how much do YOU work?

[FutureDoc??]

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How about it, residents?
How many hours per week do you usually work?

What specialty are you in?

What year resident are you?

 

[toxic-megacolon]

How about it, residents?
How many hours per week do you usually work?

What specialty are you in?

What year resident are you?

Transitional Year


Most Rotations (7 Months): 10-30 hours/week
Medicine (2 months): 60 hours/week
Surgery (2 months): 50-75 hours/week
Pediatrics (1 month): 75 hours/week

 

[Mman]

Intern

Call months (8): probably about 65-75 hrs/week on average
Electives (4): probably about 55 hrs/week on average


All depends on the rotation.

 

[DOtobe]

FP - I've been averaging 50-60 hours so far.

Except my surgery month, where I had 80-100 hours.

 

[southerndoc]

EM - Average 55 hours/week while on-service (plus 5 hours of conference)

Off-service rotations vary a lot... Tox was 30 hours/week, ICU months are right at (but below) the 80 hour rules.

 

[Blade28]

Surgery (2 months): 50-75 hours/week

Whoa, where is this? Those are amazing hours.

 

[hemoglobin]

Intern
Average of 60-70h/week for inpatient months (hardly ever go above 70...)

Hb

 

[toxic-megacolon]

Whoa, where is this? Those are amazing hours.

As a transitional year, I did not have to take call like the prelims and categoricals did on my cardiac surgery rotation. Transitional year at this institution is a VACATION. 😛

 

[Danger Man]

Most Rotations (7 Months): 10-30 hours/week

Dude, did you do those seven months at a four bed hospital?
What is up with that?? You are going to be the reason that the RRC begins to have MINIMUM work hours!

 

[toxic-megacolon]

You are going to be the reason that the RRC begins to have MINIMUM work hours!

Its not my fault!!!

If anyone is really interested, I can post the breakdown of the individual rotations. Come to think of it, I'm probably below 10 hours/week on Anesthesia and Radiology.

Why do you think that Transitional Years are so competitive to get??? Yes there are exceptions, Harbor-UCLA, Hennepin, etc.

 

[fourthyear]

General surgery, 3rd year. Since my intern year - average right on about 80 hours/week every single month. On lighter rotations we may get a few 60-70 hour weeks, but they're often balanced out by an 80+ week the next week. Always "call months" - no such thing as a rotation without any call in surgery as far as I know of.

Sounds kinda fun to do that transitional year...but do you ever worry you're not learning anything and possibly even forgetting what you learned in med school?? I sometimes think we work too much, but we sure are pretty well-trained doctors partly due to all the things we see by being in the hospital so much.

 

[Diane L. Evans]

Night calls OB/GYN 72-80 hrs/wk
Gyn Onc/MFM- 68-72 hrs/wk
Gyn 40-55 hrs/wk
OB Teams 60 hrs/wk
Elec- 40 hrs/wk
REI 50hrs/wk
Off service rotations IM, ER, FP- 50 hrs/wk

Granted we have a night float.

Some institutions without night floats do not have these hours because they are on call q 3-4 days and hence have 80+ hr weeks often which genrally average out over 4 weeks

The biggest problem most residency programs are facing is the 1 day off in 7 rule. For programs with night floats call is Sat all day or Fr/Sun (fri usual day work then on call 6pm to 8am sat and sun 8am to 6 pm). BUT WHEN YOU WORK F/SUN saturday IS NOT AN OFF DAY AND WHEN YOU WORK SAT sunday IS NOT AN OFF DAY. Because you need to wake up (if you're lucky enough to sleep) at home...

 

[Blade28]

As a transitional year, I did not have to take call like the prelims and categoricals did on my cardiac surgery rotation. Transitional year at this institution is a VACATION. 😛

Transitional year? Thought you were in ER, switching to G Surg next year? 😕

 

[yaah]

Pathology - AP months average 60-70 hours/week not including call nights (twice per month)

CP months average 45-55 hours/week not including call.

 

[c diddy]

Transitional year

Medicine/ICU (5 months): 60-70hrs/wk
ER (1), Outpt (1): ~40/wk
Electives (5): 5-30/wk (sometimes don't even have to show up)

Yes I must say I am happy to have a life during my internship.

 

[CameronFrye]

Yeah, I've definitely heard of some transitional programs where the residents were barely even in town during some of their elective months (worked <8 hours for the entire month).

 

[toxic-megacolon]

Transitional year? Thought you were in ER, switching to G Surg next year? 😕

Many ER programas are PGY2-4. Intern year is done elsewhere. The suckers do prelim medicine or prelim surgery. 😎

True, I'm probably not learning as much as someone in a prelim year, but my training is broad, plus I'm switching and have to do a whole intern year again, so I'm pacing myself.

 

[AJM]

The biggest problem most residency programs are facing is the 1 day off in 7 rule. For programs with night floats call is Sat all day or Fr/Sun (fri usual day work then on call 6pm to 8am sat and sun 8am to 6 pm). BUT WHEN YOU WORK F/SUN saturday IS NOT AN OFF DAY AND WHEN YOU WORK SAT sunday IS NOT AN OFF DAY. Because you need to wake up (if you're lucky enough to sleep) at home...

Actually the ACGME rule is just a 24 hour period off -- if you have off from 8am sat to 8am sun, that counts as your day, even though you're not waking up at home.... 😎

 

[AJM]

it's sad to see that my hours are longer than most of the interns who have posted on this thread so far....

Pulm fellow: usually work 70-90 hours per week most rotations. My lightest rotation was 60 hours per week. Heaviest so far was 100hrs/week. That doesn't count home call, which is every night Mon-Thursday as well as 1-2 weekends per month (weekends for us being fri night til mon morning). A few months I only have to do q2 home call -- that's always a treat. 😉

Still better than being an intern, though. 😛

 

[John DO]

Family Medicine Intern

Usually work about 70-75 hours per week, but have worked as long as 120 hours one week and as little as 45 hours another. My biggest problem is the 10-hour respite rule. I break it all the time! The 24+6 rule is also hard because my institution actually uses it as a 30-hr rule, making it a hard press to get out quick when the hour mark hits.

 

[pedidoc]

Peds residency in midwest:

No call free months except mole and even that can have exceptions
Wards (4 months): 70-80 hours, call q 3-4
NICU (2 months): 80 hours every week, call varies q2-q6
Electives (2 months): 50-60 hours, 4-5calls/month
Anesthesia (1 month): ridiculous hours, but still 4 calls a month and you have to attend 50% of conferences/morning report
Development: 40 hours of actual rotation, but still I have six calls of cross covering wards next month
Outpatient peds: Really hard for the type of rotation you would expect-80 hours/week because you round on hospital patients, nursery, and then clinic until six. Call q 4-5 during this month.

 

[Skrubz]

CA-1 (anesthesia)

Having only general OR stuff, my hours typically range between 50 and 70 hours a week, depending on which hospital I'm at. At the big house, it's 60-70 hours a week, easy. At the VA, it's closer to 50. At the county, it's closer to 55-60 (we come in at noon on-call and leave at 7a).

 

[Wahoos]

Orthopedics Surgery Resident
PGY-1 / General Surgery Intern 😡
Academic Program in Northeast U.S.

My hours per week range from 80-100+.
We take in house call q3-4 depending on the month.
Sometimes, Call can be q2 if someone is out with vacation or sick.

My Vascular Surgery month was 100 hours x 4 weeks
By far the easiest month was Plastics Surgery when I averaged 75-85 hours per week.
Trauma month was 90 x 4 weeeks
Neurosurgery was 85-90 x 4 weeks
SICU was 85 x 4 weeks
Ortho months were good 80-90 or so x 4 weeks

I think the hours per week varies alot between the different programs, and also between the different levels of residents. (PGY-1 vs Chiefs)
Also the Call nights can vary very much between the different programs as well. You can take call and not get a single phone call after 10pm vs getting 20 consults overnight/called by the floor nurses every 15 minutes.

Overall, Surgery residents tend to be in the hospital more than medicine/peds/FP residents.

 

[Blade28]

OK, I'll bite, since we're starting to see people with 80+ hour workweeks.

G Surg intern at a big university program.
I tend to average 85-95 hr/wk, a little less (around 70) on off-service rotations where I don't take call, a little more (95-105) on busy Q3 services.

 

[AngryTesticle]

Pathology (AP only)

Autopsy rotation - 50-60 hrs/week depending on how many Dana Farber cancer patients decide to die that week.
Surgical pathology - 65-75 hrs/week
Elective weeks - 40 hrs/week
Gyn surgical pathology - 70-90 hrs/week
Gyn biopsy pathology - 60-70 hrs/week
Gyn placental pathology - 40-50 hrs/week

 

[backontop]

Orthopedics Surgery Resident
PGY-1 / General Surgery Intern 😡
Academic Program in Northeast U.S.

My hours per week range from 80-100+.
We take in house call q3-4 depending on the month.
Sometimes, Call can be q2 if someone is out with vacation or sick.

My Vascular Surgery month was 100 hours x 4 weeks
By far the easiest month was Plastics Surgery when I averaged 75-85 hours per week.
Trauma month was 90 x 4 weeeks
Neurosurgery was 85-90 x 4 weeks
SICU was 85 x 4 weeks
Ortho months were good 80-90 or so x 4 weeks

I think the hours per week varies alot between the different programs, and also between the different levels of residents. (PGY-1 vs Chiefs)
Also the Call nights can vary very much between the different programs as well. You can take call and not get a single phone call after 10pm vs getting 20 consults overnight/called by the floor nurses every 15 minutes.

Overall, Surgery residents tend to be in the hospital more than medicine/peds/FP residents.

gosh, aren't these hours dangerous to patients??

ummm... i work less than everyone here, but am doing nothing prestegious like all the previous posters. Got my MD and went into the medical information business. I think it just boils down to the fact that I am not a strong enough person to work that much. I thought I was but i'm not. I learned in med school that my mental health declines severely with high hours. I am pretty happy now though. It's like a normal job.

best wishes to all posters.

 

[google_singh]

What is exactly ur job? what did u do after MD?

 

[Diane L. Evans]

Actually the ACGME rule is just a 24 hour period off -- if you have off from 8am sat to 8am sun, that counts as your day, even though you're not waking up at home.... 😎

Sorry to disagree but you must wake up at home. ACGME rules.

 

[avgjoe]

All right Blade and Wahoos .. as a future surg resident (hopefully 🙂) I"ve gotta ask.
Do you guys report your hours correctly? As in, 100+ during vascular, etc? What is the PDs' response? Why is it that you have to work that much - what else should they be doing to help you guys keep to the mandated 80?
Do you guys not mind the hours or what is it that really keeps you continuing to do that when you know it's illegal?
At this point I just don't understand it.. maybe I will next year?

 

[toxic-megacolon]

All right Blade and Wahoos .. as a future surg resident (hopefully 🙂) I"ve gotta ask.
Do you guys report your hours correctly? As in, 100+ during vascular, etc? What is the PDs' response? Why is it that you have to work that much - what else should they be doing to help you guys keep to the mandated 80?
Do you guys not mind the hours or what is it that really keeps you continuing to do that when you know it's illegal?
At this point I just don't understand it.. maybe I will next year?

I think that most people that post those kind of hours work them willingly, but don't record them all. They are convinced that either a) they are "taking one for the team" by working those hours, b) won't become a good surgeon unless they violate ACGME guidlines, or c) both of the above.

 

[TheThroat]

Here are mine

Intern year (2001-02): depending on rotation, but anywhere from 70 to 100+ hours a week. On q3 in-house for 3 month-long rotations. Call varied in other months.

R2 in Oto (02-03): about 75-90 hours a week. Q7 in house call.

R3 in oto (03-04), RRC guidelines in force: about 60-80 hours a week. Q7 in house call.

R4 in oto (04-05): about 60-70 hours a week. Q7 call from home.

R5 in oto (present): about 60-70 hours a week. Q7 call from home.

 

[WilcoWorld]

EM-1

During EM months I work (hard) for about 50 hours a week plus attend conferences.

Off service months are pretty much all q4, but vary between 60 & 80 hours per week, depending on the service.

At first I wondered how I could get adequate training in 3 years while working fewer than 70 hours a week, while others had to work 80 hours/week for 5 years. But after a couple off-service months I realized that the pace tends to be much slower on the floors than the pace in the ED. So, when I considered how much time is spent rounding, re-rounding, eating lunch, etc, I concluded that during a single shift in the ED I did about as much work as I did in a whole week on Obstetrics. For, during an ED shift I'm going non-stop for 10 hours straight.

I found that on Surgery I would have gone over 80 if I had acted as the surgical interns did. They seemed to be afraid of looking like they were not hard working if they requested their required days off, so they would go for two weeks without any days off & just suck it up. In my EM program, we judge your work ethic by how hard you work while at work. Sure, everyone is expected to be willing to help out under certain circumstances (come in if someone gets sick, etc) but outside of those specific situations, time off is TIME OFF.

 

[CANES2006]

So, when I considered how much time is spent rounding, re-rounding, eating lunch, etc, I concluded that during a single shift in the ED I did about as much work as I did in a whole week on Obstetrics. For, during an ED shift I'm going non-stop for 10 hours straight.

Really?! I'm doing ER right now (yeah, I know I'm a 4th yr med student 🙄 ) and everyone seems to be sitting down and gossiping most of the time. The only time that they really seem busy is during a code, which hardly ever happens in our ER, since we have a Trauma Level 1 center where most codes go to. I'm usually in the corner studying WITH the interns/residents beside me. 😀 It was definitely non-stop on the Labor floor. I was lucky if I got to sit down for 5 minutes at a time. Guess every place is different. 🙂

 

[Astrocyte]

110-90 MICU and GI service

Worst rotations so far. What's worse than going over the weekly limit is exceeding the shift limit. I often worked 32hr straight, with no sleep whatsoever, during the MICU month. It's just wrong and unnecessary to put people through this. I don't know how the surgeons do it. It made me want to get out of clinical work all together.

 

[WilcoWorld]

Really?! I'm doing ER right now (yeah, I know I'm a 4th yr med student 🙄 ) and everyone seems to be sitting down and gossiping most of the time. The only time that they really seem busy is during a code, which hardly ever happens in our ER, since we have a Trauma Level 1 center where most codes go to. I'm usually in the corner studying WITH the interns/residents beside me. 😀 It was definitely non-stop on the Labor floor. I was lucky if I got to sit down for 5 minutes at a time. Guess every place is different. 🙂

My observation is absolutely site-dependant. I did an EM rotation as a 4th year where the residents were fighting for patients, and at a place like that there was plenty of time to gossip. In the ED I work in now, having only 20 patients in the department at any time is considered an especially slow night. Also, the OB service here has a lot of back-up. One resident handles triage, another one or two handle low-risk L&D, yet another handles high risk L&D. So the work is pretty well dissipated.

 

[DrQuinn]

A poster before said most EM programs are PGY2-4, which is wholly incorrect. The vast majority of programs are PGY 1-3.

I am current PGY-3, Chief Resident. In my EM months, I work ~170 hours a month (so that's 40-45 hours a week).

Q

 

[G'ville Nole]

PGY-1 Prelim med- 65 hrs/week inpatient wards, q4h call.
80 hrs/week ICU

PGY-2 in radiation oncology, 50-55 hrs/week, about 10 weeks per year of home call. Hours stay the same as you progress, but the weeks of call decrease.

 

[SLUser11]

A poster before said most EM programs are PGY2-4, which is wholly incorrect. The vast majority of programs are PGY 1-3.

I am current PGY-3, Chief Resident. In my EM months, I work ~170 hours a month (so that's 40-45 hours a week).

Q

I think alot of DOs do an intern year and then 3 for ER....this coming from my ONE experience with a DO ER resident....so take "alot" to really mean "this one guy I know."

 

[DrQuinn]

I think alot of DOs do an intern year and then 3 for ER....this coming from my ONE experience with a DO ER resident....so take "alot" to really mean "this one guy I know."

No biggie. I'm a DO at an MD institution. True that ALL DO EM residencies (technically, OGME versus PGY) are 4 years... but MD programs are generally 3.

Q

 

[roja]

Really?! I'm doing ER right now (yeah, I know I'm a 4th yr med student 🙄 ) and everyone seems to be sitting down and gossiping most of the time. The only time that they really seem busy is during a code, which hardly ever happens in our ER, since we have a Trauma Level 1 center where most codes go to. I'm usually in the corner studying WITH the interns/residents beside me. 😀 It was definitely non-stop on the Labor floor. I was lucky if I got to sit down for 5 minutes at a time. Guess every place is different. 🙂

Had to think about it as we are on mostly 8s as PGY3's and we like getting scedule requests. We work 180h/month which comes out to about 45 hours a week plus a 5 hour conference. I work clinically about 7 hours less a week as protected time but end up spending about 10-15 hours doing research, running our research associate program etc. But its flexible and mostly from home. No call.

Our PGY2's work 17 12 hour shifts in a 28 day period. which is about 50h/week with 5 hours of conference.

Interns work 18 12h shifts/28 days.

Our ED's see a combined 160K/year. Our level one sees about 100K. The other night, in 7 hours I saw 26 patients myself and supervised by interns 10-12. Certainly no time to sit with that. Thankfully we do have 'slow' nights at our 60k facility... where I will average about 15 or so patients in an 8 hour shift.

Our GYN residents work like dogs. They frequently end up working 90h/week by the time they go to thier conference etc. Somehow they are still some of the loveliest people in our hospital.

 

[8744]

EM-1


I found that on Surgery I would have gone over 80 if I had acted as the surgical interns did. They seemed to be afraid of looking like they were not hard working if they requested their required days off, so they would go for two weeks without any days off & just suck it up.

I noticed the same thing on my last surgery rotation. The surgery interns would just not go home. Even when I was on call I could not get the maternity fornicators to call it a night. Once I told one of the interns that if he meant to stay the whole night there was no reason for me to stay on call. He was about to agree with me and take my call but told I him I was just ****ing with his head and he really needed to go home.

Duke is pretty old school and the interns live in constant fear of not seeming gung ho.

I'm not exactly a clock-watcher but if everything was done and I was not on call I was out the door and on the way to the crib at 6:01 PM. This has hurt me in my medical career but I do have a life outside of the hospital.

 

[8744]

Just an observation.

It is true that in the bad old says residents spent a lot more time in the hospital than we do now. This was also a time when, for example, the standard hospital stay for an MI was three weeks. Today it is probably three days.

What this means is that the services probably had fewer admits and the services was more stable. It is a lot easier to round on and manage a census which has not changed appreciably in a week.

I have been told by some of the old-timers that even though they did work huge amounts of hours, they invariably got eight hours of sleep a night on call because most services were just not that busy.

By contrast, in a year as an intern I almost never get any sleep when I am on call and I'm sure it is the same for most of you.

The problem with excessive hours and sleep deprivation didn't realyy start until the early eighties (I am told) when the paradigm of medicine changed drastically. So while I take my hat off to those guys from that period, I think we need to take the crawling though broken glass for a packet of hot gravel stories with a grain of salt.

 

[Blade28]

Well, don't forget having Q4/Q5 call instead of Q2/Q3 means you're going to have less residents in-house every night - so you're invariably covering more patients on cross-cover. That can make for very painful call nights.

I once covered 2 G Surg and one trauma service - around 90 patients, including 10 in the unit. God that was a brutal night.

 

[fourthyearmed]

Peds intern - probably between 65 - 80 hours a week depending on the rotation