Family-friendly surgical residency programs

[Sthpawslugger]

For those of you with families and who have gone on interviews or at least done some away rotations, did you find any surgical programs that were family-friendly? If so, how did you go about determining that a program was in fact family-friendly? What kind of questions should I ask or be on the look out for? I'd like to think someone can be a surgeon and a good/present husband and father.

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[Dr.Bruh]

Oxymoron

 

[Sthpawslugger]

Oxymoron

Ok?

 

[ciestar]

Ok?

This really isn’t a thing.

 

[NecFasc92]

Ok?

If you apply surgery and then subsequently ask about work-life balance, 100% chance you don’t match surgery. Oxymoron is most definitely the correct term here

 

[IMGASMD]

Doubtful there is a balance during residency. Even though I am not a surgeon, but you want to see/operate on as many cases as possible during residency (true in any fields, IMO). You ARE practice on someone else’s license. Think about that for a moment.

I am in that inter generation, when stricter duty hour rule starting to take effect. I truly believe everything I do in the hospital, be it clinical or scut, has its value.

When you’re the attending, and specialized in something with no emergencies/call burden then you can do whatever you want with your life/balance.

You need to have a very supportive/understanding spouse, not a easier program.

Good luck.

 

[WinslowPringle]

Ask how many of the residents are married/long term partners; how long they've been together; how many divorces there have been. Ask how many people have kids. Have any of the female residents had kids? How long did they take off? Did they have to/get to/want to do it in a research year? Most of these questions should be able to come up naturally in the course of pre-interview dinner conversation and not be a forced, rapid-fire segment. The ones that are more family friendly sometimes highlight it in their powerpoint/presentation, show pictures of the families, etc. I would specifically not phrase it in a way that asks "How is your work life balance/How much time off do you have" etc, but rather ask for the numbers. Are there kids at the pre-interview dinner?

Ask about daily schedules. What time do you *have* to stay there until? Some programs you're out after your cases are done; some places check-out is mandatory 7pm (or whenever). What are the call schedules like? How do you pick vacation?

It wasn't something that I looked at when picking residencies, but some that I think had several residents with kids when I applied were: Knoxville, Wichita, Shreveport, Wilmington NC, Lubbock, and Youngstown. Places that I don't recall being that open about families were: Iowa Methodist, SLU, KUMC, UMKC, UAB. But a lot changes in 5 years and my memory is foggy.

 

[doyouhaveaflag]

It's probably a lot easier to find father friendly surgical programs than mother friendly. The extra accommodation needs are just less for dads as you don't spend nine months pregnant then months breast feeding. Lots of guys in the gen surg program at my institution have kids. I can't speak to how good/present they are though, lol. They don't work fewer hours than the rest of us.

One thing I wish I had weighted more when evaluating programs was whether they had on site child care and good/inexpensive insurance for dependents. My program has no child care and the only available insurance limits me to care at my own institution. Thank goodness I have my husband's insurance...I don't like to **** where I eat.

On the other hand, I'm the second female in my program to get pregnant in the last couple years and I have a ton of support from my PD and co-residents. If my hospital would put some lactation rooms within a 10 minute walk of the ORs, I'd say we were very family friendly. I guess it just depends on what your definition of family friendly is.

 

[Spectreman]

My brother did gen surge with 4 kids, I’m applying gen surge with 4 kids as well. One of my LOR writers is a gal who had her first child while in her gen surge program. It’s not impossible, you need support, but it’s doable. I know of programs in Ohio that have bouncy houses at their opening socials because so many of the surgeons have families.

 

[clinicallabguy]

I'm a Dad of 5 kids (had 2 in undergrad, 2 in medical school and 1 in residency), in a surgical subspecialty. I wouldn't say that is was "family friendly" in the sense that working an IT job from home is "family friendly." But I have a good relationship with my kids. It is possible to be a good loving parent in a demanding job. Residency is by definition not flexible in its hours. You have to be where you are told to be, and you don't go home until your work is done. But also, it is not forever.

From a residency perspective, I'm not sure the non-surgical specialties are super flexible either. All residencies are hard work. They're a bit different. But someone is going to have issues if they think that they're going to be taking personal days to spend time with little ones in just about any specialty. You may as well do the one that leaves you satisfied with your work when you do go home to your family at the end of the day.

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

Residency is a major commitment no matter the specialty