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Rank these in order, most difficult to least difficult (time spent, call, stress, yrs etc).
Rads
Path
Anes
Ophtho
Derm
Rads
Path
Anes
Ophtho
Derm
Residency Workload
- Thread starter kaisa
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What's with all the ranking stuff?
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kaisa said:
it's kind of program dependant for a lot of these fields
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Its very difficult to rank these, and it does vary greatly by program. Here is my estimate best to worst lifestyle during residency:
1. Pathology (no intern year is key, daily schedule predictable, minimal stress)
2. Derm (basically no real call, minimal stress)
3. Radiology (call is relatively infrequent, but horribly busy and stressful when there. Some programs have very frequent call. Daily schedule very predictable and controlled)
4. Anesthesia (call infrequent, but have to get in at 6:30 am daily and the end of the day may vary more)
5. Optho (daily schedules less predictable, call not too bad, but may have to come in often depending on the rotation, some rotations very intensive hours, more stressful patient care)
1. Pathology (no intern year is key, daily schedule predictable, minimal stress)
2. Derm (basically no real call, minimal stress)
3. Radiology (call is relatively infrequent, but horribly busy and stressful when there. Some programs have very frequent call. Daily schedule very predictable and controlled)
4. Anesthesia (call infrequent, but have to get in at 6:30 am daily and the end of the day may vary more)
5. Optho (daily schedules less predictable, call not too bad, but may have to come in often depending on the rotation, some rotations very intensive hours, more stressful patient care)
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Best to worst:
1. General surgery
2. Neurosurgery
just kidding...
If your weighing in only call schedule and length of residency (and exculding mental challenge,) I'd have to say:
1. Path
2. Derm
3. All others probably program-dependent; for example, rads had no greater than q 10 call where I came from but take much more here, plus the interventionalists work pretty hard all hours. I'd guess similar things hold true for the other specialties as well.
1. General surgery
2. Neurosurgery
just kidding...
If your weighing in only call schedule and length of residency (and exculding mental challenge,) I'd have to say:
1. Path
2. Derm
3. All others probably program-dependent; for example, rads had no greater than q 10 call where I came from but take much more here, plus the interventionalists work pretty hard all hours. I'd guess similar things hold true for the other specialties as well.
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Ophtho is also very program dependent - number of residents, frequency of transfers/trauma, etc. My program is Q6 and gets a lot of trauma, so 1st yr call can be tough. It gets better though. Other programs in the same city have significantly lighter calls. It really depends. All of the specialties you listed are generally thought of as "easier," and they certainly are compared to things like surgery. I wouldn't use this much as a criterion to pick a career though, unless you have MAJOR time issues due to family, etc. All of the specialties have residents with kids, so clearly people can make it work. (It's beyond imagining for me though.)
