Podiatry residency compared to Med residency

[lk2230]

How does the experience of the current, typical 3 year podiatric residency compare to that of the "typical", stereotypical regular medicine residency? I'm referring to the stereotypical med residency of 80+ hours, hell on wheels, etc.

I know the first year of podiatric residency will be just like that of the internship year of a med residency and thus will be the 80+ hours, hell on wheels, etc. What about the other two years? Do they stay like that, or become milder? Do they become a bit more like a typical workweek? How many hours, on average, would you say the typical pod residency is in the 2nd and 3rd years?

Anything else to give me an idea what it's like?

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[dpmgrad]

How does the experience of the current, typical 3 year podiatric residency compare to that of the "typical", stereotypical regular medicine residency? I'm referring to the stereotypical med residency of 80+ hours, hell on wheels, etc.

I know the first year of podiatric residency will be just like that of the internship year of a med residency and thus will be the 80+ hours, hell on wheels, etc. What about the other two years? Do they stay like that, or become milder? Do they become a bit more like a typical workweek? How many hours, on average, would you say the typical pod residency is in the 2nd and 3rd years?

Anything else to give me an idea what it's like?

Obvriously, the number of hours you work and typical work week will vary between residency programs. Usually, the first year is like your typical intern year in other medical/surgical residency. As you progress to the 2nd and 3rd year, you will take less call or take back up call. My hospital enforces the 80 hours work rules for all allopathic and podiatric residents. On the average, I would get to the hospital somewhere between 6-8 am, depending on what rotation I am on. I usually get to go home somewhere between 6-8 pm. Some days, I will have to come in earlier and some days I will go home much later. If I were on call for the weekend, I will have to come in to round and also help out with office hours on Saturday with one of my attendings. Hence, I would work on the average of 60-70 hours a week. Luckily, for me, we get to take call from home since we cover call for two hospitals. In programs where you have to take call in the hospital, you will spend the night at the hospital.

In your first year, you will spend a great deal of time doing outside rotations, such as Internal Medicine, Pathology, etc.... In your 2nd and 3rd year, you will spend more time doing surgical cases. When scrubbing into cases, you will spend a lot of the time retracting or doing minor cases (hammertoes and I&D) skin to skin in your first year. As you progress into the second and third year, you will get to do more skin to skin procedures for more advance cases. In my residency program, you would function like any other intern or resident on any of the outside rotations. For example, on Internal Medicine service, I will be responsible for admitting the patient from the ER and following them through their hospital stay. If there was a code in the hospital, i would be expected to respond to it like any other resident would.