Residents & Fellows Survival Kit.

Residency is a marathon with a few sprints, and this kit is your map for all three years. Find your year, take what helps and skip what doesn't.

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About Residents & Fellows Survival Kit

Residency and fellowship are demanding, and this kit gathers practical help for getting through them well. It covers managing workload, looking after your wellbeing, learning efficiently and the many things nobody explains at the start: how to deal with difficult seniors, handle duty hours, balance study with life. Senior colleagues and peers share what worked for them. Content is short and easy to use between clinics. The kit is also home to YOSI's competitions: YOSI iROCK for residents and the YOSI Fellows Face-Off for fellows, both with their finales on the YOSICON stage, and the team-based Ophthalmic Wars and Squid Games, where learning turns into play. It is meant for residents and fellows, but anyone starting a new role may find it useful.

Your map

Resident & Fellow Survival Kit

Residency is a marathon with a few sprints, and this kit is your map for all three years. Find your year below, take what helps, and skip what doesn't. YOSI made it for residents, so if something is missing, tell us and we will add it.

PGY1

Newbies in ophthalmology

Your first year is about getting comfortable: with the eye, the books, and the people in front of you.

Books to readStart with one standard textbook and one short atlas, and finish them before adding more. A reading list curated by YOSI members will sit here.
Basics (anatomy, physiology, pathology)Build these first, because every clinical topic later rests on them.
Patient interaction Learn to listen, explain in plain words, and put anxious patients at ease. It is a skill, and it is learnable.

PGY2

Sharp, Sharper, Sharpest

Year two is where you start thinking like an ophthalmologist and stepping into the operating room.

Clinical approachLearn a repeatable way to take a history, examine, and reach a differential, so no case feels like a surprise.
Surgical steps Break each procedure into its steps and rehearse them before you scrub in.
Phaco Hub YOSI's home for phaco learning, with step-by-step resources to practise from.
Make the notes Keep your own short, tidy notes as you go. Future you, before exams and viva, will say thank you.

PGY3

Now, What's next?

Your final year is about choosing a direction, and YOSI has a path for each.

YOSI Residents Your home base while you decide.
Fellowship How to find, shortlist and apply to fellowships.
Young consultant Stepping into practice, including brand management for your own clinical identity.

Overall

Tools for all three years

Three tools travel with you from PGY1 to the day you finish.

Research Navigator A guide through the research journey, covering collaborations, statistics, publications and methods.
Communication System How to write, present and talk to colleagues, seniors and patients with confidence.
CV Builder A running CV you update as you go, so it is never a last-minute scramble.

Post-PG

Jobs and family balance

Life after residency has two big questions, and you deserve good answers to both.

Jobs Where to look, what to ask, and how to compare your first offers.
Family balanceHow to protect time for the people who matter while building a practice.

iExploreA bridge between India and other countries for observerships.

Created by Dr Rolika Bansal, Dr Nilesh Kumar and Dr Karan Bhatia.