Work hours for fellowships

[tngdoc]

I was talking to someone who recently finished a fellowship who said she was basically working all the time, 7 days a week. She said that work hour restrictions do not apply to fellows. That does not seem right. Was she misinformed?

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[Ludicolo]

My understanding is that if the fellowship program is ACGME accredited, then the work hour restrictions do apply.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Correct, if the program is ACGME accredited, then work hours apply.

However, there are many fellowships which are not ACGME accredited and therefore, can work the fellows whatever hours they like until the accreditation boards of the fellowships makes some changes.

For example, my ex did a trauma/CC fellowship at one of the "big names" in the country; he worked far in excess of 80 hrs. Many weeks he worked 130 hours or more. My fellowship was also not ACGME accredited (none of the SSO fellowships are); I didn't come close to violating hours but didn't keep track for the reason that it didn't matter anyway.

 

[dragonfly99]

supposedly the 30 hours in a row/80 per week thing applies to ACGME accredited fellowships. However, I know that one of the major medicine fellowship at my teaching hospital has not historically complied, at least not with t he 30 hour rule, as fellows would take call and then stay there all day the next day. They can get around the 30 hour rule by saying the call isn't in house when it is (i.e. when the fellow is inevitably up all night in the ER and/or ICU doing consults, admitting patients or helping the house staff).
However, the hours are still usually better than residency...by far.

 

[atsai3]

I was talking to someone who recently finished a fellowship who said she was basically working all the time, 7 days a week. She said that work hour restrictions do not apply to fellows. That does not seem right. Was she misinformed?

Doesn't apply to fellows. Sort of.
At some cardiology programs, for example, the fellows cover consults but are on 'home call'. If you're covering 'home call' over a weekend and keep getting called in (which can happen with regularity) then you may end up working from Friday morning to Monday night with few naps in between.

-AT.

 

[roja]

Fellowships following the work hour rules? hahahahahaha.


Even if you are accredited, the extra work you will be doing as a fellow is often not 'trackable'.

Expect to 'work' 90-100 hours a week. Not all clinically. Networking, conferences, projects, reading, teaching, research, administrative, etc.

All will eat into your time.

Fellowships are labors of love. You get a concentrated amount of time to learn a subspecialty that will put you in a better position than if you are non-fellowship trained. But the price is hard work.

I don't know a single fellow, yet, who hasn't worked MORE than they ever worked as a resident

 

[michaelrack]

I don't know a single fellow, yet, who hasn't worked MORE than they ever worked as a resident

True of most IM/surg fellowships

My sleep fellowship involved much less work than the IM months and a little less work than the psych months of my med/psych residency.

Psychiatry fellowships tend to be fairly easy (often 40 hrs a week).

 

[Danbo1957]

An IM sub-specialty Fellow is really in the ballgame and the work is done when necessary. A Fellow can easily schedule days off, but the working hours are when they are... it's ALL about patients, and consult responsibilities.