Warning: residency can make you depressed

MiamiDAP
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 13:45:37 +0000

My D. is the first year resident. Her schedule is absolutely horrendous. In addition, she had to finalize her publication and take Step 3 exam, (had to spend her 2 days off for taking exam, so worked straight without days off for awhile) with very little preparation as she had no time to prepare. Every time I see her or just speak to her on a phone, she looks and sounds so much happier, upbeat and satisfied in comparison to how she was during her 4 years of Med. School. She said that having clear responsibilities and no need to be under pressure to please everybody in a world and not being screamed at by anybody who happen to pass by are all great relief. And this is despite the fact that she is not yet in her chosen specialty as her specialty requires a Prelim year. She is an Internal Medicine resident (temporarily) with lots of electives. She works hospital shifts, some floors she likes better than others and some electives she likes better than others. When she works 30 hours shift at the hospital, she is the only MD on the floor during night. She is fully responsible for about 25 patients during night. She can call chief resident, but chief is in charge of 2 floors and maybe be busy. She also has outpatient clinic with her own patients (about 25 ), and 5 of her patients speak only Spanish, so she is happy that her pursuit of Spanish at college and during Med. School paid off. Overall, despite of very stressful situations and limited time at home, she is very satisfied with what she is doing. So far the only complaint out of her mouth - not being able to go to gym as much as she wants.
When she starts in her specialty in July of 2016, she will have to study at home a lot. They do not teach her specialty at Med. School. But her schedule will be normal, no more hospital shifts, no more working during nights, holidays and weekends.