life as a Pedis resident ?
Started by kawi609
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It will depend a lot on your program, the call schedule and how supportive your coresidents are. Intern year is universally difficult. In my program, I worked 6 days a week, 12hour days, often working past sign out. I was depressed and exhausted. 2nd and 3rd year though you have more 24hour calls, life got exponentially better. Is it possible to have a family? Sure... after intern year
Currently an intern here. As the above poster said, it is hard being an intern..everywhere you go. Such a steep learning curve. Work depends on the rotation- in floor months are hard, ICU months are hard. Electives are a bit easy, but you have to utilize that time for reading//catching up on journals/studying for step 3. On floors, sign out is at 6am and I usually leave around 6 pm...6 days a week. In NICU rotations, I started at 7 and ended at 5, unless I was long which was q4. If I were long on either of this rotation, I would do admissions until 8pm.
About having a life? Yes, I do have life outside hospital. My wife is supportive and caring. We dont have children yet nor we planned to anytime before 3rd year. Message me if you have further questons!
About having a life? Yes, I do have life outside hospital. My wife is supportive and caring. We dont have children yet nor we planned to anytime before 3rd year. Message me if you have further questons!
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There will be a lot of variation. I didn't fully realize how well structured my residency program was until I got to fellowship at a different institution and saw the stark contrast in resident scheduling. The biggest differences I have seen are how overnight coverage is scheduled (100% night float vs. intern night float and senior resident traditional call) and whether there are electives as an intern. There are also differences in when the day starts and ends, how didactics are scheduled, and how vacations are handled.
I would have hated ending up at a program where senior residents were doing night float, and I'm lucky because I didn't ask that question during interviews. Do your research and ask lots of questions.
Yes, you can have a family and you can have kids. It won't necessarily be easy as an intern but it will become easier as you gain seniority.
I would have hated ending up at a program where senior residents were doing night float, and I'm lucky because I didn't ask that question during interviews. Do your research and ask lots of questions.
Yes, you can have a family and you can have kids. It won't necessarily be easy as an intern but it will become easier as you gain seniority.
My program
A 'block' is 4 weeks
PGY-1:
-7 inpatient blocks, 6 13 hour shifts/week that were really 16 hours each.
-5.5 outpatient blocks, 5 days/week clinic with 10.5 hours/day from morning report until the last patient left at 16:00, and usually 2 hours of charting afterwards, with 1 day inpatient cross cover per week with 6 hours cross cover/day.
-2 weeks vacation, no holidays
PGY-2 and PGY-3:
-6 inpatient blocks, 6 13 hour shifts/week that were really 16 hours each.
-3 elective blocks of variable time commitment. Usually 6-8 hours/day with no morning report, and 1-2 days of weekend cross cover call. One elective month would be 'call free' to allow for away rotations.
-3 outpatient blocks, 10.5 hours/day from morning report until the last patient leaves at 16:00, usually with 1-2 hours of charter afterwards
-4 weeks vacation and one major holiday (96 hours off for the holiday).
At my program it was basically not possible to have a family in Intern year. At least not a family you planned to see before the end of Intern year. PGY-2 and PGY-3 were more doable with an average workload of 65 hours/week, but you would still need a spouse who understood that you would be 100% unavailable for 6/13 blocks of the year.
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Anything is "possible." Intern year (and several months during your PGY 2-3 years) will require a very understanding spouse/child, and you should ask a lot of questions during your interviews. Some programs are more family-friendly than others, so take a look at how many of the current residents have families.
Residency is 55 to 80 hours a week of work with 4 to 6 days off per month and 3 to 4 weeks of vacation time per year. This is only your working hours. The other obligations of studying, scholarly activity, and meetings is more variable but I would say 5 to 10 hours per week depending on the rotation (more is going to pop up on lighter rotation and less on heavier) and is also going to vary by your own goals. Residency is a lot more comfortable if your only goal is survive, become a competent physician, and get a community job. If you're chasing a competitive sub-specialty at a top institution, it's going to be a rougher ride.
Plenty of interns have families. Even some couples with two interns have families. Are you going to have a new baby, exercise regularly, sleep well, study enough to be a star resident, complete scholarly work, and pursue your favorite hobby? No. You have to prioritize. You'll have to pick what is important to you and the number of things you get to pick will depend somewhat on your innate ability.
Plenty of interns have families. Even some couples with two interns have families. Are you going to have a new baby, exercise regularly, sleep well, study enough to be a star resident, complete scholarly work, and pursue your favorite hobby? No. You have to prioritize. You'll have to pick what is important to you and the number of things you get to pick will depend somewhat on your innate ability.
I have to say, one thing I've noticed from residents in different programs rotating at our hospital is that your life as a resident can be heavily impacted by how many residents are in your program. For instance, I'm in a program with 35 interns. Our call schedule is MUCH more relaxed and we have more elective/easier rotation blocks mixed into our year because we have so many residents that it splits the work pretty evenly. Compare that to someone with 10 interns in their program...they have to take much more call and cross-cover floors even when they're in clinic, so they might end up working more hours in a given month.
