Are FREIDA average residency work hours accurate?

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pryds7

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Hi,

FREIDA Online gives the impression that if you stay away from surgical specialties, there are quite a few residencies with fairly decent work hours. Surprisingly to me, they aren't just the ROAD specialties. These all have stated average hours between 45 and 55 hours/week:
Dermatology: 45.2
Nuclear Medicine: 47.6
Pathology: 51.7
PM&R: 54
Psychiatry: 54.8
Radiation Oncology 49.6
Allergy and Immunology: 45.8
Medical Genetics: 47.7
Ophthalmology: 52
Preventive Medicine: 45.2
Radiology: 51.5

I'm a mother in my mid thirties and I'm terrified of residency and the time spent away from my family while my children are young. 80 hours/week seems terrible but 55-60 seems manageable. I don't want to choose a specialty just for the lifestyle but I also prioritize my family and this gives me hope that I can find a specialty I love and also have time for my family during and after residency. For those who have been through it, do these hours seem accurate or are they low estimates? How many off-duty hours do residents generally put in that would not be included in these statistics? This almost seems too good to be true as residency otherwise wouldn't have the nightmarish reputation.

Thanks for your input.

The statistics I mentioned are here:
https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/user/specStatisticsSearch.do?method=viewSpecialty&pageNumber=2

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Hi,

FREIDA Online gives the impression that if you stay away from surgical specialties, there are quite a few residencies with fairly decent work hours. Surprisingly to me, they aren't just the ROAD specialties. These all have stated average hours between 45 and 55 hours/week:
Dermatology: 45.2
Nuclear Medicine: 47.6
Pathology: 51.7
PM&R: 54
Psychiatry: 54.8
Radiation Oncology 49.6
Allergy and Immunology: 45.8
Medical Genetics: 47.7
Ophthalmology: 52
Preventive Medicine: 45.2
Radiology: 51.5

I'm a mother in my mid thirties and I'm terrified of residency and the time spent away from my family while my children are young. 80 hours/week seems terrible but 55-60 seems manageable. I don't want to choose a specialty just for the lifestyle but I also prioritize my family and this gives me hope that I can find a specialty I love and also have time for my family during and after residency. For those who have been through it, do these hours seem accurate or are they low estimates? How many off-duty hours do residents generally put in that would not be included in these statistics?

If you believe the Rad Onc and Derm residents, its about 90 extra hours per week reading outside of work hours. :p
 
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eh, its like the census they tell you you have as a hospitalist….i would add another 15-20 hours on top of whats reported…

and Allergy/Immunology is a IM subspecialty not a direct residency
 
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Can something paste the data for surgeons? The website requires creating an account which is not functioning for me.
 
It's absolutely accurate for pathology-- as is the reading load to which WS alluded.
 
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Seems right for pm&r. Sure I will work 24-28 hours straight q8 days or so, but I get post call off and a bad night is 5 hours of sleep with 2 simple pages between 00:00-07:00. Otherwise 8-10 hour days are the norm 5 days a week. Next year will be q15 day call, and last year there is no call. I feel my program has "average" call for all pm&r programs out there.
 
Also are you a med student? You can't avoid intern year, and plenty of 3rd & 4th year will be 65-80 hour weeks for months at a time.
 
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Those seem relatively accurate. Keep in mind that those are average work hours for the first year in each specialty. That means that for specialties with advanced positions like derm, rad, etc, those are PGY-2 year hours, while for IM, family, peds, path, those are PGY-1 year hours. IM and FM, like most specialties, get easier after the awful intern year. FM especially tends to get significantly more clinic rotations (8-5 working hours) after its PGY-1 year.

I think that's something many people overlook when they choose their specialties based on residency lifestyle. Even the coveted derm residency has an intern year.

Don't rely on FREIDA numbers for individual programs though.
 
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This is one of my favorite places to direct people when they wonder how much Derms have to learn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cutaneous_conditions

OP, I think that as long as you picked something with reasonable hours, you will be much happier in your life and with your family if it's something you like doing. It doesn't have to be your favorite, but it should be something you like.
 
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