Thread: Work week for Residency & Rotations

My wife is concerned that while doing my rotations and residency that I will be working a 100 hr work week and will not have any time for her and our future children. What is the typical work week for rotations? for residency? I'm looking at a family practice residency.

It's given I'll be working my butt off on the island but can I expect to be home with my wife and kids during rotations and/or residency? Thanks.

Unfortunately if you hit up his profile and read other posts, you will find that most resemble that outlook :-(

What kind of statistics were you looking for exactly ? Working solo vs. practice ? Salary ?

Here are two books to read on the subject of marriage and physicians


4. Doctors' Marriages: A Look at the Problems and Their Solutions
by Michael F. Myers (Hardcover - June 1994)



3. The Medical Marriage: Sustaining Healthy Relationships for Physicians and Their Families
by Wayne M., Ph.D. Sotile, Mary O. Sotile (Paperback)


I read the first prior to starting med school it walks you through typical problems encountered by year of training and potential solutions. read it with your wife and determine if you think you two can work through the challenges because there is no avoiding them. The hours are long, you will be tired, you will have tremendous responsibility both at the hospital and at home. i.e. you still have to throw out the trash despite being post-call and in a bad mood. The expereince can be rewarding for you both as well and your combined accomplishment can be evidence of the stregth of marriage. Med school was definitely more rewarding for me by having my wife's support. If you guys don't think you can handle it ( and some marriages do not respond well to this type of training) then you'll have to choose which is more important to you. also there are other disciplines of practice, i.e. emergency medicine and radiology that lend themselves to fewer hours with decent compensation. The only tough one's on time are probably general surgery, peds, trauma surg, cardiology, and neurosurgery. Otherwise I am sure you can find a way.
Best of luck!

dtanita,

An excellent question to ask when starting med school. Having just recently finished SGU, I would like to add to the answers.

Try to enjoy med school as much as possible during the 1st 2 years. There'll be a lot of studying but remember to take time to enjoy your wife and kids. You'll have to probably put in a few hours per afternoon and then night and a full day on Saturday depending on how fast you read and remember stuff. But there will definitely be time to spend with family. Just plan wisely and SCHEDULE time with family just like scheduling time for studying.

The clinical years:
I don't know where others did their rotations but I did most of mine at St Barnabas in NJ. Here's the third year breakdown for:
Medicine: 7-4:30 ea day and call til midnight every 4th night. Not a bad schedule as long as your patient enough to endure long boring rounds.
Surgery (at Newark Beth Israel): 6-5/6 only had to take 5-6 call nights and they let me sleep because I was nice to them
OB/GYN (@NBI): 6-5/6 call every 4th night but they also let me sleep most of the time
Psych (Danbury, CT): 8-3:30/4 , what a vacation except I was away from my pregnant wife
Peds: 7:30-4:30, call every 4th night, but I only did one to no loss on my part

4th year: Electives are as hard as you choose them to be

FP residency: From what I hear from classmates it really depends on the place. Some are 7-7, other 7-4/5. Some have brutal call every 3rd night others are better. Intern year is hard no matter what you choose. It gets better from there.

Practice: It is what you make. More time invested=more $. It's your choice regarding lifestyle, practice style, etc. Choose the more important things first and the rest will fall into place.

Doug

PS- "kittyjuice" you're a childish moron who should still be in grade school, not medicine. I hope you grow up before your patients find out about your sexual malfunction and degenerate brain condition.

I'm the wife of sgudoctor, and have a couple things to add...
We married after 1st year, and had our first son at the end of 3rd year. No doubt, it is not the "normal" route to be getting married and having children in med school, but it CAN be done.. and you can be happy. Having an understanding that you (speaking to your wife) will have to make sacrifices for the goals of your husband (which you can adopt as your own goals), and making the MOST of the time you do have together, will get you through. Also, being a support to him, rather than complaining about the long hours, etc., will help him and also give him the energy to actually have time for you and the kids rather than be drained by knowing your discontent.
It's true... 4th year is really a long vacation if you choose the right electives, and I'm glad we had our son when we did, so my husband could enjoy his first year... and help out! Financially, I was able to work till about 7 months into my pregnancy, then got maternity leave for a while. We have chosen that I stay home with our kids (now we have a second son) and, again, if you are willing to sacrifice for the long-term goals, you can take out minimal living expense loans and survive just fine.

I know wives of others in FP, and it really can be a family friendly residency, although itern year is always tough. It's a short residency, and you'll be your own boss before long.

I admire you for placing such a priority on your family. Don't let the pressures of medicine move you from that disposition. Those pressures will only bind you and your family closer together if you let them.

First off, let me apologize if I offended anyone. Now here are some key points: If your wife is "concerned" that you won't have time for her while youre in med school, then frankly you should get a new wife. Not to sound like a dyck, but if she loves you and wants the best for you, and wants you to live your dream, she will be supportive and willing to sacrifice a lot in order to be with you and have children with you. In my humble opinion, I would be disappointed if my wife or gf told me she was concerned I won't have time for her. I would bank shes most likely bored in the marriage and is on the road to wanting to leave. This is no love forum, but thats just my view.

As far as the couple who expressed their views on this site..... I am in full support of them actually. I got the impression that their relationship has enough love that they are willing to go through the experience together and are supportive of each other.

In conclusion, I am in supportive of a marriage/relationship that allows both parties to fulfill their life goals. A relationship is supposed to add to your life, not take away from it, thats all.

In any case your concerns of the work hours are important, as lifestyle is an important factor in choosing a career path. I'd rather just speak my mind with some flare, but I think people get caught up in the vulgarity of it....haha. Oh well, no harm intended.

-DLB

And your attempts to get past the word filters on this site are pathetic and repetitive. Why people can't just simply follow rules I dont' know.

It appears nowadays if someone is "concerned" about spending time with thier significant other it is means that they are bored in their marriage and it shows lack of commitment. Because a significant other is concerned that their partner is going to be gona most of the time, is a normal behavior. There's nothing wrong with that, and it doesn't reflect in any way shape or form thier level of devotion.

As far as being concerned, you only heard that the person was concerned. Their was no mention of the wife harrasing the man, not supporting the man, or threatining to end the marriage or other. You totally jump to conclusions that this is the way it MUST be, BASED on the fact that she was CONCERNED. Nothing more and nothing less. Where is the objectivity.

As for your famlily struggling, that's unfortunate. I hope you can give back not only to them but the community.

Personal insults will lead to a warning and 5 warnings will lead to potential revocation of memebership here by the head honchos. This includes those who "started it" and those who are responding it it.

Hmm, wasn't a good day that day. When reading the replies to my post I recall I wasn't in a great mood, and I obviously let my emotions get the better of me which allowed me to make very poor judgement. In commenting on professionalism, I believe it was me who wasn't demonstrating that at that moment. I made a mistake and I have no excuses. My sincere apologies. There is no need for mudslinging and we should do everything to maintain the integrity of this forum.

In retrospect, not only am I embarrased that I posted such crap, but disappointed in myself for stooping to lower levels.

Best wishes...