Each program is going to be a little bit different. Some programs have a tier system so that as you become more senior, you do less shifts in the department. Also, some programs vary depending on if they are 8, 10, or 12 hours shifts (or somewhere in between). However, bear in mind that not all of your training in an Emergency Medicine Residency is in the Emergency Department.....you still need to do some off-service rotations and call can vary.
For instance, at the institution at which I am a resident, we average, for the number of shifts in a month, the number of days in the month minus 10 (so, in the months with 31 days, we do 21 shifts). Our shifts are scheduled for 9 or 10 hours. Now, one of our days off may be our conference day which is required, so your 10 days off a month are not exactly 10; however, nonetheless, it is reasonable.
Now, when we do our off-service rotations, we average call every fourth night, and we get about 1 day off a week. Hours can vary depending on the service, but figure about 7am-4pm or so. We do about 5 off-service rotations requiring call in our 2nd and 3rd years combined.
Now, the other thing that should be interesting is the new guidelines expected to take place on July 1 dealing with the number of hours and work-related issues and apparently going to be enforced by ACGME. This is essentially stating that you cannot work any more than 80 hours in a week averaged over a certain amount of time (probably not a problem for many of the EM programs, but some surgery programs for example may have a problem meeting these expectations). It also states that you need 1 day off a week averaged over a certain amount of time.
However, in the answer to your original question, I think that most EM residents will state that their time in the emergency department is not overwhelming.
