It's manageable. Your schedule will vary from program to program, and your daily schedule will vary from month to month. On medicine floors, I'm usually in at around 6:30-6:45AM to get sign-out from the night team (7AM is the latest you can come in) and on a non-call day will sign-out at 5PM. Call days on the floors are Q4 and last until 9PM. In the MICU, my program does the 28 hours call (also Q4). It sucks and will always suck. Then there's elective time and other stuff like ER and night float which have varying schedules.
Stipend is okay. We live fairly comfortably with our two cats. My take-home is approximately $2600 a month. It helps that my husband makes about the same that I make, so overall it's not a bad situation at all. We're living in a two bedroom apartment in a fairly nice part of the city and paying $1800 a month. We're filing separately this year since I'm doing PAYE.
It wasn't that bad. I lived in Center City and trash day was never terrible.
My husband is not in medicine, which is nice. Married life during residency is certainly something I have to work hard at. It's very easy to fall into a routine of coming home, cooking dinner, and then doing my own thing or just sitting on the couch, and then going to sleep. I find that we both have to put in an effort to keep things like romance alive. We do movie nights, date nights, etc to keep things fresh.
No problem, friend.
I prefer them not being in medicine. That last thing I want to do when I get home from work is spend hours and hours talking about the hospital (which is what ends up happening when I hang out with my friends who are in medicine). That being said, my husband knew coming into this relationship the time and effort that goes into being a resident, so he was fully prepared for everything.
Most information about away rotations can be found on their website. There is a centralized away rotation service called VSAS. Housing is almost always something you have to find for yourself. Stay with a friend or sublet, basically.
Tony Stark must survive for us to win. I have faith that he will release us from the confines of the Soul Gem.
I don't think burnout was a big issue for me or my classmates during third year, to be honest. Sure, it sucks being the bottom of the totem pole and not knowing anything, but the patient interactions were, for the most part, very rewarding. It's nice to break out of your pre-clinical studies and actually be doing something that you want to be doing. I had a lot more free time during third and fourth year than I did previously. You're not necessarily tied down to a strict study schedule due to a fear of falling behind on lectures. Your time is more freely budgeted. Shelf exams for us were P/F and really didn't calculate that much into our grades, so it wasn't a huge priority to be studying for those.
If it's a mental illness, then I would avoid this altogether. No matter what anyone says, mental illness is still stigmatized among the medical community. Otherwise, I think it's okay to mention it, albeit mention it briefly. His personal experience should only be a component of why he wants to go into the field and not the whole reason.
Honestly, it's too late in the cycle for any realistic advice for getting off of the wait list.
Patience.... It's all part of the plan.
About 5000 years. I've died more times than I can count.
