How far?

[thekingofbunions]

Incoming pgy1. How far would you live from your residency hospital?

 

[Weirdy]

IMO the closer the better.
Especially if you're doing a month of call at a time.
Otherwise 15-30min max.

You do not want to waste precious time you could spend sleeping.

 

[Adam Smasher]

I was a 20 min commute. That's a healthy distance. Not so far that on-call consults are inaccessible, not so close that you're bumping into patients at the grocery store.

I've heard of residents super-commuting. I even heard of a resident commuting to the south Bronx from Philadelphia!

 

[MicroPod]

Many residencies have a policy of being 30 mins away from the main hospital due to being on call. Some may or may not enforce it. Also I would say many residencies have multiple locations you have to go to, so think about picking a central location if that is the case.

 

[air bud]

You are a podiatrist....30 min call time being enforced??? Relax bro, that inpatient toenail can wait

 

[GreenHousePub]

You are a podiatrist....30 min call time being enforced??? Relax bro, that inpatient toenail can wait

Hilarious

 

[MicroPod]

You are a podiatrist....30 min call time being enforced??? Relax bro, that inpatient toenail can wait

Yeah I thought it was pretty dumb too, but my residency literally made us give proof of our housing and they checked to make sure we were within 30 minutes of the main hospital.

 

[heybrother]

Was exactly 1 mile from my residency hospital. Very convenient for eating lunch and feeding my wife on my hospital's dime.

 

[DYK343]

I lived across the street from the hospital. 100% convenient. 5AM rounding was 430AM wake up not 4AM wake up. I got called a lot in middle of the night. Had to come in a fair amount. It was invaluable to be able to see the ER from my living room window. Cheaper and healthier lunch (the free food was crap at the hospital). Home for a bit if you have a short break. No public pooping. It was invaluble.

Until its your day off and you see the ER through your window and it reminds you youre an abused resident.

I would live as close as possible if I had to do it again.

 

[Bluecollarmed]

As close as possible unless that puts you in an unsafe or undesirable area or the further distance is living with parents/spouse/whatever at a significant discount (free). My residency covered like 7 hospitals and we didn't really have a "main" one per say so I looked relatively central which was a bad part of the city. Most drives were 15-25 minutes with one hospital under 10 minutes.

 

[thekingofbunions]

Thank you all for your input. This definitely puts everything into perspective.