How hard is IM residency?

[coreytayloris]

How hard is IM residency?
Do you have any semblance of a life outside of the hospital or is it a case of sacrificing the next few years of your life? What sort of hours per week is the norm? Or is this all hospital dependent?

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[jdh71]

These questions. The basic premise of them. It depresses me.

Yes it's hard. It's not surgery though. Plan on 60 hours per week most weeks. At least 80 when in the ICU. Maybe more. Every once in awhile you'll have a 40 hour week. Despite all this you still find time to work out or go out to eat or go on a date if you want but just not every night. I mean **** residency is time to start growing up and stop being such a kid. You won't be able to play all the time you're trying to be a doctor.

 

[smartparts]

medicine is pretty average. less hours/stress than neurosurgery/gyn/surgery/ortho, but more than derm/psych/rads/neuro.

 

[visari]

easy and hard are very subjective terms. still you won't find anybody who tells you IM residency is easy. It's not and your life is going to be different as a resident. You will often skip parties/weddings/dinners...etc
work/life balance is a very subjective term too. some people are fine with going out to a bar or a restaurant once or twice a week. others become suicidal if they don't go out every night or so.
and 60 hours/week on average is a good number. starts with 70-80 as an intern and goes down to 50-60 as senior resident.

 

[nycscope]

It all depends on what kind of physician you want to be.

I viewed my residency as being my last chance to learn as much as possible before I was solely responsible for my actions out in the real world. I spent a lot of time in the hospital and really did my best to learn what I could and be involved as much as possible in procedures, teaching...you name it. I feel that I am well prepared for it and can at least be useful with pretty much anything that rolls through the door.

You can always go to a big program and hide behind the number of people there (meaning less personal attention) and, as long as nothing goes horribly wrong, you can slack and get by. I would advise against this. Plus, with that kind of rep (slackers are always found out because of the collaborative nature of residency), if anything DOES go wrong, you can bet the program will find a way to oust you instead of support you.

Don't worry about going out on the town. Focus on the matter at hand; learning to be a competent doctor!

 

[Gunninforpeds]

These questions. The basic premise of them. It depresses me.

Yes it's hard. It's not surgery though. Plan on 60 hours per week most weeks. At least 80 when in the ICU. Maybe more. Every once in awhile you'll have a 40 hour week. Despite all this you still find time to work out or go out to eat or go on a date if you want but just not every night. I mean **** residency is time to start growing up and stop being such a kid. You won't be able to play all the time you're trying to be a doctor.

As someone with the same question as the OP, I feel I should defend it.

I recently had my sub I in the MICU and I was tired all the time, stressed out to the point of flirting with depression, and only seeing my kid for about 40 minutes a day. I remember thinking that I just couldn't handle this workload for 3 years. I really thought about changing to derm or something, despite the fact that I love medicine and know that it is the right career for me. It's just a simple matter of there not being enough hours in the day for me to work 80 hour weeks and still be the kind of parent I want to be.

 

[jdh71]

As someone with the same question as the OP, I feel I should defend it.

I recently had my sub I in the MICU and I was tired all the time, stressed out to the point of flirting with depression, and only seeing my kid for about 40 minutes a day. I remember thinking that I just couldn't handle this workload for 3 years. I really thought about changing to derm or something, despite the fact that I love medicine and know that it is the right career for me. It's just a simple matter of there not being enough hours in the day for me to work 80 hour weeks and still be the kind of parent I want to be.

Maybe medicine is not for you.

 

[IMreshopeful]

As someone with the same question as the OP, I feel I should defend it.

I recently had my sub I in the MICU and I was tired all the time, stressed out to the point of flirting with depression, and only seeing my kid for about 40 minutes a day. I remember thinking that I just couldn't handle this workload for 3 years. I really thought about changing to derm or something, despite the fact that I love medicine and know that it is the right career for me. It's just a simple matter of there not being enough hours in the day for me to work 80 hour weeks and still be the kind of parent I want to be.

I'm not sure (with all due respect) how much your sub-I in the MICU actually entails, but it is a huge, huge difference from residency. Suddenly being responsible for notes, orders, discharge summaries and discharge paperwork, as well as procedures and talking to random families is a far cry from presenting a few patients and then "helping out" residents whenever possible. Just be aware of that. I frequently worked the full 80 hours/wk in the MICU as an intern and of course longer with overnight call as a resident (though to be fair, post-call days after an overnight are *beautiful*).

If you love medicine, then by all means pursue it, but be prepared to make some sacrifices. FWIW I know residents who have young children and are doing splendidly with their family life. Keep in mind that for every bad month where you're working >= 80 hours/wk, there will be also beautiful elective rotations with 35-40 hour work weeks and weekends off (less so as an intern, typically, but still fewer).

 

[medrest]

Actually not bad. Lot better than surgery. If others could do it, you can do it too.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

If you love medicine, then by all means pursue it, but be prepared to make some sacrifices. FWIW I know residents who have young children and are doing splendidly with their family life. Keep in mind that for every bad month where you're working >= 80 hours/wk, there will be also beautiful elective rotations with 35-40 hour work weeks and weekends off (less so as an intern, typically, but still fewer).

OP's question is legit.

My IM residency has been pretty godawful - riding/breaking the duty hours line regularly. It hasn't been a walk in the park. We don't work that much less than the surgeons.

I especially feel for the residents dealing with the parenting aspect. Most of the residents I know with young children aren't doing 'splendidly', unless by splendidly you mean passing off your kid to sitters and family almost daily and spending way too little time with them to be an effective parent.

There will be sacrifices, believe me.

 

[IMreshopeful]

OP's question is legit.

My IM residency has been pretty godawful - riding/breaking the duty hours line regularly. It hasn't been a walk in the park. We don't work that much less than the surgeons.

I especially feel for the residents dealing with the parenting aspect. Most of the residents I know with young children aren't doing 'splendidly', unless by splendidly you mean passing off your kid to sitters and family almost daily and spending way too little time with them to be an effective parent.

There will be sacrifices, believe me.

Well I'm sorry your experience has been that rough. I should clarify, my residency is not a cakewalk. There are many days where I am there late and coming in early to get my work done and there have been weeks where I barely see my wife. However, there are many much lighter rotations to balance it out. Unless your residency is disproportionately more inpatient and ICU, you must have some parts of your residency which are not as bad.

Like I said most of the residents that I know with young children are doing fine. No, they are not home by 4 every day and spending entire weekends with them, but they find the time to spend with them. Nobody is denying there is a sacrifice to being a resident time wise but it's certainly not always as terrible as you're describing.