What is the daily life like as a radiology resident?

[greg1184]

I am about to enter my MS4 considering radiology as a specialty. I am curious to see what life is as a resident. How often do you have call. What are (generally) your hours of work, and how often do you work on weekends? I understand that it is depending on what part you are rotating in but I just want to know a general picture. When you rotate in IR, do you get eased into doing procedures or are you expected to perform procedures right away.

Any info would be appreciated.

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[cowme]

Typical day is 730-5 (with 1-2 hrs per day of studying after--you can throw 99% of your medical knowledge out the window when you start rads residency)

First year, most places do short call (till 9). Frequency of call will depend on how big your program is and how Many hospitals you cover. I'd say the average is q6-q8, and a lot of places won't even start call until 3-6 months in. Weekends are generally the same frequency as call, so every 6-8th weekend +/-2

Second year is the majority of night float. You will usually do 6 nights in a row about 9 times per year.

3rd year is very little call because of study time needed for boards.

4th year is traditionally less call heavy, but with the boards being moved early one year, they'll be needed to cover more. Probably another 4 or so weeks of night float and a fair amount of weekend overnights

 

[Green Grass]

Typical day is 730-5 (with 1-2 hrs per day of studying after--you can throw 99% of your medical knowledge out the window when you start rads residency)

First year, most places do short call (till 9). Frequency of call will depend on how big your program is and how Many hospitals you cover. I'd say the average is q6-q8, and a lot of places won't even start call until 3-6 months in. Weekends are generally the same frequency as call, so every 6-8th weekend +/-2

Second year is the majority of night float. You will usually do 6 nights in a row about 9 times per year.

3rd year is very little call because of study time needed for boards.

4th year is traditionally less call heavy, but with the boards being moved early one year, they'll be needed to cover more. Probably another 4 or so weeks of night float and a fair amount of weekend overnights

cush. 😎

 

[cowme]

ha i guess. There are far cushier fields out there. Call may not be that frequent, but it is very intense. Path and Psych are virtually no weekends and no days after 5.

 

[greg1184]

ha i guess. There are far cushier fields out there. Call may not be that frequent, but it is very intense. Path and Psych are virtually no weekends and no days after 5.

1 weekend every 1.5-2 months isn't terrible though. The Miami-Jackson path program is similar. Yeah I am considering path as well.

 

[Medstudentquest]

ha i guess. There are far cushier fields out there. Call may not be that frequent, but it is very intense. Path and Psych are virtually no weekends and no days after 5.

Path sure, but psych definitely has both weekends and weekend call. Even as a student I had to take weekend call with the resident! I even interviewed for psych in the past at Yale and they work every other weekend and take weekend call as well, which is as often as every other weekend. Someone has to see patients during the weekend.

PMR, Rad Onc also don't have in-hospital call, they take home call. Rad-onc though can go late though, depending on patient volume and rotation, frequently past 5pm. Derm also has "home call" but sometimes residents have to go in and frequently have to stay late during consult months. Grass is not always greener I think.

 

[Medstudentquest]

A friend of mine in a good psych prog tells me he is routinely in the hospital after 5...quite often until 7. Based on our convos, he also seems to have a weekend schedule similar to rads.

Absolutely. Programs in psych that have no weekend call are rare nowadays in Psych. There are some, but few and far in between, and usually are community programs vs. large volume university programs, and frequently residents are in the hospital past 5pm, particularly in consult months, or neuro psych months, etc.

 

[cowme]

1 weekend every 1.5-2 months isn't terrible though. The Miami-Jackson path program is similar. Yeah I am considering path as well.

This is very true. Even in smaller programs with 4 residents, you are still only working 1 weekend/month. This is world's better than IM, where you get one full weekend off per month.

 

[shark2000]

1- I rarely leave the hospital before 6. My daily works is usually 7:30 to 6-7.
2- You lost the big picture. When we work, we truly work. I claim that our work per hour is much tougher than any other field. In a typical work day I barely have time to even make a phone call. It is the same for call. One night I was on call and I did not have time to check my E-mails from 10 pm to 7 am. It is a completely different world than Rad onc or even IM call.
I can remember of my internship when we had time to sit in resident's lounge and talk or chat with staff when we were on wards. This is non-existence in radiology. I barely have time to talk with anybody when I am on call.
3- IMO, radiology, even its residency is in between regarding lifestyle. Don't forget that 3rd year IM residents usually have 2-3 tough rotations and the rest is outpatient setting which is practically 8-5 and the work flow and density of work is much less. Don't compare a PGY-4 radiology with an intern. I always say that if you are looking for lifestyle, esp at the attending level, there are half of medical fields that are cushier than radiology.
4- I believe that though our call schedule is easier than many other fields on paper, our call is one of the toughest. We are always busy.

 

[fun8stuff]

1- I rarely leave the hospital before 6. My daily works is usually 7:30 to 6-7.
2- You lost the big picture. When we work, we truly work. I claim that our work per hour is much tougher than any other field. In a typical work day I barely have time to even make a phone call. It is the same for call. One night I was on call and I did not have time to check my E-mails from 10 pm to 7 am. It is a completely different world than Rad onc or even IM call.
I can remember of my internship when we had time to sit in resident's lounge and talk or chat with staff when we were on wards. This is non-existence in radiology. I barely have time to talk with anybody when I am on call.
3- IMO, radiology, even its residency is in between regarding lifestyle. Don't forget that 3rd year IM residents usually have 2-3 tough rotations and the rest is outpatient setting which is practically 8-5 and the work flow and density of work is much less. Don't compare a PGY-4 radiology with an intern. I always say that if you are looking for lifestyle, esp at the attending level, there are half of medical fields that are cushier than radiology.
4- I believe that though our call schedule is easier than many other fields on paper, our call is one of the toughest. We are always busy.

Rads residency is pretty variable in terms of call, so you definitely have to check around and talk to residents from different programs. The one thing that I think is pretty constant is the fact that the actual day-to-day work is much busier / mentally tiring than a lot of the other specialties. There's little down time and rads residency requires you to read/learn at the same rate you did in medical school. With a lot of the other residencies (particularly the primary care fields) you learn most of the basics in medical school and you deal with only 10-15 different diagnoses 95% of the time- or just refer out. In rads, you see such a high number of cases per day, that you see more diverse pathology... and while if you are in a big enough practice, you can ask your partners for help with cases, you cannot refer cases out.

In general, the larger the residency class, the better the lifestyle. We have ~8 weekend day calls per year and ~20 short calls (short call is ~Q18 days and long call is Q45). Most rotations are 8-4pm. No call as R1s/weekends off. 2 weeks of night float per year after R1. The more residents, the more this stuff can be divided up. Lots of time for moonlighting and making extra $$. I think a lot of rad programs have ample moonlighting opportunities, which isn't so in other specialties.

But- rads is not like IM where you really only work hard for a few hours in the AM before and during rounds with lots of down time in between. In rads you are constantly working and it is more mentally draining than intern year or other med school rotations i had.

 

[Dr. USMLE]

1- I rarely leave the hospital before 6. My daily works is usually 7:30 to 6-7.
2- You lost the big picture. When we work, we truly work. I claim that our work per hour is much tougher than any other field. In a typical work day I barely have time to even make a phone call. It is the same for call. One night I was on call and I did not have time to check my E-mails from 10 pm to 7 am. It is a completely different world than Rad onc or even IM call.
I can remember of my internship when we had time to sit in resident's lounge and talk or chat with staff when we were on wards. This is non-existence in radiology. I barely have time to talk with anybody when I am on call.
3- IMO, radiology, even its residency is in between regarding lifestyle. Don't forget that 3rd year IM residents usually have 2-3 tough rotations and the rest is outpatient setting which is practically 8-5 and the work flow and density of work is much less. Don't compare a PGY-4 radiology with an intern. I always say that if you are looking for lifestyle, esp at the attending level, there are half of medical fields that are cushier than radiology.
4- I believe that though our call schedule is easier than many other fields on paper, our call is one of the toughest. We are always busy.

I don't doubt any of this, but the rads residents I met on the trail were far happier and more laid-back than any IM resident I have ever met. Particularly where I matched, the residents did not seem to have a care in the world, had a lot of outside hobbies, and that attitude was consistent with the faculty I met.

 

[shark2000]

I don't doubt any of this, but the rads residents I met on the trail were far happier and more laid-back than any IM resident I have ever met. Particularly where I matched, the residents did not seem to have a care in the world, had a lot of outside hobbies, and that attitude was consistent with the faculty I met.

Don't get me wrong. I love what I do, even if it is busy.
I'd rather do non-stop 7 pm to 7 am radiology call than relatively cush 7pm to 7am IM call. Call is fun for me, even now as a senior resident.
IMO, despite what you may hear in medical school, the less you are involved with patients, the happier you are. Inpatient work sucks. Outpatient work is not bad, but is boring unless you do something very sub-specialized in a referral center.
Other really happy group of people are Dermatology guys.
For some reason, Peds doctors are also happy ones. Probably because most of them like what they do, otherwise they would not end up doing Peds. This to me is a very important observation as it shows relative lack of correlation between your income and your job satisfaction after you reach a certain level of income.

 

[greg1184]

I really appreciate the feedback guys. This is really good stuff. Any comments on the IR rotations you have done? I understand that most programs have 3-4 months total of Vascular/IR (in the entire program). I don't find myself to be a procedure person even though it is very interesting stuff.

Also... shark mentioned a little about this, but any of you miss the patient contact from IM?

 

[cowme]

Rads residency is pretty variable in terms of call, so you definitely have to check around and talk to residents from different programs. The one thing that I think is pretty constant is the fact that the actual day-to-day work is much busier / mentally tiring than a lot of the other specialties. There's little down time and rads residency requires you to read/learn at the same rate you did in medical school. With a lot of the other residencies (particularly the primary care fields) you learn most of the basics in medical school and you deal with only 10-15 different diagnoses 95% of the time- or just refer out. In rads, you see such a high number of cases per day, that you see more diverse pathology... and while if you are in a big enough practice, you can ask your partners for help with cases, you cannot refer cases out.

In general, the larger the residency class, the better the lifestyle. We have ~8 weekend day calls per year and ~20 short calls (short call is ~Q18 days and long call is Q45). Most rotations are 8-4pm. No call as R1s/weekends off. 2 weeks of night float per year after R1. The more residents, the more this stuff can be divided up. Lots of time for moonlighting and making extra $$. I think a lot of rad programs have ample moonlighting opportunities, which isn't so in other specialties.

But- rads is not like IM where you really only work hard for a few hours in the AM before and during rounds with lots of down time in between. In rads you are constantly working and it is more mentally draining than intern year or other med school rotations i had.

How many residents in your program? 2 weeks night float a year is the least I've heard

 

[MossPoh]

Peds tends to attract the energetic, sensitive, happy type. How happy people are often has as much to do with the personalities entering a particular field as it does the call structure, reimbursement and nature of the work. Personally, I enjoyed peds more than IM because the stuff was rarely the kid's fault and I never really felt they were trying to deceive me. In IM we were treating people with lifelong bad decisions and choices and they were often less than forward with me...

 

[fun8stuff]

How many residents in your program? 2 weeks night float a year is the least I've heard

program has been expanding. now there is a total of ~40. but there is a smaller residency that also rotates through our system for night float. i think they have ~8 residents. so a few people every year end up with 3 weeks night float.

 

[cowme]

program has been expanding. now there is a total of ~40. but there is a smaller residency that also rotates through our system for night float. i think they have ~8 residents. so a few people every year end up with 3 weeks night float.

Ah that makes sense. My program is medium sized, and we take a ton of night float, but it is almost entirely in our second year.

 

[drizzt3117]

I think there's a pretty big amount of variability in the different rads residency programs in terms of hours. The cush programs seem to have it pretty chill; not sure how this corresponds to their skill level, though.

 

[greg1184]

I think there's a pretty big amount of variability in the different rads residency programs in terms of hours. The cush programs seem to have it pretty chill; not sure how this corresponds to their skill level, though.

More important, how are their racquetball and basketball skills. 😉

 

[fun8stuff]

I think there's a pretty big amount of variability in the different rads residency programs in terms of hours. The cush programs seem to have it pretty chill; not sure how this corresponds to their skill level, though.

i know of a small community program where on a few rotations, the staff either don't notice/don't know which residents should be on the service so they end up only going in sporadically for only a few days. when they do dictate, they don't staff out... just send it to an attending. the teaching is horrible, but they have a lot of time to read.

 

[MrBurns10]

OP, the answer to your IR question really depends on the program. Mine is fellow-driven...as a resident you can do a lot of basic procedures if you want (or none if you don't), and most of the consenting falls on you when you're the call person. It's definitely the most scut-heavy rotation as a resident.

My program has 12 residents per class. That comes out to 4-5 weeks of night float 2nd year, 3-4 weeks 3rd year, and 1-2 weeks 4th year. 23 evening calls 2nd year. 8-10 weekends 2nd year, 4-5 weekends in 3rd and 4th year, and a few weekend day shifts (non-call) scattered throughout. Also, several late shifts (either 2-10 or 3-11) on a few specific rotations. Daily schedule when you're not on a late shift is about 730-5.

 

[Leo Aquarius]

Psych is usually cushier than Rads residency, but psych residents still take weekend call sometimes in Pgy1 and Pgy2.

 

[shark2000]

Psych is usually cushier than Rads residency, but psych residents still take weekend call sometimes in Pgy1 and Pgy2.

The definition of the call is different in psych and rads. It is like comparing dermatology call (which does exist) and Critical care call and name both of them call. It is the same for working hours. Many clinical services are pretty light in the afternoon. For example, for senior resident IM you do most of your work in the morning, probably 7 to 9 am and after rounds it is pretty much light.I never ever have time to go to the cafeteria even for half an hour, either in call or in a normal work day. This is something really unknown to medical students and even other specialists.

 

[cowme]

Maybe in residency. Hospitalists in community hospitals have 40 patients to round on, along with dealing with every issue that comes up along the way. When they are on call, double that number. I can assure you they don't spend their afternoons sitting around in the doctors Lounge.

 

[shark2000]

Maybe in residency. Hospitalists in community hospitals have 40 patients to round on, along with dealing with every issue that comes up along the way. When they are on call, double that number. I can assure you they don't spend their afternoons sitting around in the doctors Lounge.

So what?
The OP was asking about residency and not pp. My point was you have to know about the call. Nobody was talking about pp.
I do not want to argue. Hospitalist job sucks, no argue. But their average patient number is 20 and not 40. For most patients they just reorder the consults or order CT. I can also say in pp on average a radiologist reads 120-150 studies, probably 30% of them cross sectional. When you grow up, you will find out reading even 80 X rays a day will drain all your energy more than seeing 30 patients.
I am not trolling, but my point is as a medical student just do not listen to whatever people say. I bet 90% of those hospitalist can not understand how it is like to read 100 studies.

Just put 4 doctors of different fields in a room and ask them who is busier, who is doing a more important job. All of them will claim their job is the toughest.

The reason I am talking about it is thatmany MSs think when you are talking about radiology call, you are sitting in the reading room watching movie and every hour an X ray come on the screen and you put 2 words on it and go home.

 

[colbgw02]

I love the not-so-subtle passive/aggressive tone of shark2000's posts, such as use of the phase "when you grow up" when addressing the post of a(nother?) resident. Then bracketing the comment with "I do not want to argue" and "I am not trolling". Ahhh, the interwebz.

 

[MossPoh]

Everything is ok to say as long as you throw a softening statement into it.

Being in the South, my personal favorite is "bless her (or his) soul"

"Dr. X is an evil, money grubbing a-hole with no respect for his patients, bless his soul."

 

[DrBowtie]

The definition of the call is different in psych and rads. It is like comparing dermatology call (which does exist) and Critical care call and name both of them call. It is the same for working hours. Many clinical services are pretty light in the afternoon. For example, for senior resident IM you do most of your work in the morning, probably 7 to 9 am and after rounds it is pretty much light.I never ever have time to go to the cafeteria even for half an hour, either in call or in a normal work day. This is something really unknown to medical students and even other specialists.

You have never had time to go to the cafeteria for a half hour during the work day? What kind of hardcore program are you in?

I've seen that happen on call and with the PP guys sometimes, but certainly never with a resident during a work day at any place I rotated at or any place I interviewed.

 

[shark2000]

You have never had time to go to the cafeteria for a half hour during the work day? What kind of hardcore program are you in?

I've seen that happen on call and with the PP guys sometimes, but certainly never with a resident during a work day at any place I rotated at or any place I interviewed.

Honestly not. I do not know about other programs, but they may have a cushier schedule.
As attending it is a different story. In university setting you can leave for even 2 hours and in pp you can leave for 1-2 hours.
I was talking about residency and not attending work.

 

[Dr. USMLE]

You have never had time to go to the cafeteria for a half hour during the work day? What kind of hardcore program are you in?

I've seen that happen on call and with the PP guys sometimes, but certainly never with a resident during a work day at any place I rotated at or any place I interviewed.

Yeah even on my IR rotation, they'd still go to the cafeteria for lunch maybe 75% of the time. The rest of the time they'd get a tech or some gopher to fetch lunch for them and eat in the reading room.

 

[DrBowtie]

Honestly not. I do not know about other programs, but they may have a cushier schedule.
As attending it is a different story. In university setting you can leave for even 2 hours and in pp you can leave for 1-2 hours.
I was talking about residency and not attending work.

I know, I'm talking about residency as well, albeit from the perspective of my home program and just interview impressions from various other programs this year.

When is your conference time? The most popular by far was noon conference with some time before to go grab lunch and eat in conference or time after to go eat before getting back to the reading room.

 

[shark2000]

Now this cafeteria business has become such an important issue that everybody is asking me about. I have time to rush there, grab lunch and go to conference. On my on call days which are done, it was the same. On the other hand, most fields can at least hang out in the resident's lounge or cafeteria when they are on call, probably ED is an exception.
My point was, it is not as easy as you think.
My IR call was always better than DR call on average, though we have a clinical IR service and we admit our patients.
I will choose DR over IR or anything else anytime, but my whole point is that when you talk about DR call and for example Ophthalmology call, they are a whole lot different.
That was all.

 

[greg1184]

Now this cafeteria business has become such an important issue that everybody is asking me about. I have time to rush there, grab lunch and go to conference. On my on call days which are done, it was the same. On the other hand, most fields can at least hang out in the resident's lounge or cafeteria when they are on call, probably ED is an exception.
My point was, it is not as easy as you think.
My IR call was always better than DR call on average, though we have a clinical IR service and we admit our patients.
I will choose DR over IR or anything else anytime, but my whole point is that when you talk about DR call and for example Ophthalmology call, they are a whole lot different.
That was all.

Over at my home program, the cafeteria is literally across the hall and down the escalator from the radiology dept.

I can see why now. 😀

 

[Dr. USMLE]

Now this cafeteria business has become such an important issue that everybody is asking me about.

Haha...food is serious business brah. So are bball and racquetball skills, although these are kinda "gunner" sports. Golf is more common at my program 😛

 

[greg1184]

Haha...food is serious business brah. So are bball and racquetball skills, although these are kinda "gunner" sports. Golf is more common at my program 😛

I am also an avid golfer. I think I am going to love this specialty.

 

[loljkttyl]

Our hours are 8 am to 5-5:45 pm. We have conference from 8-9 am and 12-1 pm.

 

[fun8stuff]

Psych is usually cushier than Rads residency, but psych residents still take weekend call sometimes in Pgy1 and Pgy2.

The hours are probably similar between psych and rads, but the required depth of knowledge and pace of work is vastly different. As shark is saying, radiology is a constant grind. There are always studies on the filter to be read. You can't hardly afford to take a long break as the filter will just continue to fill up.

No other area of medicine (that I have experienced compares) really compares. ER is close... but I found most of the attendings at my program just sit around ordering labs and radiology exams, which is why they generally have no clue what is going on with their patients when you call them. The residents, PAs, and nurses see the patients.

 

[shark2000]

The hours are probably similar between psych and rads, but the required depth of knowledge and pace of work is vastly different. As shark is saying, radiology is a constant grind. There are always studies on the filter to be read. You can't hardly afford to take a long break as the filter will just continue to fill up.

No other area of medicine (that I have experienced compares) really compares. ER is close... but I found most of the attendings at my program just sit around ordering labs and radiology exams, which is why they generally have no clue what is going on with their patients when you call them. The residents, PAs, and nurses see the patients.

Totally agree. There is always work to do. The density of our work is much higher than any other field. No way to have a break more than a short one.

 

[EeePC1005PR]

curious to see what life is as a resident.
Any info would be appreciated.

7:30 or 8am start. Near 6pm finish. Few on calls.
Constantly working but enjoyable learning.

Not as physically strenuous as surgical specialties, but constantly thinking and looking. Still requires quite good finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination if doing procedures.

Plenty of patient contact during hands on ultrasound sessions. It takes a good 20 minutes at least to scan a person. Talk all you like.

For me life as a resident is pretty cool: learning on the job during the day, learning from books at night. It's a luxury.

 

[choweee]

During call, do any of you residents go into the ER and examine patients? On the interview trail this year, one rads resident bragged about going into the ER during call, doing physical exams and even writing notes in the chart, much to the shock/horror of the PAs and NPs. He did it as a point to show that their history and exam didn't justify the boatload of unnecessary C/A/P CTs showing up on his list.

I thought he was an aberration, until speaking to a friend, who reported that his dad (a non-academic radiologist, practicing for >20 years) also sometimes gets out of the reading room to speak to patients getting imaged when he's bored.

I mean, I think it's kind of neat that some radiologists feel inclined to meet the patient. Obviously not always possible, esp when the list is full of studies that need to be read. Either way, what do you guys think?

 

[cowme]

that sounds pretty silly. It would take just as long to examine a patient and write a note in the chart as it would to prelim a study on call. Not to mention the political repercussions of refusing to do a study on call. Even if you are annoyed by the study, it is simply not worth the effort of fighting it; you are going to lose. And if you do somehow win, you are going to piss people off along the way.

It's pretty rare that you'd get any new information from seeing a patient yourself, and even rarer that you'd have the time to do so. I've never seen it done (outside of residents volunteering to do ultrasounds on call)

 

[colbgw02]

There is a relatively well-known attending from my medical school's radiology program who routinely makes residents go examine ER patients to see if imaging findings correlate. I've done the same sort of thing, on occasion, but usually only after waiting on hold for too long. Of course, that's a far cry from what that resident was described as doing.

 

[MossPoh]

I know a doc that did it on occasion. If there was bad news, he would try to go up to see the patient and talk to them in person (if inpatient of course). He goes down to the ER if not getting slammed
for questionable studies or to talk with the doc in person and to show what he was concerned about.

Part of it was because it was a nice change of pace, but he also felt that it people were less likely to order worthless studies when they knew and saw the person on the other end, rather than just an electronic signature on some report written in an area they never go.

 

[shark2000]

I know a doc that did it on occasion. If there was bad news, he would try to go up to see the patient and talk to them in person (if inpatient of course). He goes down to the ER if not getting slammed
for questionable studies or to talk with the doc in person and to show what he was concerned about.

Part of it was because it was a nice change of pace, but he also felt that it people were less likely to order worthless studies when they knew and saw the person on the other end, rather than just an electronic signature on some report written in an area they never go.

I have to disagree. It is nice, but on paper.
My experience is you can never win the game if a clinician wants to order a study. You can talk with them and convince them politely, but if they decide to do it, you have to go and do it.
After all, they are responsible. Every time I blocked a non-indicated study and they wanted to do it, they won. The history changes very fast, their list of ddx changes, .... If you really want to block a study, you have to go and also discharge the patient home with discharge instructions.
For medical students: If you are really a strict Push-over, you will not be satisfied many times in radiology. You have to think about yourself as a consultant. I give my opinion, they may or may not follow. But if you want to control everything, ER or family practice are the ones.

 

[EeePC1005PR]

During call, do any of you residents go into the ER and examine patients?

kind of neat that some radiologists feel inclined to meet the patient. Obviously not always possible, esp when the list is full of studies that need to be read. what do you guys think?

No. If I had the time, I'd probably read up more about radiology itself, rather than go meet the patient.

When ED requests things, it's often hard to refuse because our predictive values are generally higher than theirs. On rare occasions things will be be negative on history and examination but positive on imaging. And if you refused that request and something happens to the patient, then people blame you. What they don't appreciate though is all the other CT induced cancers 10 years from now.

There are some recurrent scenarios where we can sometimes justifiably offer other options eg. things like negative D-dimer but asking for CTPA; HRCT to 'better' assess focal lung mass; urgent U/S to rule out ruptured ovarian cyst or urgent U/S to rule out testicular torsion etc.

 

[fun8stuff]

you must realize that you usually do not get sued for ordering inappropriate exams or tests... you get sued for not ordering enough. the system rewards the shotgun approach... so that is what many clinicians do.

 

[shark2000]

..

 

[radorad]

Year 2: 8 weeks Night float , 10 weeks short call (5pm to 9-10pm ish) , 18 weekend/holiday days.

Year 3: 6 weeks Night float, 4 weeks short call, 10 weekend/holiday,

Year 4: 2 weeks Night float, 2 weeks short call, 1 weekend/holiday,

Most calls are spent in my chair from 8pm to 7am with little time to just run to the bathroom.
Days are conference at 7:00am and noon with the day 8am to 5pm-6pm. Usually grab food and eat during lecture... Almost never any time to just hang out in the cafeteria (and would likely be lectured if I tried and was caught by faculty). No moonlighting allowed. When on short call, day starts at noon. With the constant shift change (day/evening/night), my body has trouble adapting and I always feel sleep deprived.

 

[Hogfan10]

Most calls are spent in my chair from 8pm to 7am with little time to just run to the bathroom.

How is Radiology so demanding when you aren't physically seeing patients? Are the other physicians just waiting for you to read it?

 

[colbgw02]

How is Radiology so demanding when you aren't physically seeing patients? Are the other physicians just waiting for you to read it?

Ummm...because not all fatigue is caused by physical exertion? Ever worked on a Rubik's cube, puzzle, or brain teaser for hours on end? Try it; you'll want a nap afterwards.

And - to answer your last question - yes. Imaging results often have a tremendous impact on patient disposition, especially from the ED.