Time off during medical school and residency

[tj286]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi everyone,

Just a few questions for the med students here. When you go through a medical school, exactly how many months out of the year are you actually in school? The reason I'm asking is because I've been reading some threads here where people expressed they are not sure whether to apply to medical school or not because of how long it is. But I figure the four years of hard work while you're in doesn't really sound all that long if you get a few months off in the summer, right? Personally I think summer would give me enough time to spend time with my family and have fun before starting the next semester. What about the winter break, how long is that for you? Also, what about residency? How many weeks or months off do you guys get when you go through? Thanks for taking your time in answering. I appreciate it.

 

[phospho]

I got 7 weeks for my summer break between M1 and M2. It seems it's going to be my last summer break though because we get a few weeks to study for step 1 right after M2, and we hit the wards right after that. From what I understand, we don't have breaks during M3 and M4 except for when we are allowed to take 1 or 2 months off for residency interviews. As for residency, there are no summer breaks. It's a job.

 

[45408]

ust a few questions for the med students here. When you go through a medical school, exactly how many months out of the year are you actually in school? The reason I'm asking is because I've been reading some threads here where people expressed they are not sure whether to apply to medical school or not because of how long it is. But I figure the four years of hard work while you're in doesn't really sound all that long if you get a few months off in the summer, right? Personally I think summer would give me enough time to spend time with my family and have fun before starting the next semester. What about the winter break, how long is that for you?

M1 winter break was 2 weeks long, M1 spring break was 1 week long. Summer between M1 and M2 was three months.

M2 winter break was 2 weeks long, spring break 1 week long. We had 6 weeks before M3 started on July 1, but I spent 4.5 of those weeks studying for Step 1, as did most of my class (3-4 weeks on average).

M3 had close to 2 weeks for Christmas, no spring break, no summer break. You could do an elective or take a month of vacation. 95% of people did an elective.

M4 had 3 months of vacation, but you have to take Step 2 CK and Step 2 CS, and do all your residency interviews.

Also, what about residency? How many weeks or months off do you guys get when you go through? Thanks for taking your time in answering. I appreciate it.

Months? you get 3 weeks off each year, one week at a time, when it's convenient for THEM to give you vacation. Most months you'll have only 4-6 days off, and they'll only be Sat/Sun.

 

[equios]

Med school is a lot more like a job then school. You get time off between M1 and M2, you get study time between M2 and M3 for Step 1 - only the most important test you will take in your life, and you have a something like 6 weeks of optional vacation per year that you can take during M3 and M4 when you want.

 

[Law2Doc]

...
Months? you get 3 weeks off each year, one week at a time, when it's convenient for THEM to give you vacation. Most months you'll have only 4-6 days off, and they'll only be Sat/Sun.

Agreed regarding residency. It's not school, it's work, but without the personal days, federal holidays, etc. At some places you can break up the weeks into individual days, such that you have 15 days off, but generally 3 weeks of vacation a year, plus a few days around EITHER xmas or new years is typical. You won't have weekends off -- by rules you get 4 days off a month, which might mean one weekend day a week, sometimes it's a Friday instead though. Often your vacation is preceded by an overnight call shift, so you may end up spending the first day of your vacation sleeping. Nobody said it would be easy.


As for med school, you get decent vacations in first year, very similar to what you got in college. In second year you get a winter break of a couple of weeks, a spring break, but you more or less lose your summer to studying and taking Step 1. There is frequently no break between 3rd and 4th year -- you may get a week before 4th year starts up. The reason for this is that you have to apply for residency quite soon after and so to the extent you wanted to squeeze in a few non-core electives there is not way not to start the academic year later than June. You will probably have an elective month or two during 4th year that you can use toward a vacation. After 4th year, you usually have from may to mid-june before residency starts. You will probably have to do ACLS/BLS training in this interval, and probably have some physicals/paperwork to do, but will have some down time. Then residency starts -- see above.

 

[45408]

Agreed regarding residency. It's not school, it's work, but without the personal days, federal holidays, etc. At some places you can break up the weeks into individual days, such that you have 15 days off, but generally 3 weeks of vacation a year, plus a few days around EITHER xmas or new years is typical. You won't have weekends off -- by rules you get 4 days off a month, which might mean one weekend day a week, sometimes it's a Friday instead though. Often your vacation is preceded by an overnight call shift, so you may end up spending the first day of your vacation sleeping. Nobody said it would be easy.

I've seen medicine and peds residents get weekdays off on a fairly regular basis (at the expense of a weekend off) because patients get admitted any day of the week, and there's nothing special about weekends. The surgical specialties tend to "respect" weekends because no one schedules elective cases for the weekends. The hospital isn't interested in paying the surgery techs and OR nurses overtime so you can do a Saturday colectomy. You only need a skeleton team to come do rounds, and then someone to be on call.

 

[tj286]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their insight, and I have to admit by reading all the posts here I feel like I severely underestimated your commitment. My initial impression was that you get at least 3 months off between semesters during summer, and a month off in the winter, and some time off for spring break, just like in a regular college. So I didn't think it was that bad.

Now to me it looks like you guys have a little bit of time off during medical school, but some of that time is used to study for future tests or for residency interviews. And then when residency comes, it's even more busier than medical school. And you guys are working 80+ hours a week for 3 or more years straight during residency with so little time off? That's amazing. How do you not get burned out from it? Do you also stay in the hospital the entire week while you work or do you go home? Thanks again for all your replies. I will be taking my RRT exam next May and was wondering what it is that I want to do next, and all your input is very valuable. Thank you.

 

[Law2Doc]

...And you guys are working 80+ hours a week for 3 or more years straight during residency with so little time off? That's amazing. How do you not get burned out from it? Do you also stay in the hospital the entire week while you work or do you go home? ...

The rule is that you aren't supposed to exceed 80 hours/week during residency, averaged over a 4 week period. Most residencies try to stay well within this and so most interns probably average in the 70-75 hour range weekly. There will be weeks where you exceed 80 hours and weeks where you will only hit 65. Probably not a whole lot less than that during intern year. You will either have a night float system where a person or team is up all night for a block of time (2wks to 1month), or you will be on a call system, where different people do 30 hour shifts every 3rd, 4th or 5th night. With call, the hours get close to 80 fairly quick. As for going home, you go home whenever your shift ends, whether it's a 12 hour shift or a 30 hour shift (bearing in mind that you sometimes have to exceed the normal hours to clean things up and give a decent sign out to whomever is taking over, but you are supposed to be out of there by the end of 30 hours by the rules). Driving home after 30 hours of no sleep is sometimes dicey, especially in inclement weather. But most people don't want to spend any more time in the hospital than they have to. You don't have time to get "burned out". You work and go home and sleep, and that's your life for much of early residency. But it's not so bad, you are doing what you wanted to do, and time goes fast when one day can equal 30 hours.