FM Residency Program Hours

[alparkeruab]

Can anyone give me an approximate amount of hours worked per week in a typical FM residency? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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[alparkeruab]

any help please?

 

[NewmansOwn]

Depends on what rotation you're on and what your call schedule is. Average seems to be around 65 hours/week from the folks I know, but I'm not an FM resident. SophieJane is in the trenches; she'll know for certain.

 

[cali-ob]

I don't know what "average" is for all FP residencies, but I am on the fam med inpatient service, we run a pretty high census..
Have been on the inpatient service since residency started (13 weeks and counting..) and most weeks for me are about 65 hours. This week I will probably get up to 80 cause I'm on call q3 but this is not normal. Don't know what it will be when I finally go to another service.

 

[Richie Truxillo]

having done ICU/CCU, Medicine wards and now FM Inpatient, I've been working 70-80 hours every week. First two months were q4 in house 30 hour calls. This month, working about 14 hours a day 5 days a week with a saturday thrown in.

No matter what you choose, life is tough as an intern. I hear it gets better in your second year though

 

[alparkeruab]

Thanks for all the responses!

What is the general consensus on what life as a FM practitioner is like? It is more or less stressful than the majority of other specialities? Do you work more or less hours than most other specialities? How much free time do you have? Any other info would be interesting as well.

 

[Doctor Grim]

Thanks for all the responses!

What is the general consensus on what life as a FM practitioner is like? It is more or less stressful than the majority of other specialities? Do you work more or less hours than most other specialities? How much free time do you have? Any other info would be interesting as well.

It really depends on what your interests are and your career goals. I chose FM because it was more flexible in terms of what I was interested in doing (you can basically tailor your own practice) and I hated spending all my time in the hospital.

You can certainly have a good life and low stress work (like many community primary care physicians that I know) by referring out and have specialists managing your difficult patients for you. Or you could spend time and figuring out what is the best treatment for your difficult patients and start initial treatment and follow them for a while (depending on your competency).

You could make more money by rounding on inpatients on weekends or take care of patients in the nursing home. You could also become a medical director of a nursing home +/- patient care. You could learn skin procedures and do botox.

Really, your hours and lifestyle are how you want to make it.

 

[medicienne]

It really depends on what your interests are and your career goals. I chose FM because it was more flexible in terms of what I was interested in doing (you can basically tailor your own practice) and I hated spending all my time in the hospital.

You can certainly have a good life and low stress work (like many community primary care physicians that I know) by referring out and have specialists managing your difficult patients for you. Or you could spend time and figuring out what is the best treatment for your difficult patients and start initial treatment and follow them for a while (depending on your competency).

You could make more money by rounding on inpatients on weekends or take care of patients in the nursing home. You could also become a medical director of a nursing home +/- patient care. You could learn skin procedures and do botox.

Really, your hours and lifestyle are how you want to make it.

Exactly the reson why I chose FM

 

[sophiejane]

The fact that it took me 10 days to respond to this tells you a little something about how busy I am.

It really depends on the rotation. Last month was procedues, an outpatient month. I averaged about 50 hours a week when you factor in charting.

This month, on pulmonology/critical care, 12 hour days have been the norm, then I go home and do patient encounters and charts online for about an hour almost every night. I'm guessing I'll average 70-80/week this month.

OB, it's more like 85-90/ week some weeks.

I'm pretty sure in the end, we are well within the 80/week limit overall, when you look at annual averaged statistics.

It's not bad, not as bad as some, but probably a little worse than others.

What matters most in the end is bang for the buck: are you working long hours AND learning, or are you doing repetitive tasks with low-yield and becoming exhausted without much to show for it?

I chose my program because there is a balance, and we work hard, but we are rewarded with really quality learning experiences.

 

[WFM18940]

It really depends on the program and the rotation. If you're in the hospital, then you'll be working the same hours as those in internal medicine. If you're on a surgery rotation, ditto for surgeons. However, if you're working in an outpatient setting, it can be very 'normal' 9 to 5 hours.