Does it get better?

[Tangerine123]

Big wall of text inc.

I can't handle the medical lifestyle anymore (mostly shifts), I'll elaborate

I'm a last year medical student in a 3rd world country. As a student you're expected to work aprox. 90 hours/week at the hospital.

36 hour shifts every 4 days w/o postcall day off.

In a 36 hour shift in surgery you basically have 8 residents/10 students: 1 resident and 4 students in the ER examining and doing admissions. 1 resident/2 students managing the 100+ floor patients, 2 residents/1 student managing the ICU, 1 resident/2 students managing the observation (100+ patients) and 3 residents at the OR with 1 student.

You barely get the sit (too much to do and when you have some free time there aren't enough chairs, residents get priority). Last shift I walked the equivalent of 23 miles according to my phone.

50% of the bathrooms don't work, the ones that do don't even have toilet paper (sometimes you're so busy that you have to hold it for a few hours).

Sometimes you don't even get to eat, and there are no microwaves or refrigerators. You ? Qatar just swallow a cold sandwich in 5 minutes for dinner.

You rarelly get to sleep, In 16 surgery shifts I only managed to sleep in 2, we slept for 1:30hrs in one and 0:45 in the other. IF you get lucky and get some time to sleep then you have to do so on a bench, throw a matress on the floor or sleep on an empty bed in the inpatient wards. Also, the hospital is plagued with rats and cockroaches. There are no showers, you remain dirty and sweaty the whole 36 hours.

You do all the scut. Imagine that nurses don't exist (Nusing school is a joke here, 1 year degree...) as a student in a shift you're expected to evaluate patients, order labs and stuff, do minor procedures (catheters, nasogastrics, blood extraction, ABGs, sutures), you're supposed to help write admissions, push stretchers to and from xrays etc, and manage a lot of bs burocracy

This happens for 3 years (MS4, MS5 and MS6). After my MS4 year I was diagnosed with hypertension and barret's esophagus because of my ****ty lifestyle and my preexisting psychiatric disorder got worse.

I'm not sure if i'm going to continue on to residency and if I do it will probably be in the US or Europe. I would like to know how good/bad the lifestyle of a resident in the US is. I know it deppends on the field, right now I'm interested in pediatrics (just to gain acces to the fellows) or pathology. I could also just drop clinical medicine and do research (something that I also love).

I really need to know if it gets better (or worse), at this rate either cancer or selfharm will get me (and yes, I go regularly with my psych, no need to worry there).

Thanks for taking the time to read that wall of text, I appretiate it!

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[bashwell]

Big wall of text inc.

I can't handle the medical lifestyle anymore (mostly shifts), I'll elaborate

I'm a last year medical student in a 3rd world country. As a student you're expected to work aprox. 90 hours/week at the hospital.

36 hour shifts every 4 days w/o postcall day off.

In a 36 hour shift in surgery you basically have 8 residents/10 students: 1 resident and 4 students in the ER examining and doing admissions. 1 resident/2 students managing the 100+ floor patients, 2 residents/1 student managing the ICU, 1 resident/2 students managing the observation (100+ patients) and 3 residents at the OR with 1 student.

You barely get the sit (too much to do and when you have some free time there aren't enough chairs, residents get priority). Last shift I walked the equivalent of 23 miles according to my phone.

50% of the bathrooms don't work, the ones that do don't even have toilet paper (sometimes you're so busy that you have to hold it for a few hours).

Sometimes you don't even get to eat, and there are no microwaves or refrigerators. You ? Qatar just swallow a cold sandwich in 5 minutes for dinner.

You rarelly get to sleep, In 16 surgery shifts I only managed to sleep in 2, we slept for 1:30hrs in one and 0:45 in the other. IF you get lucky and get some time to sleep then you have to do so on a bench, throw a matress on the floor or sleep on an empty bed in the inpatient wards. Also, the hospital is plagued with rats and cockroaches. There are no showers, you remain dirty and sweaty the whole 36 hours.

You do all the scut. Imagine that nurses don't exist (Nusing school is a joke here, 1 year degree...) as a student in a shift you're expected to evaluate patients, order labs and stuff, do minor procedures (catheters, nasogastrics, blood extraction, ABGs, sutures), you're supposed to help write admissions, push stretchers to and from xrays etc, and manage a lot of bs burocracy

This happens for 3 years (MS4, MS5 and MS6). After my MS4 year I was diagnosed with hypertension and barret's esophagus because of my ****ty lifestyle and my preexisting psychiatric disorder got worse.

I'm not sure if i'm going to continue on to residency and if I do it will probably be in the US or Europe. I would like to know how good/bad the lifestyle of a resident in the US is. I know it deppends on the field, right now I'm interested in pediatrics (just to gain acces to the fellows) or pathology. I could also just drop clinical medicine and do research (something that I also love).

I really need to know if it gets better (or worse), at this rate either cancer or selfharm will get me (and yes, I go regularly with my psych, no need to worry there).

Thanks for taking the time to read that wall of text, I appretiate it!

Sorry to hear it, OP. It is difficult. I'm glad you're getting help though.

However, in the US, your life during residency is not necessarily going to be better. If anything, it's going to be worse for most specialties.

For peds, the lifestyle can be quite difficult. Residency is only 3 years though if you think you can make it. Job market is great, though pay isn't as high as other specialties, but if you're an IMG, then I assume your loans aren't that high, so you might not be as concerned about money. Lifestyle after residency as an attending can be really good.

It's really important to consider lifestyle during vs after residency. But I realize it's difficult if you don't think you can even survive residency.

For pathology, it's a lot better, and you don't even have to do an intern year so that's going to be good in terms of lifestyle. But pathologists can sometimes still have long days/nights during residency. Overall though I think path is a decent choice if you want lifestyle more than anything else. Keep in mind the pathology job market is probably the worst of all the specialties.

I don't know Europe, but Europe has the reputation of having a much better lifestyle than the US.

Good luck!

 

[masaraksh]

90hrs/wk is a lot but it's not particularly impressive. Ortho and neurosurg will consistently break that

 

[sliceofbread136]

Yes it gets better than that if you do a us residency. I average 70 hours per week on inpatient rotations and the most I've done is 85 hours. Also in the us we have working bathrooms, plenty of chair and the hospital does not have rat or cockroach problems that I know of.

 

[sliceofbread136]

90hrs/wk is a lot but it's not particularly impressive. Ortho and neurosurg will consistently break that

Depends on the person. I would be very tired with 90