Surgery Residency and Salary

[zealous]

Okay so..I apologize in advance for anyone who may be offended by me asking but I need to know....I'm going to have about 150K in loans with UG/Med school loans so....
So, what is the pay as you go through year 1 to 7?? How much does a fellowship generally pay?
Can Stafford sub and unsub be deferred during residency?
Any place I can find this out by residency program?

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[DrDre']

All residents in a given PGY make the same money at the same institution.

Typically, high 30s- lower 40s for first year.
It then goes up about 1,000 or so per year.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no huge jump with felllowship, it is merely incremental.

You can defer loans if you have a high enough ratio of indebtedness to pay.

Every residency website will show there salaries.

Remember benefits and that higher paying programs are in more expensive areas- typically.

 

[JAMMAN]

My resident salaray as a PGY1 was $36K and as chief it was $50K. The cost of living was very low near my hospital, so residents seemed to have alot of extra cash. Almost half of the surgical residents had their own house. The rest lived in pretty nice hospital subsidized townhomes. When I was chief, there were 3 new BMW's (330ci, Z4 and an M3 convertible), 2 new Mercedes (1 C and 1 E class) a Porsche Boxter S and several nice SUV's. Volkswagon Jettas were TNTC.

As a fellow, I took a slight pay cut in my base salary, but with moonlighting, it is easy to make six figures.

As far as student loans go, most people deferred them until they finished residency.

 

[avgjoe]

holy cow jamman, are you serious?! where are you located? i can't imagine people having their own house on a 50k salary!!! (maybe b/c i'm in california)
Do you really have time to moonlight during fellowship btw?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Jamman and I are the same state and most of the married residents here own homes as well. Can't say we drive Boxters, but I do have a Jetta!

As he also notes, there can be a change, and in the reverse for fellowship, if you change programs. My BF left for a fellowship in another state/hospital and his PGY6 salary is less than what he was making as a PGY4...different hospital, different pay scale (and oddly enough, he is now in a much more expensive city).

 

[FliteSurgn]

i can't imagine people having their own house on a 50k salary!!! (maybe b/c i'm in california)

In most areas of the country, you can easily afford a house on a resident's salary. California is probably not one of those areas though! Almost all of our surgical residents owned homes. With the shorter residencies, it may be less cost-effective to own versus rent.

Do you really have time to moonlight during fellowship btw?

Heck with the 80 hour work week, every resident should have time to moonlight...lol. About a third to half of our surgical residents moonlight during their training. Usually they'll cover some small-town ER for a 50 hour shift over a weekend that they're off. Fellowship hours can vary greatly depending on the program just like residency hours.

This doesn't include the possible increased liability factor from working outside your residency (ie. beyond your sacred 80 hours). There's a thread about that which I just read.

 

[pballa24]

how do you possibly squeeze in a 50 hour shift during a single weekend??

 

[pballa24]

I mean seriously guys, come on, I'm genuinely interested. How is it that people can work so many hours in one weekend, if its possible thats awesome!

 

[doc05]

how do you possibly squeeze in a 50 hour shift during a single weekend??

8 pm friday ->10 pm sunday = 50 hours. this sort of thing will work in a small-town ER where little to nothing happens. obviously it may or may not be feasible depending on what's available near you.

 

[fourthyear]

this has been talked about so many times - Most surgery programs do not allow moonlighting anymore. It's not strictly against ACGME rules, but most programs are banning moonlighting anyway. Do a search and you will see this in other posts.

 

[The Maxx]

It is true that a lot of residencies are making residents sign contracts that say that they will not moonlight. Many surgery residents will do research and most programs will let you moonlight during the research years.

 

[pballa24]

8 pm friday ->10 pm sunday = 50 hours. this sort of thing will work in a small-town ER where little to nothing happens. obviously it may or may not be feasible depending on what's available near you.

Alright, that leaves a great deal of time for sleep!! Are you crazy, I certainly hope they have time to sleep during their 50 hour continuous work-weekend. Thats ridiculous.

 

[Idiopathic]

Alright, that leaves a great deal of time for sleep!! Are you crazy, I certainly hope they have time to sleep during their 50 hour continuous work-weekend. Thats ridiculous.

Obviously the majority of this time is spent sleeping/relaxing/reading, etc. No way could you actually work a 50-hour shift.