Life during Residency

Started by KTW2004
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KTW2004

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What is life like during residency, especially for internal medicine? Is it really as bad as everyone says? With the 80 hour cap on hours, how are the hours/days typically split up? I'd appreciate any info!
 
KTW2004 said:
What is life like during residency, especially for internal medicine? Is it really as bad as everyone says? With the 80 hour cap on hours, how are the hours/days typically split up? I'd appreciate any info!
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On Scutwork.com, there are reviews of residency programs with many people writing what a typical day is like. It will be okay, everybody gets through it. I read a study saying that actual hours have dropped to an average of 64 hours per week but it seems a little higher than that on scutwork.com. They also measure a depression index, micronapping while driving, overall satisfaction etc. Just about all measurable factors have improved since the limits went into effect.
 
doctorsquared said:
On Scutwork.com, there are reviews of residency programs with many people writing what a typical day is like. It will be okay, everybody gets through it. I read a study saying that actual hours have dropped to an average of 64 hours per week but it seems a little higher than that on scutwork.com. They also measure a depression index, micronapping while driving, overall satisfaction etc. Just about all measurable factors have improved since the limits went into effect.
Click to expand...
The average may have dropped to 64 hours per week, but keep in mind that's averaging in emergency medicine (50 hours), pathology (50 hours), dermatology (40 hours), and radiology (50 hours). That leaves medicine, surgery, neurosurgery, etc. with a lot of hours.
 
KTW2004 said:
What is life like during residency, especially for internal medicine? Is it really as bad as everyone says? With the 80 hour cap on hours, how are the hours/days typically split up? I'd appreciate any info!
Click to expand...

as a prelim medicine intern last year, my ward months were like this:
day 1: on call, in-house by 07:30
day 2: post call, out of hospital by 13:30 (your typical 30 hours, or thereabouts)
day 3: short call, usually in-house by 06:00 or 06:30 to pre-round in the aftermath of call and put out post-call fires, then pick up short call patients at 07:30 (probably a 10-12 hour day)
day 4: pre-call, usually in-house by 07:00, usually out by 17:00.
day 5: repeat

add in the day off and you get about 70 hours a week. our ICU months were roughly the same, though there was no short call, so we usually rolled in between 06:30 and 07:00 on non-call days depending on patient load (ICU conference at 08:30 followed by rounds). of course, i preferred to go in early on short call days because inevitably someone i picked up on call would have major issues overnight while i was in a post-call coma.
 
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