Residency question

The answers in my opinion are, yes, yes and yes. We have a 2nd year who's wife is an FP resident in town (at another hospital). The programs work to gether for the most part for their call schedules. They actually try to line up their calls so that they are both on call the same night. (they have relatives in town that take care of the kids). You need to mention the fact that your wife will need to transfer into town... pick a few programs and try to work closely with them on this... this will buy you credibilty that you actually want to go there rather than just applying to go anywhere like most applicants. Finally, bring your wife, if possible to the social nights to meet the residents, and tell them what your deal is... they will likely be receptive, and could end up being your biggest advocates. These are just my personal opinions.
-adaman

As adaman has already stated, yes, some programs may do their best to be flexible. However, your wife has only two years of residency left which corresponds with your intern year and your first year as a full fledged ortho resident respectively. In both years, you are basically going to be lowest man on the totem poll in regards to scheduling. I am sure there is great variation in how scheduing is done throughout programs, but it is hard to believe that many programs dont take into account seniority when it comes time to decide who takes call when. On the other hand, your wife will be considered a "senior" resident in FP and will probably have much greater latitude in determining her schedule. Overall, I would anticipate that your wife is going to have to adjust much more to your schedule than you will be able to do for hers. Also, if by "rotations that allow time off" you mean being able to coordinate your vacation weeks, I imagine that the vast majority of programs will be accomodating.

By the way, excellent planning on your part to arrange for a sugar mama for the last three years of residency. On a med student's income I guess she qualifies as a sugar mama right now. Nice.

Disclaimer - I am a PGY4 spouse, so all of my information is at best second-hand and at worst, completely useless. Are there really programs where an intern or first-year ortho resident would have flexibility in the call schedule? We took whatever we got and didn't ask off unless someone died. Maybe we did it all wrong - I wasn't aware that we had options.

Surprizingly, at my program the interns have the most flexible call schedule second only to a cheif probably). This is because you are there with another resident (so that when you are a PGY2+ you will have already learned a great deal and be able to handle it alone, without having someone there holding your hand) They do schedule us, but if we occasionally want a different day, or a specific pattern, as long as we take the same number of weekdays and weekends, it really doesn't matter to anyone if we change, as long as a cheif knows. Your intern year is rather unique though, in your low level of ability to operate independently, with the exception of rounding and simple consults.

-adaman

Just another opinion/angle...

In my program PGY2s (and PGY1s while on ortho call) are expected to handle all consults (I assumed this was the norm). Upper-level backup is sleeping at home.

I would NOT recommend routinely bringing this issue up during interviews/social gatherings. Maybe my program is different, but the last thing we want to hear is an applicant worrying about how the job will effect his/her personal life. We all have a personal life and out of comeraderie/respect try to help each other out when possible (especially with children etc). At the same time, there's always one or two residents in a program that are always bitching about the schedule. These folks are typically not favored; the last thing you want to do when interviewing is bring up bad feelings that will permeate your application in general.

In short, I think wherever you end up the guys will try to help you out as much as possible whenever possible. This is ortho folks, be cool.

Quote from bonetrauma, "Maybe my program is different, but the last thing we want to hear is an applicant worrying about how the job will effect his/her personal life."

Maybe you didn't mean to say it in those exact words, but if I heard this from a resident at a program on the interview circuit, I'd probably run in the other direction. Personally, I think if you are not assessing how the program's culture will affect your personal life, then you're putting yourself at serious risk to be extremely unhappy as a resident. You should always be up front and honest about things, and if a program doesn't want you because they don't like that you ask how the program will affect your marriage, then you don't want to be a part of that program. For me, my family always comes first and any program in which that wasn't accepted is not a program for me.

That being said, I think the spirit of what bonetrauma said is that when you interview at a place, don't make questions about the schedule the overwhelming theme of your interactions with people. You can ask your questions and feel them out without making them think that you're going to be one of those guys that complains about the schedule constantly. Residency is what it is, and especially in a marriage of two doctors, you're going to have to decide that you're willing to make some sacrifices, and I'm sure you already know that.

rwbrhp29[/quote]

My husband must be at bonetrauma's residency program because my understanding is that everyone has a personal life that they want to get home to (most anyway) and the people who complain about the schedule are definitely looked down on in his program. While I would think it's common to ask residents what the hours are like and whether they have time outside the hospital and certainly to share your own circumstances with others during interviews, if someone brought up call schedule concerns in the interview phase, I know my husband would be very concerned.

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I don't think that someone should run away from my program... I mean to emphasize that I tend to believe that most people in most programs (including mine) try to do what they can to help each other out. There's no "I" in "team" point is the one I'm trying to make. I suppose I may assume too much that most ortho programs are quite hour intensive. The guys in my program are cool...but it's a simple fact that if you're not there to do your work, someone else will have to pick up the slack. I suppose the real question/issue is finding a program that has a surplus of residents or a dearth of work to be done?

Hey, I don't want this to get into and arguements about peoples programs. I just wanted to know if it is best for me to bring up my wifes need to transfer. I didn't even mention asking about the vacation and call schedule at the interview. I was directing that towards all of you fine people. I know the amount of work it will take. I just was wondering because I would think if a resident has a chance to be q4 call the same nights as his wife so they could see each other that a program might be willing to work with you. No less work, no missing shifts, just having the same days (hey, not even every month just when possible). The other thing was because with our schedules have been off for 4 years of marriage and we would love to have a trip together at some point.
Thanks for all your advice and any more is welcome but I hate when these things get people arguing.

I don't think you sparked any kind of real argument here. If anything, it shows that programs may differ on flexibility of call schedule issues. I totally sympathize with your concerns about seeing your spouse but in all honestly, it's probably going to suck worse in the beginning of residency than it has in med school - or at least that was the case with us (I am not a resident but did work full time at various points through med school and residency).