Do certain specialities have better hours during residency?

[mzeroapplicant]

Are the hours better in certain specialities when you're doing your residency? Which specialities are these? How much do the hours vary between specialties?

Thanks for any info, I've been really curious about this and have only found a limited amount of information.

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[DropkickMurphy]

Dermatology, pathology, and hematology are all supposed to have pretty decent hours during residency.

 

[mzeroapplicant]

Dermatology, pathology, and hematology are all supposed to have pretty decent hours during residency.

I know this would vary, but are these specialties closer to 60 hours than to 80 hours? I'm thinking obviously surgical residencies would be the worst (i.e. 80 hours). What about psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine, or neurology?

 

[HunterGatherer]

PM&R tends to have the fewest hours as well.

 

[mzeroapplicant]

PM&R tends to have the fewest hours as well.

Is this because PM&R is often done on an outpatient basis, which means less on call hours?

 

[mzeroapplicant]

Bump

 

[TexPre-Med]

FP could go either way. IM is one of the hardest - much like surgery.

For most residencies - hours correlate with hours of working physicians. Not equal but relative. Path residents work fewer hours per week partly because path attendings aren't in the hospital 24/7. Same with PM&R. How often do you see one of them on call? There are no reason to have these residents in the hospital during hours when you don't need them.

However hospitals need surgeons and IMs all hours of the day, so expect to be there.

 

[mzeroapplicant]

FP could go either way. IM is one of the hardest - much like surgery.

For most residencies - hours correlate with hours of working physicians. Not equal but relative. Path residents work fewer hours per week partly because path attendings aren't in the hospital 24/7. Same with PM&R. How often do you see one of them on call? There are no reason to have these residents in the hospital during hours when you don't need them.

However hospitals need surgeons and IMs all hours of the day, so expect to be there.

What about for psychiatry and neurology? On the one hand, psychatrists and neurologists are on call at many hospitals at all hours to handle emergency cases. On the other hand, usually these specialties work decent hours once in practice, and at least with psychiatry I've read that it's not one of the harder residencies in terms of hours.

 

[curlycorday]

What about for psychiatry and neurology? On the one hand, psychatrists and neurologists are on call at many hospitals at all hours to handle emergency cases. On the other hand, usually these specialties work decent hours once in practice, and at least with psychiatry I've read that it's not one of the harder residencies in terms of hours.

I wouldn't choose psychiatry if you want cush hours. All the psych residents at our hospital are constantly paged by er when they are on call, mostly at night for the whack jobs-- then you have to admit, transfer, etc. I haven't met one psych resident who isn't on call q3 or q4 and works the entire call shift.

 

[vtucci]

Look on FRIEDA for information. You should consider not only specialty but location/hospital.

 

[deleted87716]

I know this would vary, but are these specialties closer to 60 hours than to 80 hours?

Seriously...why do you care? You can't possibly be using this information to make a career decision. It's only 3-4 years out of your life compared to a 20+ year career.

 

[mjl1717]

Are the hours better in certain specialities when you're doing your residency? Which specialities are these? How much do the hours vary between specialties?

Thanks for any info, I've been really curious about this and have only found a limited amount of information.

Damn good q!!!-{ lets face it its kinda slave like}-path seems ok, thats one reason why the applications to path programs have increased. {ibelieve its broken into anantomical path versing clinical path with favor going to the dual
residency.

 

[happydoc]

..

 

[happydoc]

Nothing is easy! Path, PMR, Anes, and Derm are all 4 year programs maybe work less but overall time is longer than IM. Surgery is obviously in a class by itself. Rads has good hours in hospital but tons of reading out of hospital and is 5 years. Last time I looked hematology is not a residency and is a fellowship. You have to do IM before hematology.

But this is a stupid way to chose a field.

 

[mzeroapplicant]

Seriously...why do you care? You can't possibly be using this information to make a career decision. It's only 3-4 years out of your life compared to a 20+ year career.

I'm a bit confused that people keep commenting that hours shouldn't be a concern for me. I'm in my late 20's and my wife and I plan on having children during my residency, so it is an extremely valid concern. My wife is willing to work part time and handle more of the child care, but I want to be able to spend some time with my family and sleep during that four-seven years. Obviously, I also need to choose a specialty that appeals to me, but in my situation I don't think this is frivilous.

 

[LO281OK]

I'm a bit confused that people keep commenting that hours shouldn't be a concern for me. I'm in my late 20's and my wife and I plan on having children during my residency, so it is an extremely valid concern. My wife is willing to work part time and handle more of the child care, but I want to be able to spend some time with my family and sleep during that four-seven years. Obviously, I also need to choose a specialty that appeals to me, but in my situation I don't think this is frivilous.

If the OP, or anyone else, has a few specialties in mind or wants to do an initial narrowing of choices based on the lifestyle of that specialty then that is their prerogative. I have my top four, whittled down by other means, but the final choice between the ones I think I want may come down to lifestyle.

Making one's choice SOLELY based on hours, like choosing the specialty that is #1 on the list of highest avg pay, is beyond all but 0.01% of students. The OP asked for the specialties (plural) with better hours, not the ONE with the LOWEST... so cut him some slack.

 

[Dr.D-man]

FP could go either way. IM is one of the hardest - much like surgery.

So what would be the deciding factor/s (if someone were on the fence) given that hours and difficulty are equal?

 

[ahumdinger]

Seriously...why do you care? You can't possibly be using this information to make a career decision. It's only 3-4 years out of your life compared to a 20+ year career.

actually, i think the capping to a 80 hour work week has and will continue to have a tremendous impact on specialty choice. Surgery will now become more and more attractive because the hours are about the same as medicine. Before, many people who might otherwise consider surgery end up choosing medicine because the hours are shorter.

this is not good! We need more people in medicine, not surgery!!

 

[mzeroapplicant]

actually, i think the capping to a 80 hour work week has and will continue to have a tremendous impact on specialty choice. Surgery will now become more and more attractive because the hours are about the same as medicine. Before, many people who might otherwise consider surgery end up choosing medicine because the hours are shorter.

this is not good! We need more people in medicine, not surgery!!

Well, there are a lot of programs that still violate the 80 hour work week (I've heard residents claim their program still goes as high as 120 some weeks). In NY they're trying to regulate this, but elsewhere there is very little official mechanism to monitor the 80 hour work week.

What is even worse is that in cases where hours are being cut in residencies, the extra hours are actually being shifted to med students (since they are unpaid, and thus not regulated). Can anyone confirm that this is the case? If this is true, then it would seem the unintended result of the legislation is to discourage people from going into medicine altogether! Having regulatory mechanisms for both med students and residents *that are enforced* seems to be the only way to overcome all these problems.

 

[Haemulon]

For what its worth I have heard that FP and OB/GYN are both really heavy for on call hours even after residency. Similarly IM. (pretty much anything primary care or "hospitalist" based). Obviously surgery means you more or less live at the hospital.

 

[Hardbody]

Well, there are a lot of programs that still violate the 80 hour work week (I've heard residents claim their program still goes as high as 120 some weeks). In NY they're trying to regulate this, but elsewhere there is very little official mechanism to monitor the 80 hour work week.

What is even worse is that in cases where hours are being cut in residencies, the extra hours are actually being shifted to med students (since they are unpaid, and thus not regulated). Can anyone confirm that this is the case? If this is true, then it would seem the unintended result of the legislation is to discourage people from going into medicine altogether! Having regulatory mechanisms for both med students and residents *that are enforced* seems to be the only way to overcome all these problems.

I heard the same thing from a current surgeon that still has many connections in the academic world.