FRIEDA Work Hours

[moranwoods]

Just the other day, my fiance nearly fainted when she heard about what my future residency hours might entail. She just couldn't believe that an 80-hour week was possible.

So, I was trying to console her and mentioned that EM residencies typically have decent hours. My only source of info was the stats on FRIEDA's website that lists the Average hours on duty per week at 54.9.

What are you residents out there working? Is this number close to the truth and what is a typical shift for you? Should I just call the wedding off now since divorce is imminent?

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[wook]

Just the other day, my fiance nearly fainted when she heard about what my future residency hours might entail. She just couldn't believe that an 80-hour week was possible.

So, I was trying to console her and mentioned that EM residencies typically have decent hours. My only source of info was the stats on FRIEDA's website that lists the Average hours on duty per week at 54.9.

What are you residents out there working? Is this number close to the truth and what is a typical shift for you? Should I just call the wedding off now since divorce is imminent?

Not to scare you, but I believe this data is self-reported and not extremely reliable. I had looked at a surgery program for yucks, just prior to the 80 hour work week going into effect (on Freida it listed 100+ hours per week). Within two months after the 80 work week went into effect, the number dropped to 80.


Wook

 

[NinerNiner999]

Intern year, expect to work 80 hours per week on your off service months (and another 10-20 NOT reported). These rules are to be averaged over a 2-week period and up to 8 hours per week for "education time" (i.e. conference, etc) can be added to the 80-hour total (making 88). You are also required to have one 24-hour period off per week. Notice how that was phrased. You should inform your fiance that the likelihood of having weekends off during your intern year is slim to none (although some places may give you the "golden weekend" - one 48-hour period off over a weekend). This usually means 12 days straight through.

Once you get back in the department, you should work 50-60 hours per 7-day period. You cannot be scheduled for more than 12-hour shifts and you are required to have 12 hours off in between shifts. As an intern, expect 4 days off per month, most of which will be either in the middle of the week or between a string of nights and days.

After intern year, you should be getting more days off (6-8 per month) but will most likely still be working half of the weekends for the year. You will also have to work many holidays, a trend which will continue through the rest of your career. Having had my share of arguments and scheduling conflicts with my wife, you need to get your fiance on the same page now. She will never understand what it is like alternating days and nights, changing your sleep pattern 5 times a month, and working as hard as you do when you are on. If she is concerned now, she needs to hear the whole story.

You can try to console her and tell her EM residencies have decent hours, but "decent" is a very relative word. Good Luck.

 

[BKN]

Just the other day, my fiance nearly fainted when she heard about what my future residency hours might entail. She just couldn't believe that an 80-hour week was possible.

So, I was trying to console her and mentioned that EM residencies typically have decent hours. My only source of info was the stats on FRIEDA's website that lists the Average hours on duty per week at 54.9.

What are you residents out there working? Is this number close to the truth and what is a typical shift for you? Should I just call the wedding off now since divorce is imminent?

Congratulations on your acceptance to medical school. Both you and your fiancee need to get ready to adjust. It isn't just 80 hrs week in residency. It's pretty much the same in medical school (except that lovely year 4).

And after residency, you'll still be busy. Being a doctor is hard and it does involve self sacrfice. Most of the old soldiers around here will tell you it beats the infantry.

I think that you'll be glad you did it, but it is a long road.

 

[SoCuteMD]

Just the other day, my fiance nearly fainted when she heard about what my future residency hours might entail. She just couldn't believe that an 80-hour week was possible.

So, I was trying to console her and mentioned that EM residencies typically have decent hours. My only source of info was the stats on FRIEDA's website that lists the Average hours on duty per week at 54.9.

What are you residents out there working? Is this number close to the truth and what is a typical shift for you? Should I just call the wedding off now since divorce is imminent?

This is just a thought, from on newbie to another (first year med student here) but EM is definitely not the type of specialty you get into for the hours. Although they are limited, they are also irregular, involve weekends and nights so from what I've heard from a few friends, they were working fewer than 80 hrs/week but their time with their SO was limited due to the weirdness of those hours. There are lots of lifestyle-friendly specialties and what I have been told by a few of my professors is that you can make ALMOST any specialty into the lifestyle you want if you are flexible on other things.

For example: Ob/gyn is totally possible to do in a relatively low-stress, no nights and weekends WAY if you feel okay with other doctors delivering the babies of the mothers you have followed for 9 months. It is entirely possible to only take call a couple nights a month as an internist/pediatrician if you don't mind being in a group of 20 and taking call on patients you aren't that familiar with when it's your turn.

I think it's great to look around and see what the options are as far as lifestyle and pay, but remember that residency is only 3-7 (ha!) years of your life. If you have to give up some family time for those 3 years, isn't it worth it?

On another note, I'm beginning to realize how important it is that almost any physician's SO be either a) very social or b) okay with spending a lot of time alone for a while. Sad, but true.

 

[Seaglass]

A lot of good comments there. EM definitely isn't a lifestyle specialty for the hours, although I certainly agree that if you are willing to sacrifice some things (mostly pay) you can have better than average hours, etc.

One thing that I like about the schedule is that I get to be home with my wife and son in the mornings when he is the most fun while other people are working. One downside is that when friends go out at night I have to work a lot of the time.

The hours in residency are tough but they are getting better. As an intern I was working about 50 hours a week in the ED and usually had about 6 days off a month. Now it's like 8-10. You get used to the sleep cycles and learn how to deal with them to minimize the social disturbance. For example I sleep during the days with earplugs in so my wife and son can be noisy and it doesn't bother me.

Mostly your SO needs to realize that a normal life like other people (when you can arrange to go out any old night, have holidays off, etc) is not going to happen (in EM) but in return you tend to get more time off overall. It's not that bad. Really!

 

[dlung]

Hmmm... I'd warn her about your upcoming 80-hour class/study week, too.

My only thought is to make sure your fiance meets other significant-others-of-med-students just so she realizes that med students really do have to study that much/work that hard... my ex-gf from 1st year of med school had a hard time accepting that...

You can tell her the good news that your fourth year of med school is basically three months of work, a couple months of traveling around and smiling, and then a six-month vacation.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Many many relationships go down the toilet once med school starts prepare her for the worst..The thing is no one can tell you how much you need to study or how much time you will need with anatomy lab. It is very self determinate.

 

[henge]

Just the other day, my fiance nearly fainted when she heard about what my future residency hours might entail. She just couldn't believe that an 80-hour week was possible.

So, I was trying to console her and mentioned that EM residencies typically have decent hours. My only source of info was the stats on FRIEDA's website that lists the Average hours on duty per week at 54.9.

What are you residents out there working? Is this number close to the truth and what is a typical shift for you? Should I just call the wedding off now since divorce is imminent?

Bringing up a very old post. Obviously there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a residency, one of which is the work schedule. FREIDA shows big differences between the work schedules for various programs, with most showing 60 average hours, but some ranging from, say, 46 at Maricopa, AZ to 72 at Denver, and 50 at GWU, in DC, to 65 at East VA. There are comparable differences for maximum number of hours per shift in PG1 and number of 24-hour days off per week. Any idea whether there really is a predictable difference in hours between programs as indicated in FREIDA?

 

[Tiger26]

I don't think I'd rely on Freida--the SDN reviews are much more accurate.

Still, just expect to work a lot during residency with variable hours.

As one of my attendings said, "residency sucks--then it's over"

 

[@JackShephard]

This is just a thought, from on newbie to another (first year med student here) but EM is definitely not the type of specialty you get into for the hours. Although they are limited, they are also irregular, involve weekends and nights so from what I've heard from a few friends, they were working fewer than 80 hrs/week but their time with their SO was limited due to the weirdness of those hours. There are lots of lifestyle-friendly specialties and what I have been told by a few of my professors is that you can make ALMOST any specialty into the lifestyle you want if you are flexible on other things.

For example: Ob/gyn is totally possible to do in a relatively low-stress, no nights and weekends WAY if you feel okay with other doctors delivering the babies of the mothers you have followed for 9 months. It is entirely possible to only take call a couple nights a month as an internist/pediatrician if you don't mind being in a group of 20 and taking call on patients you aren't that familiar with when it's your turn.

I think it's great to look around and see what the options are as far as lifestyle and pay, but remember that residency is only 3-7 (ha!) years of your life. If you have to give up some family time for those 3 years, isn't it worth it?

On another note, I'm beginning to realize how important it is that almost any physician's SO be either a) very social or b) okay with spending a lot of time alone for a while. Sad, but true.

Time out.

Did you just say there are lifestyle friendly specialties and then list OB/Gyn as your primary example?

#Flabbergasted

 

[NOsaintsfan]

Time out.

Did you just say there are lifestyle friendly specialties and then list OB/Gyn as your primary example?

#Flabbergasted

Yep he/she did.......about 8 years ago.

 

[@JackShephard]

Yep he/she did.......about 8 years ago.

Didn't realize someone did a 8 year bump today...

 

[Cinclus]

And I can't believe that 2006 was 8 years ago...

 

[deleted109597]

It's funny to see your entire career in a single thread on SDN.