Commuting during residency?

[burlypie]

I just matched at a great program about 55 miles away from where my future husband's office is, so the logical solution is for us to both commute -- me by car and him by bus (to avoid parking in a large downtown area).

my commute looks like it's going to be about 45 minutes, luckily against the traffic patterns. Is this absolutely crazy for intern year? Does anyone else do this? I know that some places it can cake 45 minutes to get around even within a city so I don't feel I can complain too much...and some people say they even like their commute because it gives them time to wind down. I guess I'm just a little worried.

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[RTrain]

It's not crazy, but it will be hard. I think it's a good sign that you're both making it a priority to be together, and I will bet that will be worth the extra trouble of commuting. But you are correct in identifying it as a potential problem, and depending on what field you're going into and how your schedule is, it could be a major problem.

You'll have to be very alert to your own fatigue level, and be prepared to nap in a call room once you're off duty if necessary to avoid driving 45 minutes while extremely fatigued, and it will be pretty tough sometimes to get up early enough to get to the hospital. And if you have any home call, you'll probably have to get a hotel room or stay with a colleague to do it.

 

[colbgw02]

For internship, I commuted about 35 minutes on average. Obviously, 45 > 35, but the 35 minute commute was not a big deal at all. I can't imagine that there'd be a huge difference. If it means living in a more ideal area, or - in your case - getting to stay with your spouse, then it's definitely worth it. Remember, you probably won't be getting to and from work during rush hour anyway.

 

[Blade28]

45 minutes can be a ways to go, especially if you're going to have any home call. Most residents here are advised to live a max of 30 minutes away for such situations. And while most of us don't have to fight traffic (our hours aren't exactly 9-5!), there may be times you'll be driving to and from the hospital during rush hour. Just something to consider.

What field are you going into?

 

[gutonc]

I have an IM colleague who is married to a military EM resident. Their residency programs are ~130 miles apart. They live together in a town that is 50 miles from our hospital and 80 miles from his. On outpt, EM and consult months, she lives at home and commutes ~1h each way (avoiding rush hour obviously). He commutes against traffic ~90 min each way (but since he's EM he works fewer overall hours than she does). On her call months she rents a room from somebody in town and stays there most of the time, going home on days off.

So yes, it's crazy but it's also do-able and if your marriage is important to you, you should do it if you can. Of course, if you're a Gen Surg or OB resident this may be more of a problem but at least you won't get stuck in rush hour traffic.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I'm attempting an hour commute for my intern year, to take advantage of a free rent situation.

Fortunately the year has only 4 call months, we'll see how it goes...

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You could consider getting an audio review series for whatever specialty you are going into. This way, you could listen to it while driving and save yourself "reading" time once you're home. We had a resident that communted 60 minutes, and found this made the drive seem more useful.

 

[Winged Scapula]

A consideration is the weather...if its 45 minutes on a nice sunny day, how long does it become in snow and ice (if any)?

As others have noted, it really does depend on:

- type of residency
- length of hours worked
- home call (we were required to live within 15 mins of hospital)
- whether you can sleep at hospital post-call
- reliability of car

I personally would not have wanted to drive that far during residency, but it would be worth it to be with your fiance ( my ex used to drive 90 minutes back home from his away rotations) unless he can commute a little farther and you a little less.

 

[kidhaole]

You could consider getting an audio review series for whatever specialty you are going into. This way, you could listen to it while driving and save yourself "reading" time once you're home. We had a resident that communted 60 minutes, and found this made the drive seem more useful.

I will be commuting about 40 minutes daily starting in July. I think the above is good advice. I intend to get a few specialty relevant audio lectures in addition to some good spanish language audio courses. Hopefully this will make the drive a better use of my time.

 

[gng930]

You could consider getting an audio review series for whatever specialty you are going into. This way, you could listen to it while driving and save yourself "reading" time once you're home. We had a resident that communted 60 minutes, and found this made the drive seem more useful.

They better be good. Otherwise it's just going to make more likely to fall asleep at the wheel.

 

[burlypie]

Ooh, I like the spanish language review idea. I also think I'll be able to get plenty of NPR time to actually keep up with what's going on in the world. BTW, I'll be doing family medicine in california (no snow or ice!). THe more I think about this I think it will be do-able. 🙂

 

[anamarylee]

I've been doing a transitional year 70 miles from home. When I first got the position, my husband tried but it wasn't possible for him to get a transfer from his company to the store near the hospital. So I started commuting 70 miles each way against traffic. At my program I've had 3 1/2 months of call (from q4 to q8 depending on who makes the schedule, average of 5 calls/month) with 1 1/2 months of call left. Before this past year, waking up early was not something I liked doing. But being able to be with my husband and seeing my stepdaughter every other weekend has been worth it. I use my time to catch up with local news station. I'm a bit OCD about getting places on time, so I'm usually in the hospital 15-20 minutes before morning report. Which means I wake up a little over 2 hours before morning report.

I do admit I feel a bit jelous of my classmates who live 5 minutes from the hospital. When we all get out at the end of a long day, they are moments away from food and showering and a comfy couch and I still have over an hour of commuting before I get home. I've had to stay in the on call room napping after morning report on the most brutal on call days/nights, but since my husband is at work, it doesn't eat into our time together, so I do it gladly. I've learned to drive home with about 3 hours of sleep with a good strong coffee before leaving, but anything less than that I have to nap before the commute.

It's a sacrifice, and to tell you the truth I would do it over; but I won't do it for the next 4 years for my OB residency. The 20 minute commute next year will seem like nothing.

It's been tough, but my husband's smile makes the long commute well worth it.

 

[dara678]

My fiance and I are in a similar situation, I'm in LA and he's in San Diego, >100 miles apart. We spent a lot of time weighing all the options, including various places to live in the OC, but figured that if we both had a 3 hr + commute everyday (because of the notorious LA traffic) we'd both be unhappy and stressed out. So we decided to each live apart in our respective cities; however I'll be able to see him thursday-sunday so it's not too bad 🙂

 

[Blade28]

Good decision - you DEFINITELY do not want to commute that far! 😱

(Plus what would you do for home call?)

 

[citygirl]

I've been commuting all through my intern year (internal medicine) about an hour each way. I've always done a lot of driving so it really hasn't bothered me. I also don't have any "home call" in my program. If I get sleepy after being up 30+ hours I pull off the road and catch a few zzzzz's. I haven't had to do that often, but I never try to keep going if I don't feel safe to drive.

 

[ExtraCrispy]

It's doable, just be aware that you'll need to make sacrifices.

I'm a general surgery resident about to finish my 2nd yr, and for the past six months I've been commuting 45 mins. The reason is that my husband & I found our dream house, in the town where we plan to raise our kids (eventually). It's been worth it to come home to a quiet house surrounded by woods, but it does have its drawbacks. You will NEED to be aware of how tired you are, and if you are up all night on call, SLEEP before getting into the car, no matter what. The same goes with staying up late when you're at home - go to bed early, no matter how much you want to stay up that extra hour to be with your hubby. During my second month of this commute - when I was not taking the advice above - I crashed & totaled my car at 4:30 am on the highway. No one was hurt, but it was a cruel wakeup call.

I keep an overnight bag in my trunk at all times, with clean clothes, deodorant, etc. If I'm at the hospital past 9:30 am...I don't go home, I stay at the hospital overnight. The issue isn't so much the drive home that night, but when you have to be back at the hospital by 5 am, you don't have many hours to sleep by the time you get home...and then things can get dangerous the next morning when you drive.

During your senior months, if you have home call, you'll likewise have to make arrangements to be close to the hospital. My husband knows that during the times when I'm a senior on a service (a big chunk of my last three years!), I'm going to be shacking up at the hospital for months at a time (literally, not coming home. I'm going to comandeer one of the livable call rooms. He's promised to pick up & do my laundry each week. 🙂 ) That's the compromise I've made.

It just depends on what you're willing to sacrifice, and if the sacrifice is worth it to you. For me, it was an easy decision - I can take four years of pain if it means that when I come home, I'm in the place I love most in the world. Residency is temporary, but we're planning to keep this house until we keel over. 🙂

 

[deleted109597]

On the other hand, when I was looking for a house, I found a perfect little place 30 minutes away. My wife and I work at the same hospital, so we both had the same commute. However, we work different shifts, so we would never ride together. 30 minutes out in eastern NC is 30 miles, so we would have been driving an aggregate of 120 miles per day.
Financially it didn't make sense for us both to live outside of town. We ended up getting a place 6 miles away.
Not for the OPs situation, but definitely something to consider for those that want to live away from the hustle and bustle. I have had 2 friends have wrecks commuting, and know of 1 person at Jax that died post call. Definitely sleep it off before driving home.

 

[bigfrank]

I just matched at a great program about 55 miles away from where my future husband's office is, so the logical solution is for us to both commute -- me by car and him by bus (to avoid parking in a large downtown area).

my commute looks like it's going to be about 45 minutes, luckily against the traffic patterns. Is this absolutely crazy for intern year? Does anyone else do this? I know that some places it can cake 45 minutes to get around even within a city so I don't feel I can complain too much...and some people say they even like their commute because it gives them time to wind down. I guess I'm just a little worried.

It's definitely doable. One of my friends in radiology residency communtes about 55 minutes one-way every day. He's still a stud and it hasn't affected his performance at all. (And he's got 5 kids.)

 

[Ludicolo]

Looks like everybody's doing it.

During internship (she=categorical IM, me=transitional) my wife and I both commuted 45-50 minutes to different hospitals. Highway driving all the way, no traffic. Learned exactly where all of the state troopers lurked. So it was fair for both of us (and cheaper), we found a place midway between our respective hospitals. She took in-house call. My program allowed home call for most rotations, but for me it simply wasn't an option. I usually crashed at a friend's apartment across the street.

Admittedly - it helped that we knew we would only have to do it for a year. We made the most of it. This allowed us to take our time and search for a good house in our mutual PGY-2 program location, where I had matched in my advanced residency. We moved in April of PGY-1 year. The bummer was we made the move during my general surgery rotation, so I had to get up really really really early for that month in order to get to the hospital on time to round before cases.

Absolutely essential you will need a reliable car.👍

 

[Ludicolo]

Don't forget to budget extra for the rising price of gas.🙁

 

[bigfrank]

Don't forget to budget extra for the rising price of gas.🙁

oh yea, there is that.

 

[Blade28]

It's definitely doable. One of my friends in radiology residency communtes about 55 minutes one-way every day. He's still a stud and it hasn't affected his performance at all. (And he's got 5 kids.)

Yeah but again, it's very different when you're in a residency program with home call.