What's the life of a resident like?

[Kurk]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?

Thank You

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[ZedsDed]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?

Thank You

[C] made me LOL. Oh you kids

 

[frosted_flake]

B: All over this website... ~50k.
C: I know a resident who drives a Prius, a pulm/CC fellow that drives a Jaguar and an ER attending that drives a Taurus.
D: Following your residency (and fellowship if you so choose).


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[DubVille]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?
Intern year I had 4 true days off a month. Now I have 8-10 on average. I still work 1 or 2 24-28 hour shifts a month. This will vary on seniority and your specialization.

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.
Pretax was 53k. After tax it was close to 37k. FICA, state, local taxes add up. Plus insurance/disability are taken out before I get my paycheck.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.
Yes, as long as the Prius is loud, then you will look like a bad*ss. I drive a Subaru suv from 2005, plan to keep it well into future. Cars don't really excite me and are a poor investment unless it's a major hobby.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?
Once you finish training. Generally this is after residency (3-7 years) after med school. Some choose to do a fellowship for further specialization. You make 55-65k pretax for that time. Fellowships usually last 1-3 years and are done after residency. Some people even do an additional fellowship (cardiology and then interventional cardiology, etc).

Thank You

 

[grapp]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?

Thank You

A) I don't know the answer.
B) Like others have said it's mostly 50k, of course it will depend on your contract and where you wind up. My guess is 45-55 a year, but I'm still learning so don't quote me on it.
C) Most of the residents I met drive typical sedans, moderately inexpensive cars.
D) To my knowledge a lot of things come into play...

#1) It depends on your specialty, to my knowledge, a cardiothiracic surgeon has a 6-8 year residency? While an ER doc has a 2-4 year residency.
#2) Fellowship? Or no fellowship? There are lots and lots depending on your specialty.
#3) It doesn't matter if your the smartest guy in the world, I'm pretty sure you have to wait the minimum amount of time.
#4) Many doctors (to my knowledge) are offered better contracts if they complete the longer stent of their residency.
If I make it there, I'd probably do an ED 4 year residency.

I'm no one special, so if I get any of this wrong, someone feel free to correct me.

 

[Law2Doc]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?

Thank You

(a) per ACGME you get an average of 1 day off in 7, work no more than 80 hours a week (averaged monthly). There are also limits to number of hours in a row which you can work (24 h as a senior, less as an intern). Obviously some fields (eg surgery) are more likely to push the edges of the envelope, but expect in residency to work a lot of weekends and overnights.

(b) resident salaries range from about $46k to $60k+ depending on your year and regional COL.

(C) public transportation is common. Old used vehicles also not uncommon.

(D) every specialty has a certain set number of years of residency generally can be 3-7 years. In some fields you also may want to do a fellowship year afterwards. You can't finish residency early but if you are a quick study you may be given more autonomy earlier. The goal in residency is to learn enough with a safety net so that you are comfortable when it's your own neck on the line. By late in residency you will feel like you haven't seen/done enough, and wish you had more years to learn. There is no finishing early but many will feel (in retrospect) that it ended too early.

 

[Mad Jack]

I couldn't find any other threads that answered the following questions:

[A] Do you get any days off, or is it a 12 hour shift every single day?

B. What's the average salary? I'm guessing 37k a year.

[C] What car do you drive? I'd probably get a cheap Prius and remove the muffler so it sounds like a sports car.

[D] What determines when you become an attending physician? Is it based purely on time or do they factor in how quickly you learn?

Thank You

A: You will work 12-16 hour shifts for most of first year, roughly 80 hours per week with 1-2 days off. You will work up to 24 hours with 6 hours of call afterward in some shifts second year and beyond, up to 80 hours a week. You will, in your off time, still have to prepare for presentations, inservices, and specialty board exams, so it isn't all over when you're out of work. Some specialties have lower hours in year 2+ (psychiatry, PM&R, derm), while others go 80ish hours all the way through (surgery, tougher IM programs, etc).

B: 50-70k/year, depending on location and what PGY you are. Usually starts around 50k and edges up 3-4k a year per year of residency. It sounds like more than it is, considering you'll have student loans that eat up a good portion of your earnings, as well as many professional expenses and taxes to deal with.

C: Drive what you want. I drive a Hyundai and will probably keep the same car through residency, but might switch to a used Subaru, as 4WD comes in handy in New England. Once I'm an attending, probably going to keep driving the same sort of vehicles, because seriously, it's just a car.

D: As was previously noted, the number of years depends on the specialty. IM, FM, and EM are 3 years (though some EM programs are 4), surgery and radiology are 5 years, IM subspecialties add either 3 years (cardiology, pulm/CC, GI) or 2 years (A&I, nephro, rheum, CC), surgical subspecialties are generally 2-3 years, anesthesia, neurology, psychiatry, and neurology are 4 years, etc. Some fields require fellowships to get a decent job (radiology, pathology).