How important is your commute?

[RookTookIt]

I'm torn about where to live for residency and wondering how it worked out for anybody who was in a similar predicament.

- option A -- close to hospital, 15-20 minute commute each way, less desirable housing
- option B -- 30-50 minute commute each way (more susceptible to changes in traffic), more desirable housing

My instinct is to live further from the hospital where I am happier with the housing options and overall community, but I don't want to be kicking myself a few months down the line when I'm spending more time commuting and don't even have enough time to enjoy my cooler community anyway.

Any thoughts?

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[nlax30]

Probably depends somewhat on type/length of residency and really just personal preference. If more of an outpatient based residency/field where you may not need to going back and forth for call or only take in-house call then a little longer commute may be tolerable. If a more rigorous field where you may doing home call or expected to come in at various times then a 45 min commute may get old quickly.

 

[IM2GI]

Married with kids? Single?

50 minute commute will make you want to kill yourself. Don't do it.

 

[LUCPM]

It also depends on each rotation. Some rotations are 14+ hrs a day and it could be a problem if you have to get to the hospital super early. I live about 20 minutes away and it is perfectly doable even on long days but not sure if it's 40-50 minutes away.

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[RookTookIt]

Thanks for the input, guys.

Probably depends somewhat on type/length of residency and really just personal preference.

4 years, prelim + ophtho.

Married with kids? Single?

Married, but no kids.

 

[surgonc2017]

Prelim med or surg?


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[Noisewater-TDX]

I would live further out, but my drive is my meditation. My peaceful time before the work and stress.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

When I have a resident with a longer commute, I recommend a board study audio program. That way, less time at home needed for studying. Works for some.

 

[dpmd]

When you say less desirable, do you mean not as cool as the other place or do you mean crime/****ty area? Shorter is definitely better unless you are only making the trip once each way per day at reasonable times of the day. A 50 minute commute after a long call night is a recipe for a disaster and even a 30 min commute if you are on home call will make you want to bash your pager against a wall (and possibly encourage poor decisions like not going in when you should). But living somewhere safe is also important.

 

[WinslowPringle]

I am a spoiled surgery resident....Closest hospital to my house is 3 minutes drive w/ no traffic, 10 w/ traffic.

I grumble at the furthest hospital from me: 15minutes on average, 25 w/ traffic.

It matters a lot to me, anyway. Any moment on the road is only taking me from either fun or work, and it makes a difference particularly on the long calls. Plus, close proximity means biking or running some days.

I would look long and hard for close housing, provided there isn't terrible crime in the area. There are always some hidden gems if you search enough (which usually isn't an option for all the residents influxing).

 

[Gastrapathy]

No kids means that this isn't about schools. That is the only reason to chose to live far from work. Falling asleep behind the wheel is real.

 

[dpmd]

I am a spoiled surgery resident....Closest hospital to my house is 3 minutes drive w/ no traffic, 10 w/ traffic.

I grumble at the furthest hospital from me: 15minutes on average, 25 w/ traffic.

It matters a lot to me, anyway. Any moment on the road is only taking me from either fun or work, and it makes a difference particularly on the long calls. Plus, close proximity means biking or running some days.

I would look long and hard for close housing, provided there isn't terrible crime in the area. There are always some hidden gems if you search enough (which usually isn't an option for all the residents influxing).

I am with you here. I moved last year and part of the decision process involved changing the commutes for the three hospitals I work at from 10, 20, and 30 to 3, 10, and 15. That 30 was enough to make me skip rounding on those patients some days.

 

[Gastrapathy]

25 min is my personal pain threshold and I'm under 90% of the time. Under 25 and I can enjoy some music, listen to Howard, maybe make a phone call, generally compose myself before arriving into the evening chaos.

In the am, I drink my coffee and there's way less traffic.

At 24 min, I'm fine. At 28 min, I start thinking about changing jobs or, worse, moving.

 

[Crayola227]

I think it sucks to eat up your time twice a day 6 days a week to live farther away.

I would rather have to drive the few times I go out to eat, meet a friend, do something trendy.

OTOH, safety, money, matters. I know some residents that chose to have 30 min commutes because that was important to *their* sense of work/life balance, separation from work, having a life outside work.

It really depends, but IMHO live close. I live 3 min to my hospital, and 15 min all the cool stuff downtown.

The residents that live where I do, really value the 0.4 miles they get to walk in the am and pm, gives them built in exercise and downtime.

 

[backrow]

Thanks for the input, guys.


4 years, prelim + ophtho.


Married, but no kids.

Your Ophtho....do you want to stay in house when on call? Because that's what you will likely have to do if you live more than about 20-30 min from the hospital. No residency program will be happy by their first call person being far away.

The other issue if you are that far out in a program that you take home call is having to drive back and forth multiple times a night. If you cover more than one hospital you have to consider that as well.

Would highly recommend living as close as possible.


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[pedstar09]

First year resident here. I had a similar option last year. I was told not to do it because of terrible hours/commute stress/risk of injury/commuting while being tired, etc. I think that was the greatest piece of advise I had in order to make my first year easy for myself and my wife.

 

[rokshana]

personally it was very important and as a resident I lived 1.1 miles away from the hospital...but the neighborhood was safe and the rent inexpensive so it was a no brainer...best of both worlds... as a fellow however, i didn't want to live in the city where i worked and wanted to live closer to the bigger city to the east...had to decide what was my threshold for a communte that wasn't painful...mine was 30 minutes or less...so that's where i looked for housing

you need to decide was is your threshold for driving and then look to see what you can find in that area.

 

[backcountryrez]

I work in a community where living a mile or less away from work would cause rent to be (g)astronomical, but for some the convenience of not needing a vehicle (and its possible payment) and being right downtown offsets the higher cost of rent.

I live about 20 minutes away from work, but intentionally decided on this to echo Crayola227's comment...it was more for my work/life balance and living this far away meant I would be able to meet others who didn't work for the same employer as me.

Sometimes when you make friends from work, all you end up talking about is work.

 

[gutonc]

I'm torn about where to live for residency and wondering how it worked out for anybody who was in a similar predicament.

- option A -- close to hospital, 15-20 minute commute each way, less desirable housing
- option B -- 30-50 minute commute each way (more susceptible to changes in traffic), more desirable housing

My instinct is to live further from the hospital where I am happier with the housing options and overall community, but I don't want to be kicking myself a few months down the line when I'm spending more time commuting and don't even have enough time to enjoy my cooler community anyway.

Any thoughts?

1. Live close (20 minutes was my outer limit...I lived a 15 minute bike ride/5 minute drive all through training).
2. Don't buy.

 

[ConfusedChemist]

1) Safety, a 45min post-call drive is not safe for you nor anyone else
2) The community may be nice, but if you're only there for 1 day a week when it's not dark out, is it really critical?
3) You will only have a few (waking) hours a day for your life (relationships, cleaning, hobbies). Is driving really how you want to spend half of that time?

 

[WeeBay]

currently and intern in a 5 yr program. I have been commuting 40-50 minutes x 2 daily. not an issue yet. married, no kids. Its not nearly as bad as this thread makes it seem.

 

[Gastrapathy]

currently and intern in a 5 yr program. I have been commuting 40-50 minutes x 2 daily. not an issue yet. married, no kids. Its not nearly as bad as this thread makes it seem.

So you've only worked a 16 hr shift and you know better. Ok.

 

[Crayola227]

So you've only worked a 16 hr shift and you know better. Ok.

No kids to care for waiting at home.

Just a spouse with freshly pressed laundry and a hot cooked meal - no wonder they can afford to kill time in the car.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Does your program have a distance or time requirement?

We weren't allowed to live more than 30 (or was it 15) minutes away. If you're in a specialty with home call or the possibility of having to come in as Senior/Chief, living closer is beneficial. Otherwise, as noted above, you'll just end up staying at the hospital.

 

[ConfusedChemist]

currently and intern in a 5 yr program. I have been commuting 40-50 minutes x 2 daily. not an issue yet. married, no kids. Its not nearly as bad as this thread makes it seem.

It's not always bad, sure. But is it really the best way to spend ~1/2 your 'free' waking hours per day?

 

[Crayola227]

Some programs have a "on the months you're on jeopardy" (could just be one) "you must be able to get to the hospital within one hour" - not a distance requirement, but a time one.

they left the rest up to you.

Some people would be all sorts of weird places at weird times (I live a 1.5 hr hour commute away in the am, or this month I stay with Uncle Ben who's 2 hours away, IDEK) and then they would just figure something out for that one month.

They might "chance" it
(bad plan if the program knows you're out of range and need to do something to be "in range", even if nothing happens, just that you're "chancing it" means you could run afoul, they don't like when residents make plans they know will fail the program if one is called on to do their not common duty), but most such residents would make it known they had rented a place or were staying with someone (another resident or relative?) close enough by to be reasonable, so if they were late it didn't look like it was by poor design.

Because the 3rd option, that people do use but can't openly acknowledge to the program, is living out of the call room for a month. Maybe there's programs this is OK, but I can guarantee you as far as higher up hospital admin there's some legal reasons to frown on employees making the hospital their home for weeks uninterrupted at a time. If you did this at places I was at, you'd have to keep it on the DL and pretend you'd gotten a place closer.

 

[WeeBay]

It's not always bad, sure. But is it really the best way to spend ~1/2 your 'free' waking hours per day?

yes

 

[RookTookIt]

Thanks all for your input. I was surprised to get such a large majority in one camp, but the people have spoken.

Most people were right in assuming home call though either option would be well within the time requirements for getting to the hospital. As for the more vs less desirable locations, closer to the hospital has slightly more crime (not outrageous though) but I mostly consider it less desirable because of a lack of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.

 

[rokshana]

Thanks all for your input. I was surprised to get such a large majority in one camp, but the people have spoken.

Most people were right in assuming home call though either option would be well within the time requirements for getting to the hospital. As for the more vs less desirable locations, closer to the hospital has slightly more crime (not outrageous though) but I mostly consider it less desirable because of a lack of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.

psffft...you're not going to have any time for that!
but really, you can always drive to those ...you will do those things on occasion, particularly your intern year...you have to drive to and from work everyday...though there is the ability to decompress during the drive.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Thanks all for your input. I was surprised to get such a large majority in one camp, but the people have spoken.

Most people were right in assuming home call though either option would be well within the time requirements for getting to the hospital. As for the more vs less desirable locations, closer to the hospital has slightly more crime (not outrageous though) but I mostly consider it less desirable because of a lack of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.

For me, the real issue with home call is not how long it takes you to get there but how many times you'll have to do the drive (per night). If you live 10 minutes away, its not a big deal to back home and come back in if you have to. You live 40 minutes away, its pretty painful.

As far as socializing, @rokshana is correct in that it tends to be planned things during residency, so you can drive to them. You might consider living closer to the hospital because it also makes it easier to socialize with your co-residents, important part of bonding. If you're 40 minutes away, that makes it harder especially if theres's a spouse at home. What will your spouse be doing? Will they have a job, where do they want to live?

 

[patriot6]

I'm torn about where to live for residency and wondering how it worked out for anybody who was in a similar predicament.

- option A -- close to hospital, 15-20 minute commute each way, less desirable housing
- option B -- 30-50 minute commute each way (more susceptible to changes in traffic), more desirable housing

My instinct is to live further from the hospital where I am happier with the housing options and overall community, but I don't want to be kicking myself a few months down the line when I'm spending more time commuting and don't even have enough time to enjoy my cooler community anyway.

Any thoughts?

Shorter commute wins.

I have a 3min commute to work, with traffic.

 

[Aonyx]

I'd do up to 30 minutes IF its a commute without regular traffic when I'm commuting, OR its on a train and I can chill while doing it.

 

[TraumaLlamaMD]

I'm a few minutes' walk from one of our main sites - makes all the difference in the world compared to our other site which requires a fairly lengthy drive.

 

[RookTookIt]

For me, the real issue with home call is not how long it takes you to get there but how many times you'll have to do the drive (per night). If you live 10 minutes away, its not a big deal to back home and come back in if you have to. You live 40 minutes away, its pretty painful.

As far as socializing, @rokshana is correct in that it tends to be planned things during residency, so you can drive to them. You might consider living closer to the hospital because it also makes it easier to socialize with your co-residents, important part of bonding. If you're 40 minutes away, that makes it harder especially if theres's a spouse at home. What will your spouse be doing? Will they have a job, where do they want to live?

It's a good point about the back and forth during home call.

Spouse works in a different hospital, though he has a job with normal 9-5 hours. His commute would be ~20 minutes by train if we live in the neighborhood further from my hospital and ~60 minutes by train if we live closer to my hospital. Like me, he prefers to live in the further neighborhood, but also understands that with residency comes some compromise.