Hope? Do Hours Ever Get Any Better??

[Napoleon1801]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm on rotation #1, week 2 of internal med. Waking up at 5:30am and finishing at 5:30pm and it is getting old really quick... I like working hard when I'm at the hospital, no problems there, but getting up before the ass-crack of dawn and putting in 12 hours a day with little in the way of days off, plus q5 call is making me wonder if I make a noose out of the hospital bedsheets...

Sorry to whine, but I'd really love to hear some "happy nice fluffy bunny stories" about the 'good' path programs can be compared to what I'm seeing now. It just gets really depressing to think about doing something like this for the rest of my life.

Thanks for the hope!

 

[yaah]

I woke up at 5:20 AM today, was at work at 6:40, left at 6:40 pm. I had a ten minute lunch. I enjoyed my day though. And I'm sure the residents on chemistry or micro were there 9-5pm at most.

 

[peter90036]

what was nice in this internal med i know of:
2weeks of work- 190 hours, get a paycheck that says you worked... 75 hours.
the recognition we get is very uplifting...

getting up before the ass-crack of dawn and putting in 12 hours a day with little in

 

[getunconcsious]

I'm on rotation #1, week 2 of internal med. Waking up at 5:30am and finishing at 5:30pm and it is getting old really quick... I like working hard when I'm at the hospital, no problems there, but getting up before the ass-crack of dawn and putting in 12 hours a day with little in the way of days off, plus q5 call is making me wonder if I make a noose out of the hospital bedsheets...

Sorry to whine, but I'd really love to hear some "happy nice fluffy bunny stories" about the 'good' path programs can be compared to what I'm seeing now. It just gets really depressing to think about doing something like this for the rest of my life.

Thanks for the hope!

Just wait till you get to OB/Gyn, bwahahaha. Wake up at 4:00 for pre-rounds at 5....get home maybe 6 pm or so. On top of that, the psychotic beeotches that pass for OB/Gyn residents will really have you thinking about that noose idea again!

 

[TheCritic]

Just wait till you get to OB/Gyn, bwahahaha. Wake up at 4:00 for pre-rounds at 5....get home maybe 6 pm or so. On top of that, the psychotic beeotches that pass for OB/Gyn residents will really have you thinking about that noose idea again!

For OB just down a whole bag of Mag; there's plenty around. That'll do it. No seriously though, I hate to break it to the OP but medicine requires long hours. Guess what? People are sick all day, and the more time you put in the more you learn. Furthermore, if you think pathology is going to be a 9 to 4 cake walk, you're probably going to be very dissapointed. I'm on path right now, I get up at 5am everyday. We're done anywhere from 4 to 6pm Some places on Surg path you could be grossing past 8 or 9pm. If you want to be a good resident, you'll be up at 5am everyday anyways. This is the nature of medicine.

Oh and be sure to let the Surgery and OB residents hear your feelings on the matter. I'm sure they will be very sympathetic.

Okay, not to be totally crude. There are some light rotations in pathology, and you get weekends off, and you take call from home, and when you're done you'll have it much much easier than your counterparts. So yeah I guess it gets better. But come on man. Suck it up.

 

[trent05]

Well, I've never been in at 5 am, except maybe if I have Tumor board and I've done some major procrastination. But, to the OP, your hours are not hat bad. You say you wake up at 5:30. There's a big difference between waking up at a certain time and being in at a certain time. If you get in at 7:30 and leave at 5:30 then you pretty much have my lifestyle, so no it doesn't get better if that is the case. Path has an OKAY lifestyle in residency. It is not as severe as some of the posters have said, but it's not that great either. You will be busy, believe me.

 

[deschutes]

Well, from one super-scientific poll, at least four new staff pathologists report working a maximum of 50 hours a week at their first job after residency/fellowship.

Dreams apparently do come true.

Edit: Then again, by the looks of it some of those who voted are... medical students or residents. Just goes to show nobody really pays attention anyway...

 

[getunconcsious]

For OB just down a whole bag of Mag; there's plenty around. That'll do it. No seriously though, I hate to break it to the OP but medicine requires long hours. Guess what? People are sick all day, and the more time you put in the more you learn.

What?! But I don't WANNA learn a lot! ugh...maybe I will down that whole bag of magnesium sulfate.

 

[RyMcQ]

Well, from one super-scientific poll, at least four new staff pathologists report working a maximum of 50 hours a week at their first job after residency/fellowship.

Dreams apparently do come true.

I am just starting my third year of community practice after fellowship. A typical day for me is arriving around 8:30 and leaving around 5:30. We split call three ways. Most call nights it's hard to remember I'm on call (no calls). Occasionally, I have to stay late (7:30) for a frozen. Weekend call usually involves an hour of grossing on Sunday.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Napoleon1801]

It just seems like sleep, exercise, hobbies, friends, etc has gone out the window...at least I could spend a little time in last 2yrs doing things other than medicine.

I don't know...it just seems majorly depressing right now that I'm losing all the other things I enjoy for medicine. Anyone else feel this or should I go looking for that MgSO4 bag pretty soon?

 

[mlw03]

some rotations are tougher than others - you have to prioritize. during medicine i said that sleep and running were most important, and that's what i did in my limited free time. it meant waking up at 4:30 to run and still be at the hospital by 6:30 to pre-round. when i was on call i got permission from the resident to run in the early morning post-call (ie, around 5am). to do this, i went to bed at 8pm. as to the 12 hour days... well, i didn't have too many of them. when not on call we usually finished our patient care activities by 3pm and then everyone got the hell outta there except the on-call team. maybe ya'll have more patients than we did.

my point is that you do have to sacrafice, but that, in my experience, there is a limited amount of time for non-school activities if you don't waste time and you pick the activities you care most about.

 

[deschutes]

You also get more efficient as time goes on. This happens in residency, and I'm sure once you are staff too. And then you pick and choose your priorities.

I'm on cytology sans a fellow at the moment. Hours are 7:45 to 5:30pm, no call. Great for catching up on reading and research projects. So I alternate fun evenings and work evenings if I am able - today at 5:30pm I head for the beach, tomorrow I read another chapter of Demay or work on a talk.

Sometimes I bring Demay to the beach. It varies, but that's the general outline.

 

[LADoc00]

Intern hours: roughly 6am to 10pm M-F (weekends off)
Resident hours: 7am to 9pm M-F
CP hours: 9am to 4pm M-F
Fellowship hours: 8-5pm M-F
Working: 8-3pm

So if you are looking for things to be better in the short term, intership will KILL you. But if you are looking 6-7 years down the road, you are fine.

 

[amygdala_path]

Well, I am a first year in Path. My first rotation is SP and I am putting in 12 hours a day. Will things get better? Where is the light?

 

[Derek Zoolander]

Well, I am a first year in Path. My first rotation is SP and I am putting in 12 hours a day. Will things get better? Where is the light?

I'm not in path (yet), but I wanted to offer some perspective. SP seems to be the most time intensive of the path rotations; you can expect to work 12-14 hour days. However, you are doing this for 5 days/week and usually have weekends off. You may be on call one weekend, but this is from home!

Contrast that to other interns: 12 hour days are often the norm and are filled w/all the BS scut & social work that epitomize clinical medicine. On top of that, you will be staying up for 30 hours straight every 3rd-5th night depending on the rotation. If you get a weekend off, it is called the "golden weekend" like you should be thankful for having a life outside of the hospital.

SP may seem like it sucks, but there is more suckage elsewhere.