Hours at the Top Programs

[hrmm]

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I know it will vary but any first hand comments on what the weekly hours are like as a CA-1, CA-2, CA-3 in the OR and other rotations at the top programs like MGH, UCSF, Hopkins, Penn, etc? Just trying to get a sense of a resident's daily lives at these programs.

 

[Mr Wizard]

I know it will vary but any first hand comments on what the weekly hours are like as a CA-1, CA-2, CA-3 in the OR and other rotations at the top programs like MGH, UCSF, Hopkins, Penn, etc? Just trying to get a sense of a resident's daily lives at these programs.

I can only comment on one of these programs, but I imagine that with averaging, they are all pretty similar. One of the strengths of all of these programs is that you work hard. You will have long days, and you will have relatively shorter ones. I averaged in the high 60s/low 70s at my program. Some of my co-residents averaged lower as well as higher and that just depends on variations in rotations and case loads.

The majority of my main OR months, the work was loaded up during the week. We had night float coverage which removed call during the week. We then covered 1-2 weekend days a month, leaving 2 full free weekends.

Your daily life is going to be busy during residency. It should be that way for every resident. A more important thing to explore is that you find a city where you want to live and a program with people and training opportunities that fit your goals. Otherwise, you could be working 45 hours a week and still hate it.

 

[hrmm]

I can only comment on one of these programs, but I imagine that with averaging, they are all pretty similar. One of the strengths of all of these programs is that you work hard. You will have long days, and you will have relatively shorter ones. I averaged in the high 60s/low 70s at my program. Some of my co-residents averaged lower as well as higher and that just depends on variations in rotations and case loads.

The majority of my main OR months, the work was loaded up during the week. We had night float coverage which removed call during the week. We then covered 1-2 weekend days a month, leaving 2 full free weekends.

Your daily life is going to be busy during residency. It should be that way for every resident. A more important thing to explore is that you find a city where you want to live and a program with people and training opportunities that fit your goals. Otherwise, you could be working 45 hours a week and still hate it.

Solid info. Thanks Wizard.

 

[Stank811]

Couldn't agree more. You want a program with a strong clinical experience and that results in hours that average around 60hrs/wk for programs. But you do not want 60hrs/wk doing basic cases the majority of your time during training....of course you need to learn how to do basic cases as well. Look for a program that will give you the opportunity to do many diverse cases with a high acuity patient population.

 

[ambiturner]

I can only comment on one of these programs, but I imagine that with averaging, they are all pretty similar. One of the strengths of all of these programs is that you work hard. You will have long days, and you will have relatively shorter ones. I averaged in the high 60s/low 70s at my program. Some of my co-residents averaged lower as well as higher and that just depends on variations in rotations and case loads.

The majority of my main OR months, the work was loaded up during the week. We had night float coverage which removed call during the week. We then covered 1-2 weekend days a month, leaving 2 full free weekends.

Your daily life is going to be busy during residency. It should be that way for every resident. A more important thing to explore is that you find a city where you want to live and a program with people and training opportunities that fit your goals. Otherwise, you could be working 45 hours a week and still hate it.

My program (one of your listed ones) has essentially the same hours as Mr Wizard's, and I would also wager it's pretty much the same everywhere. There are light months where you might do 45 hours in a week without call, and then on ICU or cardiac you'll be closer to 80. It seems like across the board programs are attempting to improve the number of weekends off and increase protected educational time as well.

I think working 60 hours in anesthesia is more demanding than 80 hours in internal medicine just because you're on your feet more and have more stressful situations to deal with. That said, I would never go back to internal medicine and am much happier in the OR.

 

[Mman]

We ended up averaging around 55 hours per week when it was all said and done. Some closer to 80 in the ICU and others down around 40, but all in all not too bad. And that includes the weekend shifts in the average. I suspect most programs are in the 50-65 hrs per week range.

Also agree that it is far more physically demanding than something like IM. I would go home at the end of an 11 hour day as a CA1 and pass out on the couch many times from sheer exhaustion.

 

[Soparklion]

By my observations, if you go to a hospital system in a city with low cost of living, your program will have more CRNAs to perform more of the grunt work (simple cases), finish the cases that you don't want to finish (drug and drag back to the ICU at 7 pm), and get you out of the OR. That is my observation after many discussions with many individuals.