycle to commute to school or the hospital? A gift box with exercise equipment? Yoga classes?
- An iPod nano or other mp3 player to listen to music while studying Electronic speakers for their computer will also help provide music while studying.
- A subscription to Pandora One to create and listen to internet radio stations without commercials.
- A gift certificate to Whole Foods (or any grocery store that makes take out food), or a healthy prepared food service. In Houston, we have My Fit Foods, Snap Kitchen, Diet Gourmet, Real Meals 365 and several other services. These types of businesses exist in almost every major city and can be easily found with an internet search.
- A gift card from Starbucks. Along the same idea (if they drink coffee), they might like a personal coffee maker like the Black and Decker brew and go coffee maker, or the “k-cup” brewers like Keurig or Tassimo.
- If you are going to buy a watch to celebrate graduation, don’t make it an expensive watch. No one wears them in the hospital for fear of losing them (they have to be removed when procedures are done). It also is inappropriate when caring for patients who may not have many resources. Ditto for expensive pens.
- How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman. This is a great read for anyone in medicine, but especially for students and residents.
- Any (or all) of Atul Gawande’s books
- A digital camera or small digital video camera.
- Anything to support a hobby that they enjoy (but will have to work to keep up during their training)
- A necklace with molecules? Their DNA portrait? Stethoscope cufflinks? Anatomical heart necklace? Here are some other unique presents to think about: scienceroll.com, incrediblethings.com, gifts.com, streetanatomy.com, zazzle.com, gigglemed
- And – the always appropriate… Visa, Mastercard or Amazon gift card. Or, give them a “prescription” for cash.
- A couple of comments about what not to buy. Don’t buy stethoscopes, otoscopes or any other medical equipment (unless you are a physician yourself… and even then it’s probably not a good idea). Don’t buy anything for an office (they won’t have one for a long time) and – absolutely – don’t buy a “black bag” (no one uses them anymore).