Asking for help: Residency Working Hours

[qinnu]

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Hi all:

I am a thirty year old mom-to-be(due next March) with a heart condition called PVC. I am applying for medical school 2005 entering classes. My biggest concern of pursuing a medical career is whether I could survive the unhumane hours of residency. I know that there is a law that supposed to take into effect July 1st, 2003 limiting the residency hours to 80 hours per week and allowing 10 hours in between duties. However I also heared a lot of residency programs don't give it a damn. I saw a lot of statistics online too. But I don't know how much I could trust them. I am wondering:

1. what specialty you are in?

2. how many hours are you working each week?

3. what's your longest continuous working hour and how often you have to go through it?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Qinnu

 

[osuer]

Residency compliance with work hours guidelines, overall, is better than it was prior to July 1, 2003, but for the medical community to assert to the American public that residents do not work over 80 hours a week, or longer than 30 hours consecutively, is deceptive. An article came out in American Medical News in July that explored the success of the regulations over the first year, and found that, overall, programs have attempted to comply, but, certainly, a large number of programs still work residents beyond the limits.

My suggestion to you would be to write to your senator or congressional representative about your concerns. Cite the reports out there stating that residencies are not compliant and that, more importantly, no resident will report the non-compliance because of the lack of whisteblower protection and the detrimental impact that report can have on a person's program, under the current ACGME enforcement policies. I am convinced that the only way the regulations will be a long-term success will be through federal legislation and whisteblower protection; programs are quickly learning that ACGME enforcement is anemic, at best, and that residents aren't going to reoprt, in the first place.

Residency's tough; there's no doubt about that. It's frustrating that, once you get into it, you have expectations that certain limits will be in place, and you find that it's not the case. I think a number of us have experienced that. Just know full well what you're getting into, should you decide to do it, and understand that regulation enforcement could improve over the next few years, or simply slip back to what the internal medicine regulations of the 1980's became (it's a rarely publicized fact that the 80-hour workweek has been in place for internal medicine programs for 15 years...but, as any internal medicine resident from the 90's can attest, that didn't mean a whole lot...).

Troy Madsen
PGY-2, Ohio State University EM

 

[kristing]

Hi all:

I am a thirty year old mom-to-be(due next March) with a heart condition called PVC. I am applying for medical school 2005 entering classes. My biggest concern of pursuing a medical career is whether I could survive the unhumane hours of residency. I know that there is a law that supposed to take into effect July 1st, 2003 limiting the residency hours to 80 hours per week and allowing 10 hours in between duties. However I also heared a lot of residency programs don't give it a damn. I saw a lot of statistics online too. But I don't know how much I could trust them. I am wondering:

1. what specialty you are in?

2. how many hours are you working each week?

3. what's your longest continuous working hour and how often you have to go through it?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Qinnu

Also recognize that there are residencies that offer part time positions. Go to FREIDA on the AMA website (www.ama-assn.org) and you can do a search on what programs have part time positions.

Good luck!

 

[Jaded Soul]

Troy Madsen
PGY-2, Ohio State University EM

Are you the Troy Madsen?

 

[Blade28]

Are you the Troy Madsen?

Hmmm...thought that name sounded familiar!

 

[v-tach]

If you're talking about PVC's as in premature ventricular contractions, which I'm assuming you are, has your doctor expressed any concern about it, or told you they are benign and nothing to worry about? They are quite often considered benign (though they can be annoying) but that depends on any underlying conditions. In other words, it's possible that you don't really have anything to worry about as far as the heart issue. However, talk to your doctor about that rather than going by what I'm telling you...I'm not even in med school yet (next year, if all goes well). Speaking of PVC's, here's an amusing story: I was in lab a couple of weeks ago in which we had to do EKG's (leads 1, 2 and 3) on ourselves--got myself hooked up, and promptly felt an irregular heartbeat start happening (I occasionally get these episodes, where I can feel that I am having a bit of an arrhythmia but feel fine). Clicked the start button (we were using a device connected to the computers) and caught it--looked like PVC's to me, though the recording quality was bad and I do know there are other things that can mimic PVC's. Talk about good timing... 🙂

 

[osuer]

If the Troy Madsen is the one who reported violations at Hopkins, yeah, that's me. I've posted my journal entries from that time online here at residentdiary.com, if you're interested.
Troy

 

[Sensei_Sevo]

If the Troy Madsen is the one who reported violations at Hopkins, yeah, that's me. I've posted my journal entries from that time online here at residentdiary.com, if you're interested.
Troy

Yo dude........YOU'RE THE FUC*ING MAN!! 😍

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Pathology
7a-4p (except surg path where I come in at 6a-6p or later)
Pretty much banking hours.
Oncall at home in my own bed
Lots of working at your desk during the day.

 

[BenHoganFan]

Hi all:

I am a thirty year old mom-to-be(due next March) with a heart condition called PVC. I am applying for medical school 2005 entering classes. My biggest concern of pursuing a medical career is whether I could survive the unhumane hours of residency. I know that there is a law that supposed to take into effect July 1st, 2003 limiting the residency hours to 80 hours per week and allowing 10 hours in between duties. However I also heared a lot of residency programs don't give it a damn. I saw a lot of statistics online too. But I don't know how much I could trust them. I am wondering:

1. what specialty you are in?

2. how many hours are you working each week?

3. what's your longest continuous working hour and how often you have to go through it?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Qinnu

1. Radiology

2. Depends on the rotation and whether we have call or night float:
Rotations 830A to 7PM.
Night float 13 to 16 hours a night, 4 times a year

3. 16 hours, Oops, I lied, Overnight call I was in house for 23 hours reading studies all night. As an Intern, I had 38 hour days with call during Vascular Surgery and OB. No 80 hour work week limitations in the old days. In fact I took the stairs up and down going to radiology to look at films, pre-op patients, research in the library and do dressing changes on post-patients. Gone were the good old days when we were hardened. Now, there are PAs and NPs who cover the wards so the residents can stay within the 80 hour week.

Why don't you do dermatology ? I don't think they do call. Pathology actually has some tough call at times (Surg Path Rot).

There is also PM&R which I hear is nice but I don't like "chronic" issues . Even one hour of that is one hour too long for me. 😱

What specialty 😍 interests you?