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This is a question for all you Path residents out there -- On average, about how many hours do you work in a typical day? Days per week?
Path residency hours
- Thread starter Mr. Plow
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I'm not even a med student yet, but I have heard that path residents (including interns) work about 40 hours a week with no weekends. I've also heard that on the surgical service, this number can be increased to 70 hours, but never more than that.
Pretty fun compared to other specialties...especially when you consider the low volume call...and the zero in-house call...and the rare event that you would have to be called into the hospital.
Pretty fun compared to other specialties...especially when you consider the low volume call...and the zero in-house call...and the rare event that you would have to be called into the hospital.
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Firebird,
while 40 or 50 hours a week may not sound like much, always remember that working that many hours that is not interesting to you will *feel* like 1000 hours. Whereas even if something else had 70 hours BUT it was of your interest, the time would go faster.
just a perspective. i have never liked the idea that people choose fields depending on lifestyle, however i guess it is quite important when it affects daily life on such a scale.
residency is only temporary.....post-residency work will last much longer.
cheers
while 40 or 50 hours a week may not sound like much, always remember that working that many hours that is not interesting to you will *feel* like 1000 hours. Whereas even if something else had 70 hours BUT it was of your interest, the time would go faster.
just a perspective. i have never liked the idea that people choose fields depending on lifestyle, however i guess it is quite important when it affects daily life on such a scale.
residency is only temporary.....post-residency work will last much longer.
cheers
Global Disrobal
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This is purely based on my experience at a couple of institutions and I trust that it will vary to a certain degree from place to place. The hours are generally shorter on CP rotations (Chemistry, BB, Micro...) as you are probably there from 8-5 (depending on the institution) and longer on Surgical Pathology. In Surg Path not only do you take time to sign out and gross specimens in but you also have to factor in slide preview time. This is time that is often not counted as overall work hours. For Surg Path 50+ hours at a moderately busy program is more like it.
Again the institution plays a big factor. I trust that residents at Brigham or MGH (Mindy soon to testify regrading this) do not work anywhere as little as 40 hours a week and probably approack 60-70.
I'm sure Great Pumpkin will throw in his nickle's worth as well which will definitely be more accurate than my info!
GD
Again the institution plays a big factor. I trust that residents at Brigham or MGH (Mindy soon to testify regrading this) do not work anywhere as little as 40 hours a week and probably approack 60-70.
I'm sure Great Pumpkin will throw in his nickle's worth as well which will definitely be more accurate than my info!
GD
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During my psf at SUNY Upstate, we had a 3 day surg path schedule which meant that I would gross in on day 1. Often we pushed 90 specimens or so per day, and grossing sometimes took me from about 9:30 to 10:00am to 6 to 9pm. We have since hired a PA which means that day 1 residents leave by 5:00pm. We have under 20,000 specimens annually, but also less residents obviously than a bigger program so you do indeed see a wide variety (including bone and soft tissue due to an excellent--and former psf!--oncologic orthopedist.)
On slide reading days 2 and 3 of the cycle, my duties were finished by 4:30 or 5:00pm and I was free to preview or clean up any work I had. Usually I was home by 6 or 7 latest. I also used this time to write a few papers, so I was often one of the last people out of the department.
Residents often come in on weekends to study and tidy up their specimens. As a psf I rarely needed to. I never left the building until all of my specimens from day 1 were grossed in (unless of course they needed to fix) and I tried hard not to let any of my work that I could finish carry over.
Just for a plug, please contact me if you are interested in the SUNY Upstate program. I would be more than happy to tell you about it. I think it is an excellent program with ample opportunities particularly for highly motivated people!
Now, at MGH, I will be signing out slides every morning, then grossing each afternoon, and previewing the previous day's slides at evening/night. (Slides come out around 5:00pm). I also imagine I will spend most Saturdays at the hospital, too. I suspect my day will be ~7:00am to ~10:00pm x weekends, and have of that on Saturdays. The pd believes that his residents "just scrape in under the 80 hour work week limit."
I'll keep y'all posted...
Mindy
On slide reading days 2 and 3 of the cycle, my duties were finished by 4:30 or 5:00pm and I was free to preview or clean up any work I had. Usually I was home by 6 or 7 latest. I also used this time to write a few papers, so I was often one of the last people out of the department.
Residents often come in on weekends to study and tidy up their specimens. As a psf I rarely needed to. I never left the building until all of my specimens from day 1 were grossed in (unless of course they needed to fix) and I tried hard not to let any of my work that I could finish carry over.
Just for a plug, please contact me if you are interested in the SUNY Upstate program. I would be more than happy to tell you about it. I think it is an excellent program with ample opportunities particularly for highly motivated people!
Now, at MGH, I will be signing out slides every morning, then grossing each afternoon, and previewing the previous day's slides at evening/night. (Slides come out around 5:00pm). I also imagine I will spend most Saturdays at the hospital, too. I suspect my day will be ~7:00am to ~10:00pm x weekends, and have of that on Saturdays. The pd believes that his residents "just scrape in under the 80 hour work week limit."
I'll keep y'all posted...
Mindy
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What Mindy says is dead on. I have 2 friends that are currently residents there and they normally clocked in 13-14 hour days while on Surg Path. But hey, with work and that much volume comes repitition and thats what makes a great Pathologist.
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I work 40 to 50 hours a week normally, unless on blood bank or surgical path. Then my hours can be around 60ish.
Hours vary alot from program to program, but generally surgical path is the one you have to find out about.
Hours vary alot from program to program, but generally surgical path is the one you have to find out about.
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ririri, I am struggling with that rgiht now. My top specialty choice has awful reidceny hours. the subspeicalty thati want to enter doesn't though and my second and third choices i looked at because from my limited knowldge of them they look interesting but mainly because of lifestyle and them i am wondering if i'd be bored. i start in the fall so all I can do is just explore it. it's hard though because every doctor that i talk to says to make sure to take lifestyle into consideration when choosing a speicality.
This thread has been helpful though.
This thread has been helpful though.
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My hours vary from rotation to rotation. Surgical pathology months are the busiest with hours from 7:30 to 5:30 most days. The lightest months are some of the clinical path months. Chemistry is only 1 hours work a day.
Definately take lifestyle into consideration. That's one of the big reasons I chose path.
Definately take lifestyle into consideration. That's one of the big reasons I chose path.
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This being the case, did you also choose path because you enjoy doing slides and grossing? Do you miss having a great deal of patient contact?
I will be considering pathology largely because of lifestyle. I enjoyed a shadowing experience I had in path, but I think I might get bored if I did slides by myself the whole day.
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Yes, slides and grossing were also big factors. Basically, it was the whole package. Path has reasonable hours and is very interesting. And I don't really miss the patient contact. I enjoyed patient contact in medical school but I enjoy pathology even more.
Generally, you won't be looking at slides by yourself for the entire day. You will show interesting/difficult cases to your colleagues and most groups have a QC conferece where they show tough cases or new malignancies. Clinicians may also stop by to look at certain cases with you. Plus there are often tumor board conferences in which you interact with many other physicians.
Also, you might enjoy path more once you are grossing and looking at slides yourself rather than watching someone else do it. I got bored quickly watching the pathologists look at stuff during my medical school rotation. Once I got to look at cases on my own in residency, though, I enjoyed it much more.
Generally, you won't be looking at slides by yourself for the entire day. You will show interesting/difficult cases to your colleagues and most groups have a QC conferece where they show tough cases or new malignancies. Clinicians may also stop by to look at certain cases with you. Plus there are often tumor board conferences in which you interact with many other physicians.
Also, you might enjoy path more once you are grossing and looking at slides yourself rather than watching someone else do it. I got bored quickly watching the pathologists look at stuff during my medical school rotation. Once I got to look at cases on my own in residency, though, I enjoyed it much more.
