Richmond has a very low cost of living. There are all sorts of options that are affordable, depending on what sort of set up you need. Apartments really close to the hospital in the Fan or the Bottom are popular with single residents and the rent is reasonable. We had a small bungalow in a historic neighborhood (about 3 miles from MCV) for what seemed like a steal ( we moved there from FLA) and made a killing when we sold it at the end of residency. People with kids usually live a little further out in the West End, South of the James River, and Mechanicsville. Traffic is usually only an issue if you live further out in the suburbs, and only then at peak rush hour time. To me the traffic in Richmond is a non-issue, but like I said we moved there from a much more densely populated area. The city has some real flavor- good resturaunts, neat shopping areas. There is a decent nightlife and music scene, IMO. On the flip side, there are lots of parts of town that you should never even consider driving through. Some of these are very near the hospital, and seeing homeless people lining the sidewalks of Broad Street is sort of a downer. I was not crazy about Richmond when we firstmoved there, but it grew on me. If my husband had not matched for fellowship, we had planned to stay in the area.
The hours on OB largely depended on the service. There was lots of variability month to month. You could count on Onc and GYN being close to the 80 a week, but months like REI or clinic could have you home really early. They have night float, which is great. I pretty much look back fondly on those hours, because fellowship hours are so much worse. I did not realize how good he had it back then! There was definitely time for life outside the hospital- lots of residents persue outside interests or have kids or whatever. We all got along really well, and had lots of parties and such. There is a really good social atmosphere (or at least there was 2 years ago). There also is a pretty good number of guys in the program - at least 1 every year, sometimes 2. It seemed like there was never any of the catty stuff in the program I hear so much about in OB, and I think having a better mix was part of the reason.
Feel free to PM me if you need any more info 🙂
