Everytime I look at residency information the hours are always 80-100 hrs per week. Does that include on call shifts until the next day. Do the hours decline as you go during residency time? Or does it stay about 80-100 hrs per week. And what is a typical work schedule.
Question about general surgery residency?
- Thread starter Big Bill
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Here is my experience as a medical student on general surgery, others may have different experiences. Also, keep in mind that students do not work nearly the hours that residents work. There is one gen surg resident lurking around these boards, and he might be able to give you more details.
Start every morning around 6, work until 6 or 7 at night. Every third or fourth night on call (on average). On call - you work all day, all night, and all the following day. You may get to sleep a little on call, but rarely do you get any meaningful sleep. I kept track of how many hours i was in the hospital during my gen surg rotations. My lowest was around 75/week, the highest was 115.
So, yes, the 80-100 you read about is true (and it does include call). At my hospital the senior residents do have it slightly easier than the juniors. They do call from home and back up the juniors when they need help. However, they usually end up in the hospital for most of the night, so it's not really much better.
Start every morning around 6, work until 6 or 7 at night. Every third or fourth night on call (on average). On call - you work all day, all night, and all the following day. You may get to sleep a little on call, but rarely do you get any meaningful sleep. I kept track of how many hours i was in the hospital during my gen surg rotations. My lowest was around 75/week, the highest was 115.
So, yes, the 80-100 you read about is true (and it does include call). At my hospital the senior residents do have it slightly easier than the juniors. They do call from home and back up the juniors when they need help. However, they usually end up in the hospital for most of the night, so it's not really much better.
I would imagine that the hours would get better as you went along. Thanks for clearing that up as to call I was a little confused. Most of the residencies that I read about are the same and I was a little worried as to having tomany hours because im a little older.
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I really haven't much to add to tussy's excellent response (except that I had to be at the hospital around 4:30-5:00 am as we started operating at 6:30 so pre-rounds and rounds had to be done before then!) 😱
She is right - the hours do GENERALLY get better as you gain responsibility and you can often take call from home. However, you are responsible for your juniors and if they have trouble or a complicated emergency case comes in - you're the man.
Consider community programs if you don't have an academic career planned. They generally have much kinder call schedules (I saw some which were q5) and working hours, better benes, etc. Major trauma centers will have worse hours given the patient population - people always crash themselves up in the middle of the night! 🙂
Since this is a topic for the Rotations and Residencies Forum I'll move it over there for you!
She is right - the hours do GENERALLY get better as you gain responsibility and you can often take call from home. However, you are responsible for your juniors and if they have trouble or a complicated emergency case comes in - you're the man.
Consider community programs if you don't have an academic career planned. They generally have much kinder call schedules (I saw some which were q5) and working hours, better benes, etc. Major trauma centers will have worse hours given the patient population - people always crash themselves up in the middle of the night! 🙂
Since this is a topic for the Rotations and Residencies Forum I'll move it over there for you!
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