Typical resident day

[radsgrad]

I am a 4th year student, fairly recently decided I am likely to be pursuing an OB/GYN residency. I am switching after many audition rotations in a field I thought I would like. This has left me with little time to do an audition in OB/GYN prior to applications opening to work with residents myself.

I am hoping some of you can tell me what the typical day of an OB/GYN resident looks like. I feel like 60-80 hours a week of training is a reasonable expectation as a resident, however I am just not sure where those hours are spent and I am curious. All insight is appreciated.

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[deleted103644]

Very well, where do I begin?

My program director was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.

My chief resident was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet.

My program director would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.

Residency days were typical, summer rotations in Rangoon, pre-rounds and luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets.

When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really.

At 1200 I would receive my first scribe.
At 1400, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles.

There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

 

[radsgrad]

Very well, where do I begin?

My program director was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.

My chief resident was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet.

My program director would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.

Residency days were typical, summer rotations in Rangoon, pre-rounds and luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets.

When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really.

At 1200 I would receive my first scribe.
At 1400, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles.

I have a short scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

The only conclusion I can come to is that you are trying to tell me you have a ridiculous amount of free time. While interesting, not really answering the question now are you.

 

[anonperson]

I am a 4th year student, fairly recently decided I am likely to be pursuing an OB/GYN residency. I am switching after many audition rotations in a field I thought I would like. This has left me with little time to do an audition in OB/GYN prior to applications opening to work with residents myself.

I am hoping some of you can tell me what the typical day of an OB/GYN resident looks like. I feel like 60-80 hours a week of training is a reasonable expectation as a resident, however I am just not sure where those hours are spent and I am curious. All insight is appreciated.

Entirely depends on what service you are on.

For labor and delivery, typically round on patients around 530 or 6am. Team rounds at 7am. Manage labor patients, do scheduled c sections, do circumcisions if required, manage triage and whatever crap gets dumped as the day progresses. Since programs typically run on a night float system, you are done by 5 or 6.

If on an operative service, it depends if a program divides it between oncology or benign. If benign, typically lighter operative days but start operating at 730 until last case done (usually by 3pm). Work on pre ops in between and manage floor patients as needed which is usually straightforward.

For oncology, usually the hours are longer and it wouldn't be uncommon to be operating until 7 or 8pm at times. Usually round twice a day. Patients are sicker and rounding is longer.

For clinic based rotations, just see patients from usually 8am to 5pm.

 

[deleted480308]

I am a 4th year student, fairly recently decided I am likely to be pursuing an OB/GYN residency. I am switching after many audition rotations in a field I thought I would like. This has left me with little time to do an audition in OB/GYN prior to applications opening to work with residents myself.

I am hoping some of you can tell me what the typical day of an OB/GYN resident looks like. I feel like 60-80 hours a week of training is a reasonable expectation as a resident, however I am just not sure where those hours are spent and I am curious. All insight is appreciated.

Did you not have an obgyn rotation 3rd year?

 

[jrlob91]

Been on two auditionas and have worked an average of 90 hours a week so far

 

[SpecializedSurgeon]

I am a 4th year student, fairly recently decided I am likely to be pursuing an OB/GYN residency. I am switching after many audition rotations in a field I thought I would like. This has left me with little time to do an audition in OB/GYN prior to applications opening to work with residents myself.

I am hoping some of you can tell me what the typical day of an OB/GYN resident looks like. I feel like 60-80 hours a week of training is a reasonable expectation as a resident, however I am just not sure where those hours are spent and I am curious. All insight is appreciated.

Wife is an Ob, I thought her residency wasn’t bad from an hours standpoint (then again I was a surgery resident, so everything is relative...)
I can tell you that she definitely worked her fair share of 70-80+ hour weeks, the major difference between our schedules was that getting called back in or being so late that you miss life events was relatively rare. Maybe a delivery runs over on L&d, but that’s not like a bad whipple/Trauma case.
When you rotate on gyn onc, it’s just like surgery. Fortunately her program wasn’t heavy on that rotation so I don’t remember a bunch of months of that pain for her.
Also, they seem to have more dedicated night shift rotations, so just be ready for that (but again those didn’t really push past that 80 hour mark too often)
Good luck!

 

[BigTumor]

This is a good question to ask regardless of how much time you spent with residents 3rd year, because even a very involved student isn't really like being a resident. A lot of your time on days is dedicated to one service, but at night you may be covering an elderly postop patient on onc, a laboring preeclamptic, and GYN bleeders in the ED. Being pulled in different directions gets easier as time goes on and your brain will get used to the different modes. A lot of your time during the day is doing hands-on stuff like operating and deliveries but also a lot of documentation, especially on OB where you're seemingly constantly writing labor notes every few hours. As long as you don't mind true unpredictability the hours will likely be tolerable. Many programs are close to 100 hrs per week on ONC due to long surgeries and a lot of care coordination and long documentation due to patient complexity. L&D is variable depending on how close to sign out the Triage Train hits you but otherwise you can probably make dinner plans most weeks apart from those rotations.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

This is a good question to ask regardless of how much time you spent with residents 3rd year, because even a very involved student isn't really like being a resident. A lot of your time on days is dedicated to one service, but at night you may be covering an elderly postop patient on onc, a laboring preeclamptic, and GYN bleeders in the ED. Being pulled in different directions gets easier as time goes on and your brain will get used to the different modes. A lot of your time during the day is doing hands-on stuff like operating and deliveries but also a lot of documentation, especially on OB where you're seemingly constantly writing labor notes every few hours. As long as you don't mind true unpredictability the hours will likely be tolerable. Many programs are close to 100 hrs per week on ONC due to long surgeries and a lot of care coordination and long documentation due to patient complexity. L&D is variable depending on how close to sign out the Triage Train hits you but otherwise you can probably make dinner plans most weeks apart from those rotations.

Everything already said is more or less accurate. You probably have more predictability on L&D if you have a night float system with maybe 30 min to an hour of hanging back to chart. Sign out is usually at 7 am and 5 pm, so you'd leave at 8 am or 6 pm. Benign gyn can be hectic especially if you're a senior resident but also tends to be fairly consistent with surgeries rarely going past 6 pm unless you are at a very inefficient hospital (which many academic programs probably falling in that category). It's onc that really puts a strain on you I would come in at 430 am at the latest and leave at 8 pm from intern year to chief year, but not all onco rotations are like that.

Just ask the residents at each program to walk you through their day and you'll get a feel for things.

 

[radsgrad]

Did you not have an obgyn rotation 3rd year?

I did, but it was based in a community obgyn clinic. The only time i stepped into the hospital was for a delivery or surgery, and there were no residents in that community hospital. I was able to schedule an audition in december but i am submitting my applications now and am looking for more insight until that time.

Thank you all for your replies.

 

[DO2015CA]

Very well, where do I begin?

My program director was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.

My chief resident was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet.

My program director would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.

Residency days were typical, summer rotations in Rangoon, pre-rounds and luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets.

When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really.

At 1200 I would receive my first scribe.
At 1400, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles.

There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

Winner of the thread. I was not expecting an Austin Powers reference