any medical doctors here?

[NDWolfwood]

5 years... thats only if you drag it out that long and if your going to something specialized off the bat. Of course I have heard of some students going for 7, but that is because they don't have the nerve to do the final push and take their certification exam. And even though residents are watched by professionals, mistakes do make it through. And lastly, I don't see how working someone to the bone is going to make them a better doctor. As a doctor I doubt you work 100+ hour weeks. Even oncall nurses don't work that much. Anyway, if one is exhausted, they don't learn anything. Even if a mistake is pointed out to them, the mind loses its ability to absorb knowledge past a certian point of sleep deprevation and fatigue. There has never been any real point to work residence to the bone because it dulls their abilities to the point of worthlessness.

 

[thebabydoc]

1. I am a doctor, so do you think it might be possible that I might just know/have an educated opinion on this topic? Like I said, I have worked with new residents/graduates and they are weak and lazy.

2. I do work more than 100 hours per week on a pretty regular basis. I did 33 deliveries last month. That does not include my office/clinic schedules or other businesses that I engage in.

3. Even if I don't work 100 hours in a given week, a delivery at 3 AM pretty much means that I am gonna be up for 36-48 hours straight or else be working with no more than 3 hours' sleep.

4. You're looking at it the wrong way. Residents are not being "worked". They are being taught. Residency is an apprenticeship, you learn by doing. Simply put, would you rather have a surgeon that has done 50 or one that has done 500 appendectomies? Would you rather have one that can do one in his sleep, with one broken hand or one who could only do them on 10 hours of sleep at 9 AM? Becoming a doctor is not a right, like driving a car seems to be. It needs to be difficult so that only the best (which is what we in this country demand) can succeed.

4. As for mistakes, youre absolutely, 100% WRONG. I hardly ever learned anything that I didn't already know from doing something right. I have learned many things which I will never forget from either doing or watching something done incorrectly. And daily rounds and Morbidity and Mortality meetings, when your mind is "sharp" and not "sleep-deprived" (as you'd like to paint it) is when the errors are pointed out and correcetd and learning/teaching is done. It is an ongoing, dynamic, ever-evolving process- the more you do, the more opportunities to learn. The greatest teaching lessons in medicine are from mistakes, both ours and others. In any residency program, all levels work together- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th year residents as well as attendings. The system is designed so we can learn from each others mistakes as well as prevent damage from occurring.