MGH Call Schedule?

[freeheeler]

Hello all,
I was wondering if any MGH residents who might follow this board or applicants who interviewed at MGH could comment on the call schedule. It's one thing that I wasn't quite clear on. Also, can anyone attest to the average number of weekly hours worked as an anesthesia resident there? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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[Tenesma]

1) Call schedule: unless you are in the SICU or Cardiac (call is q3 with for the most part 2 guaranteed weekends off), your call everywhere else will be q5-6 to q10. When you are on call you start taking over cases and doing emergent cases at 5pm and work until 7am the next day. If nothing is going on, you sleep all night, if things are crazy you may only get 3-5 hours of sleep... then at 7am you are sent home and your pre-ops for the next day are seen by somebody else... the cool thing about being on call is that it is a nice collegial atmosphere and you get to do cases that you don't usually get during the day (lung transplants, etc...)

2) On average you are in the hospital 65 hours a week, of which there is some down-time while on call. You are also guaranteed
2 full weekends off a month. And some months are easier/tougher than others... for example, your month at the Shrine (pedi burn/reconstructive hospital across the street) can be pretty cush if you pump out your cases quickly - some days i was going home before lunch time.... or on the other hand, the SICU can be brutal and you are left totally exhausted all the time (but what an amazing learning experience!)


feel free to ask any other questions

 

[freeheeler]

Thanks Tenesma, for the information. If I may, how many weekends do you typically have off during the month when not on Cardiac or ICU? And another question: do many of the residents at MGH have families? Thanks again.

 

[Tenesma]

1) traditionally on Cardiac and other rotations we have 2 weekends off guaranteed (meaning no call on friday, nothing saturday or sunday) - the way this works out is that you will be on call one saturday per month and one friday/sunday combo per month (i know that sounds like q2 but sundays are very relaxed and easy).

2) i would say 2/3 of residents are in serious relationships/married and 1/3-1/2 of those have started families...

but if you have a family or a significant other, a move to Boston has a lot of issues: job opportunities? where will you live (it can get expensive)? cost of living for a family, etc.... a CA-1 salary this year is about $46,000, so by the time you become a CA-1 you would be making about $52,000...