Resident work hours

[kiernin]

I'm a second year who hadn't thought about ophtho much before but is beginning to get interested. Can anyone give me a rough idea of how much optho residents typically work and what the call schedule is like? Thanks a lot.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Really easy compared to general surgery and internal medicine.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=180781

 

[Redhawk]

I'm a pgy-2. I'd say I average about 10 hours a day (8-6), so that's 50 hours a week in clinic. We're on call q6 with every 7th week off, so that adds another 14 hours if it's a weekday call or 24 hours if it's a weekend call. We're in house call for the first 6 months as it is a very busy urban based residency. I guess that makes it anywhere from 50 to 74 hours a week, with the average being in the low to mid 60's. However when you consider the fact that I read about 2 hours a day on any given weekday, and about 6-8 hours on any given weekend day, it goes up significantly, but I don't think most people devote that much time to reading.

No matter what, even at the most stressful times, it's WAY better than being on medicine floors during my intern year.

 

[victorkomd]

A better question would be comparing the hours of an ophthalmology attending to a general surgeon or internist or radiologist.

 

[PDT4CNV]

Really easy compared to general surgery and internal medicine.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=180781

That is not true. There can be a lot of down time during the day in other specialties. I was much busier in my first year or ophthalmology than in my medicine internship.

 

[JR]

I second that; there is definitely no downtime in the busy ophtho clinic. If this is covered by night call, it can get pretty exhausting...

That is not true. There can be a lot of down time during the day in other specialties. I was much busier in my first year or ophthalmology than in my medicine internship.