Residency hours

[inep]

Hi,

I'm graduating next year and looking for a residency program. FM was the only rotation I enjoyed third year, and have been considering it for quite a while. I posted on the general forum a question about situation, but the short of it is that I work part-time on nights and weekends on a very profitable set of from home business operations outside of the field of medicine (think computer stuff).

I am extremely hesitant to walk away from the security and income my current work provides. At the same time I have learned that an MD degree is worthless without a residency. Given that I like FM and have experience in owning and operating businesses, I think it may be a good fit. My question is what are the residency hours like? I need to have a few hours every night and even more on the weekends to maintain status quo of my current side projects. I am learning it is impossible in most residencies, especially those that require internships. Additionally, other specialties that I have looked at that may fit the bill require 4-5 years of post-grad training. It appears FM might work for me in that it's only a 3 year residency and would give flexibility after residency in terms of work schedule to allow me to do both careers simultaneously (i.e., putting 30 hours a week towards each on alternate days). The alternative I am looking at is dropping out of school now and wasting the past 6 years of my life and countless dollars or finishing without a residency (i.e., paying an extra 40 grand for a piece of paper).

I understand workload is program dependent, and would be interested in learning what residencies have the most lifestyle friendly schedules. Thanks for any help/advice.

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[septoplasty]

Hi,

I'm graduating next year and looking for a residency program. FM was the only rotation I enjoyed third year, and have been considering it for quite a while. I posted on the general forum a question about situation, but the short of it is that I work part-time on nights and weekends on a very profitable set of from home business operations outside of the field of medicine (think computer stuff).

I am extremely hesitant to walk away from the security and income my current work provides. At the same time I have learned that an MD degree is worthless without a residency. Given that I like FM and have experience in owning and operating businesses, I think it may be a good fit. My question is what are the residency hours like? I need to have a few hours every night and even more on the weekends to maintain status quo of my current side projects. I am learning it is impossible in most residencies, especially those that require internships. Additionally, other specialties that I have looked at that may fit the bill require 4-5 years of post-grad training. It appears FM might work for me in that it's only a 3 year residency and would give flexibility after residency in terms of work schedule to allow me to do both careers simultaneously (i.e., putting 30 hours a week towards each on alternate days). The alternative I am looking at is dropping out of school now and wasting the past 6 years of my life and countless dollars or finishing without a residency (i.e., paying an extra 40 grand for a piece of paper).

I understand workload is program dependent, and would be interested in learning what residencies have the most lifestyle friendly schedules. Thanks for any help/advice.

Probably not the best time to be thinking about a cushy program. The key question is would you feel comfortable handling a patient after 'minimal' post-grad training?

In general, FM residency hours tend to be "better" than say IM, but it might be difficult for you to juggle 2 things. If you end up paying less attention to your medical profession (during residency), this may lead to bad consequences i.e. getting fired, which would result in having a paper that means nothing.

 

[inep]

That's pretty much the consensus I am getting everywhere. I probably need to walk away.

 

[Dharma]

That's pretty much the consensus I am getting everywhere. I probably need to walk away.

I'm too green in this medicine game to have any words of worth, but I still say finish what you started. From what I've heard having the MD isn't completely worthless without a residency. I say stick out year 4 and see what happens.

You don't want to look back years later and regret not following through with this path- one that you've probably had to struggle to some degree to get to and go through. Think of the $hit you've gone through to get to this point. Don't waste that. (Just my opinion). Regret is a crappy load to deal with down the road (I know from experience), so only bail if you really feel you won't regret this move someday. If there's an ounce of thought that you may, keep pushing forward.

Look within. Trust your gut and go with truth. Best of luck and hope you find what you need.

 

[septoplasty]

That's pretty much the consensus I am getting everywhere. I probably need to walk away.

Is there someone else you can "loan" your business to? That might be a possible option.

 

[aterry]

I am not sure what computer stuff you work in but my husband is a programmer so I am vaguely familiar with the working conditions. If you have a lot of programming/coding aspects to your project, perhaps you could contract some work out to quality programmers on places like odesk.com, elance.com or other contract places to free up your time? My husband has had a good experience as a programmer with odesk. Hope this helps!

 

[brats800]

If I didn't have a wife + kids and wanted to work out regularly, I could've averaged at least 10-20 hours per week for other things. It'd be tight but you might be able to do it.