Do residents in your program hang out with each other outside of the hospital?

[NeedToStudy]

So if I match god willing, I'll most probably be single. It has gotten me thinking as to how my social life would be in residency. I'm mainly considering psychiatry and family medicine. Do residents in your program hang out with each other outside of the hospital? Do people throw parties?

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[deleted103644]

So if I match god willing, I'll most probably be single. It has gotten me thinking as to how my social life would be in residency. I'm mainly considering psychiatry and family medicine. Do residents in your program hang out with each other outside of the hospital? Do people throw parties?

People in residency are at different stages in their lives. Some will be single. Some will be married with multiple children.

Best advice for you would be to rank programs in large cities highly.

Not only will you be more likely to have similarly situated people in your program (single people tend to prefer city programs more than people with children), there will also be more social opportunities outside the hospital.

 

[Law2Doc]

So if I match god willing, I'll most probably be single. It has gotten me thinking as to how my social life would be in residency. I'm mainly considering psychiatry and family medicine. Do residents in your program hang out with each other outside of the hospital? Do people throw parties?

There will be get togethers but because of call schedules they wont be a weekly thing, and half the time you won't be able to go because you are working. I wouldn't bank on other residents being your primary social outlet, regardless of where you match. I'd say "hanging out" (outside of the work day) just isn't as common as in med school because you'll be on different schedules as your co-residents, and won't have nearly the kind of free time you had in med school.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Highly program dependent. My year hangs out very often.

 

[Call Me Dr.]

Definitely varies by program, but my co-residents only hung out a few times a year. Everybody's schedules were really different which is challenging. Really, everybody was so burnt out with work that I don't think we wanted to see each other outside of the hospital even though we were all friendly. I agree with johnnydrama - focus on locations where you can cultivate a social life outside of the hospital.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Highly program dependent. My year hangs out very often.

It definitely varies a lot by program and a lot by field.

Best advice for you would be to rank programs in large cities highly.

If you value having a super tight-knit and sociable residency program, I'd actually argue that big cities are worse for that than medium and smaller sized cities. The residents in big city programs often chose their program for its location rather than the program itself, and are happy to spend their limited social time completely away from the hospital and their cohorts.

Not saying that big cities are bad for social life in general, because obviously that's not the case. But if what you want is a close group of co-residents, places like NYC or LA are not the way to go.

 

[gutonc]

It definitely varies a lot by program and a lot by field.

Even by class sometimes. My class was mostly married, many of them with kids so we hung out relatively little. The class after me was mostly single and hung out a lot.

 

[hamstergang]

At my psychiatry program, we've gone in waves of hanging out together too much and then not at all. Some people did more of one or the other at various times.

So depends on the program and on you.

 

[qxrt]

It definitely varies a lot by program and a lot by field.




If you value having a super tight-knit and sociable residency program, I'd actually argue that big cities are worse for that than medium and smaller sized cities. The residents in big city programs often chose their program for its location rather than the program itself, and are happy to spend their limited social time completely away from the hospital and their cohorts.

Not saying that big cities are bad for social life in general, because obviously that's not the case. But if what you want is a close group of co-residents, places like NYC or LA are not the way to go.

I can agree with this. I'm at a residency in a big city, and there's so much going on outside the hospital and so many new people to meet that I don't need to hang out with my co-residents during my free time. Conversely, I went to medical school in the middle of nowhere, and my classmates all hung out with each other because honestly, there was nothing else to do.

 

[Mass Effect]

As others have said, totally program dependent. My peers and I hang out often, including family-oriented things for those with kids, like apple-picking, pumpkin patch, things like that. We just hang out a lot and many bring their spouses. The hours aren't all that bad at my program (no short call and few weekends when on-service) so we probably have more time than some at other programs.

 

[styphon]

I hung around a core group of friends.. We also interacted with other specialities outside of the hospital, mostly ones we were in constant contact with.

 

[galactus]

We partied. All the time. With my intern class, other residents, with the nurses on the floor after work, and even the med students.

 

[NeedToStudy]

We partied. All the time. With my intern class, other residents, with the nurses on the floor after work, and even the med students.

Thank you for your condescension.

 

[b-real]

Thank you for your condescension.

Not sure where the condescension was. My class is very tight-knit. We hang out often even in the final year of residency. We also hang out with nurses, other residents and (on a more limited basis) even med students who are rotating or interviewing.

 

[galactus]

Not sure where the condescension was. My class is very tight-knit. We hang out often even in the final year of residency. We also hang out with nurses, other residents and (on a more limited basis) even med students who are rotating or interviewing.

Yup! Residency was fun and it's only a finite amount of time before real work settles in. Looking back residency was more like an episode of "Scrubs" more than anything else. Yeah we worked hard, but honestly I couldn't have survived without my residency class. We were pretty tight knit and hung out all the time. We would do happy hour with the other residents from other departments, go out, etc. We'd go hang out with the nurses as well, which honestly made work a lot easier when you're friends with a few of them at the hospital. There's nothing like sharing beers after a long day shift with your resident team, a few nurses, and the occasional med student/attending that's cool enough to be in your circle to talk about a crappy work day.

 

[Law2Doc]

Yup! Residency was fun and it's only a finite amount of time before real work settles in. Looking back residency was more like an episode of "Scrubs" more than anything else. Yeah we worked hard, but honestly I couldn't have survived without my residency class. We were pretty tight knit and hung out all the time. We would do happy hour with the other residents from other departments, go out, etc. We'd go hang out with the nurses as well, which honestly made work a lot easier when you're friends with a few of them at the hospital. There's nothing like sharing beers after a long day shift with your resident team, a few nurses, and the occasional med student/attending that's cool enough to be in your circle to talk about a crappy work day.

Hanging out with nurses you directly work with is a huge danger area -- happy hours can lead to more, and I've heard of more than a few that have taken advantage of the 360 degree evaluation to vent about a failed relationship. Also choosing med students cool enough to go hang out with after work is somewhat of a thin ice area as well if those residents hanging out are at all involved in the evaluation/grading. Is the med student actually cool with hanging out with you or is there a grade hanging over his/her head he wants to protect -- I suspect your hospital would frown on both of these.

I'd say very little if what you see on scrubs happens in real life. Sure you may have a best friend at the hospital. He probably won't be in a different specialty. You probably know someone sexist and obnoxious like the Todd, although he will be less public with his comments. And you probably will work for some bosses who can be real SOBs sometimes. But that's about the extent of it. You will be working long hours and the after work happy hour will be a sporadic and non-weekly event. No janitors will F with you either.

 

[j4pac]

Am I the only person who wants to answer the question?

No...you don't want to boink your fellow residents.

 

[Law2Doc]

Am I the only person who wants to answer the question?

No...you don't want to boink your fellow residents.

But they do that in Greys anatomy all the time and even happened a couple of times in scrubs -- I thought those shows were what real life is like. 🙂

 

[TexasPhysician]

But they do that in Greys anatomy all the time and even happened a couple of times in scrubs -- I thought those shows were what real life is like. 🙂

It is real life. Can't tell you how accurate it is at some places.