Mmm... Short call.. that would be nice. Our surgery service doen't have any short call and I've been Q3 this last week. Yea, g-surgery is pretty bad. I don't think I've been under 80 hours/wk once this month. (So ha!) And my longest shift so far is 34 hours w/o any sleep. The people work you hard. I got stuck with a pretty bad resident and intern who don't necessarily treat us all that well. That being said all of the attendings are great at my school. They are happy to be there, never yell at students and are always supportive and eager to teach us. The yelling is mostly directed towards residents and interns whenever they screw up, I don't think I've yet been yelled at yet, although I've gotten hit with alot of sarcasm.
Surgery is a tough field and I think most schools try to give us an accurate representation of what its like. Most attendings are still taking call at least Q5, and one of my R3 residents was still doing work well into the evening post call one day. So its not like we're doing any more work than what they are doing, in fact we're doing alot less. But I've never met a bunch of people who were willing to put up with so much **** to do what they love. They love being in the OR. More power to them.
now with that defense of surgery, I will now gladly pronounce that after this rotation is over, I will never get anywhere near an OR for the rest of my life unless I'm the patient under anesthesia. Good bye surgery! YEA!!!