How many hours a week did you work during residency

[jesstilla]

Hello,

I'm trying to decide if medicine is for me. I'm interested in the work that doctors do - but I'm a little worried about the hours considering that I want to have a family (and I'd rather not wait until I'm 36 to start that.)

I'd like to get an unscientific sampling of the hours that you all worked during your residencies, so I can have a realistic picture of what I'd be in for.

(I'm a 26 year old woman.)

Thanks.

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[Birdeee]

You can check what various residency programs SAY is the average weekly hours on the FRIEDA website. Overnight call can be hard on family and working in clinic right on top of an overnight call means they may not see you very much.

Many folks have kids in med school of various ages and it seems to totally depend upon your ability to arrange a lot of support and how you feel about having a demanding job with little flexibility while raising children.

 

[thethom]

http://www.nhrmc.org/body.cfm?id=3446

Check that out, its a program I interviewed at where the residents seemed VERY happy, they list the average hours/week for their residents...

Dr. T.

 

[jesstilla]

You can check what various residency programs SAY is the average weekly hours on the FRIEDA website.

Thanks Birdee for this advice ... I've been checking out the FRIEDA wesbite, but I can't find that information. Could you direct me to the particular page?

Thanks!

 

[aparecida]

You'll need to look at the page for each individual program. So, for example, search FRIEDA for Family Medicine programs, in the Midwest region [or wherever you want to go]. It'll generate a list of programs. When you click the name of the program, the listing will include reported hours worked.

I think it's pretty consistent that as an FM resident, you work 80 hours a week for most of your intern year (true of virtually any intern year), but it lightens significantly the second and third years, to, perhaps, 50 to 60 hours depending on what service you're on that month. Someone correct me if I'm totally off base there.

It's very common to have children during residency in most specialties, although it would be difficult and discouraged as a surgical resident. A decent number of women do so during medical school as well, with any year other than third year being very doable.

The key is support. I'd say you need two of the three of these in order to have a baby during medical school or early residency: family in the area, a spouse with flexible hours, and/or very affordable childcare. If you wait until later in residency, one of those would likely suffice. Of course, the more support, the better; I'm just giving the minimum that I've seen people do.

 

[cali-ob]

Hello,

I'm trying to decide if medicine is for me. I'm interested in the work that doctors do - but I'm a little worried about the hours considering that I want to have a family (and I'd rather not wait until I'm 36 to start that.)

I'd like to get an unscientific sampling of the hours that you all worked during your residencies, so I can have a realistic picture of what I'd be in for.

(I'm a 26 year old woman.)

Thanks.

Since no one directly answered your question I will.
I am a female with children (notice the plural) in FM. Was previously in Ob/Gyn and worked 90+ hours/week, 80 "on paper". Slept all the time when off, never spent time with my family.
Now in FM, during my intern year, I have never worked more than 80/week and most weeks are about 65 hours with some even approaching 50-55/week. This is at a University based county hospital with sick patients where our census on the FM service typically is around 30 patients. We are busy, but I still have a decent life and soon to get better as second and third year come!

 

[jesstilla]

Great - thanks for this info. Can I ask how the 65 hours per week are divided up - is it 30 straight and then 1 day off and then 3 twelve hour days ... something like that?