how much do residents make?

[Winged Scapula]

Is there anyway to find this out beforehand?

You can ask, but it is poor form to do so on the interview (looks like all you care about is work hours and money). Tis better to ask someone peripherally involved in the residency or wait until contracts come out and see what it says.

Do residents ever moonlight even if the program does not allow it?

Yes, and I, I mean, they get in trouble! I didn't realize that moonlighting counted toward the 80 hr workweek when it first came on board, so as Chief at the VA, working 60-70 hrs, I picked up a few shifts at a local community hospital. Someone blabbed to the PD and I got a "talking to". I was well liked, otherwise I might have been more seriously punished (as others were). Do not recommend this.

All of the physicians that I speak to regularly recommend moonlighting. One had three kids by the time he was out of medical school and said his family practice residency wasn't very strenuous and he got to moonlight so he was making good money.

It highly depends on your program. Its a great thing but remember more and more residencies are not allowing it and if you sign a contract which states you cannot moonlight and you get caught, your program can have reason to fire you.

Yeah, I have. I used to be a full-time teacher and EMT taking shifts on weekdays. I really don't think it would be that bad.

While both of those are very difficult and respected jobs, they do not have the stress of malpractice associated with it and there is a fair bit more free time allowed. You may also find that one day, someday, you actually won't be single and will want to go home. But fair enough, many of the pre-meds on this board have never worked a real job in their life and don't understand what its like to work 40 hrs per week, let alone 80 or 120.

Besides, if you could do it, how hard could it possibly be?

I'm not sure how to take that. If you mean it as a joke, an emoticon displaying that would be nice.

If you were attempting to be rude (and BTW, you succeeded), you may ask yourself and your colleages why more attendings, especially surgical ones, don't post in this forum. THIS is an example of it.

How're going to repay your huge study/tuition loan with such a low starting salary? Goodness.

Hardly anyone pays back their students loans during residency. You simply cannot at any meaningful rate so they are put on deferment.

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[ensuii]

 

[235009]

You lack the understanding of how professions and industries are regulated. A plumber can charge $1,000 an hour if they want to. A hair cutting salon can charge $500 for a buzz cut if they wanted to. It is up to the consumer to pay the prices that those people set. A pizza place can charge as much as they want (with the price coming from the ones that control it in the company). Thus, if Pizza Hut charges $100 for a small sausage pizza, they can pay the delivery guy/gal $50 an hour if they wanted to.

The field of medicine is regulated and and you can't set your own cost of services if you take patients that are from the regulated sources.

You will be happier as a medical student/resident and attending if you educate yourself about how the world actually works. Look past what people are getting paid in a position and gain an understanding of WHY they get paid what they get paid.

you misunderstood my post...i wasn't disputing the fact that a plumber can't make alot of money....i was saying that it is bullsh*t that you are trying to act like some sort of martyr...residency pays like crap because it is an apprenticeship and you put up with it because you are still learning the trade and hope to make alot more money later when you are an expert in the field.

not sure where your whole bit about medicine being regulated is coming from but it's quite incorrect. it's true that what you can charge is "regulated" by what insurance companies (or the government, the largest insurer) is willing to pay you for your service. However you are free to go ahead and charge $10,000 per office visit and only take cash as long as someone is willing to pay for your services. There is no law against this. You can also go and be some celebrity's personal doctor and make tons of money or you can become some TV personality like sanjay gupta or dr. phil and make lots of money. it's still a business just like your website...it just so happens that the vast majority choose to play within the confines of the rules set by insurance companies because there is little to no market for their services unless they do so.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Yeah, I have. I used to be a full-time teacher and EMT taking shifts on weekdays. I really don't think it would be that bad. Besides, if you could do it, how hard could it possibly be?

Sorry, but that's total bull. I am an EMT, and I know how it works.

What kind of teacher were you, a college professor? Pretty much everyone else in the profession works less than 40 hrs... That's why teaching attracts some of the most incompetent, talentless individuals of any profession, and why our public education system is one of the worst in the developed world.

Anyway, lets say you were the only teacher in America who worked 50 hours a week. A 120 hr week would require a 70 hour weekend.

Ok, so lets work it from the other direction. There are zero EMT companies that regularly schedule EMT's to work 48 hour shifts. It happens, on occasion, but usually only if someone working a 24 doesn't show up for the day. I'd bet you worked two 12 hr shifts over the weekend, max, and picked up 30 or so hours as a teacher during the week. Bottom line -- you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[3pin3phrine]

Sorry, but that's total bull. I am an EMT, and I know how it works.

What kind of teacher were you, a college professor? Pretty much everyone else in the profession works less than 40 hrs... That's why teaching attracts some of the most incompetent, talentless individuals of any profession, and why our public education system is one of the worst in the developed world.

Anyway, lets say you were the only teacher in America who worked 50 hours a week. A 120 hr week would require a 70 hour weekend.

Ok, so lets work it from the other direction. There are zero EMT companies that regularly schedule EMT's to work 48 hour shifts. It happens, on occasion, but usually only if someone working a 24 doesn't show up for the day. I'd bet you worked two 12 hr shifts over the weekend, max, and picked up 30 or so hours as a teacher during the week. Bottom line -- you don't know what you're talking about.

Thank you! I don't think a lot of pre-meds, including myself, can fathom what residents go through. I think we are fortunate to have people like Winged Scapula sharing his opinions. You don't know until you yourself go through it. I just hope people like Ensuii doesn't prevent other residents and attendings to share their views to future, prospective doctors.

 

[ensuii]

Sorry, but that's total bull. I am an EMT, and I know how it works.

What kind of teacher were you, a college professor? Pretty much everyone else in the profession works less than 40 hrs... That's why teaching attracts some of the most incompetent, talentless individuals of any profession, and why our public education system is one of the worst in the developed world.

Anyway, lets say you were the only teacher in America who worked 50 hours a week. A 120 hr week would require a 70 hour weekend.

Ok, so lets work it from the other direction. There are zero EMT companies that regularly schedule EMT's to work 48 hour shifts. It happens, on occasion, but usually only if someone working a 24 doesn't show up for the day. I'd bet you worked two 12 hr shifts over the weekend, max, and picked up 30 or so hours as a teacher during the week. Bottom line -- you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm sure you don't see the irony so I'll point it out to you: you claim I don't have the requisite experience to speak towards quality of life in residency yet you make blanket statements about the quality of life in a profession you have practically no knowledge of. Teacher's aren't the source of the nation's educational woes; if you want to hear first hand opinions, PM me and I can give you my take on it or give you a good reading list. For the record, I worked two years teaching high school science in Compton while taking shifts Fri-Sat-Sun.

All I was trying to say is that to me, residency is a right of passage. You work hard, get treated like crap and get paid even worse. However, somehow, every physician that practices has made it through. Therefore, I can make it through and that's all there is too it. If you don't want or value my perspective, that's your prerogative. If you're offended or put off by my words, I'm really not sorry. I speak my mind and respond in the manner I am spoken to. @:>)

 

[Octagonecology]

Thank you! I don't think a lot of pre-meds, including myself, can fathom what residents go through. I think we are fortunate to have people like Winged Scapula sharing his opinions. You don't know until you yourself go through it. I just hope people like Ensuii doesn't prevent other residents and attendings to share their views to future, prospective doctors.

There is a terrible accident in which a father is killed and his son is brought into the operating room....the surgeon exlaims "I cannot operate on this boy...he is my son."

Q: How is this possible?
A: The surgeon is the boy's mother....

Oh and WingedScapula is actually a woman ****gasp***