any medical doctors here?

[Lao Tzu]

I have some questions, mainly about residency.


1. How long is it (3 years, 4 years)
2. Did a federal law recently get passed that prohibited residents from working over 80 hours a week?
3. Why are residents forced to work 100+ hours a week? is it so they learn the ropes of their speciality, is it exploitation (doctor labor for scrub wages), is it tradition, is it designed to build mental toughness, et. al.?



What all medical specialties can you obtain via residency.

 

[NDWolfwood]

1. Pending on your school of medicine. residency is anywhere from 1-4 years. Where I'm going, residency occurs during actual medical school so actual residency tends to be from 1-2. Other schools that mainly focus on nothing but schooling during medical school can go from 2-4 years.

2. Yes, that was because to many malpractice suits were being issued due to exhausted medical students screwing up.

3. They were forced to work for several reasons (though you couldn't get a hospital to admit it): residenct students are cheap medical labor. It is cost effective to use them rather than a real doctor whom they have to pay full wages to. That is why I always believed was the only reason. Though some would say that it got one ready and gave them a lot of pratical experience to work when they were dead tierd. It gave them an idea of what it can be like... which is bunk because certified doctors are call based or have a routine, they only put in OT with specific patients under their care.

Medical specialties come with ones training in medical school. Residency is just putting what you learned to the test and an expansion of teaching a student how to use their knowledge in real life situations. It also allows them to see how true doctors of a specialty works (such as surgical residence will help doctors in surgery and thus get hands on practice of surgey). I'm not all together sure what you think residency is about, but thats it in a nutshell. (I'm not a medical student yet though, but a Chemistry major Premed minor, plan to get my GP degree and return for a psychiatry degree after).

 

[bigmusclecock]

Wolfy, ur gonna be a med student?

ever do any anatomy? (wink wink)

 

[NDWolfwood]

::Twaps Bigmusclecock :: only the kind where you remove individual muslce from a cadavar and remove the brain without a saw...

 

[bigmusclecock]

Ah, come on, a handsome guy like you,

don't tell me you don't impress the ladies with the skillz.

 

[NDWolfwood]

:: THWAP, THWAP, THWAP! ::Be quiet, I order you to be quiet! (order, who does he think he is)

 

[bigmusclecock]

I think Im a crazy guy with a big cock. Who do you think YOU are?

 

[NDWolfwood]

Why, I'm your king!

 

[bigmusclecock]

*snort*

 

[thebabydoc]

Residency in th US is from 3 to 5 years. This does not include "subspecialties" such as maternal-fetal medicine, plastic surgery, cardiothoracic, neurosurgey (8-10 years), etc...

My residency was 4 years. In surgical specialties, the first year is typically an "internship" where you do a year of general medicine, family practice, etc... here has been a great deal of debate with this as well, and much talk of going to a 5 year residency since the hours have now been limited.

Yes, the law was recently passed (I think it is a state to state thing) which restricted total and consecutive hours and mandated certain amount of free time (e.g. 24 hours off after 24 hours on).
This, in my opinion, is bullshit for surgical specialties, especially Ob/Gyn (which I am).

The hours are not primarily a right of passage, they do condition and train residents to function in conditions of maximum stress and little sleep and to do so in a reflexive manner. The hours also instill a sense of pride, confidence, and a "badge of honor" upon those who have "survived" them. Most of my "emergencies" occur between 1 and 5 AM. Is there anyone who believes that if you are not conditioned to being up at that hour with little/no sleep that you will be able to perform effectively? And let's not forget that in the US, "effective" is not enough. Lawyers attempt to hold physicians to standards closer to "perfection". Pulling one or two all-nighters is not near enough to train one to function at normal capacity during those hours. Bottom line: It takes a minimum number of hours and a minimum number of years. The less hours you work in a year, the more years it will take.

Today's residents (I graduated 5 years ago) are a bunch of whining pussies and I have RARELY met one who could hold my jockstrap (to borrow a phrase) in any condition of stress. Simply put, they have been babied and lack the mental or physical toughness required for many medical specialties. They want to work 9-5 hours and get paid six-figures to do it. I guess that's just an extension of the American "I deserve it" mentality. No matter what, certain specialties need to be exempt from these federal guidelines if we are going to expect the same level of care, loyalty, and dedication from doctors who provide emergency services.

BTW, residents are always supposed to work under supervision- that is, they ALWAYS have a way to contact an on-call, supervising attending physician whenever the need should arise. In addition, training a resident costs the government, hospitals, etc... hundreds of thousands of dollars which would require hours to explain. When they get sued, it is often the result of attending physician negligence (remember, it is the job of the teacher to know which students are passing and which are failing, e.g. who can work unsupervised and who must be watched 24/7)

-peas