Resident Schedule

Hello.
Let me first thank you for taking your time to contribuite to this forum. I think it is an extremely valuable tool to gain information from those who have gone before us.
My question is regarding residency and its schedule. While I fully expect residency to be a very time consuming yet extremely rewarding experience, I am currently wondering what the current state of resident work hours is in orthopedics.

I am currently working on a surgery service where we are performing the following each day in the OR:
at least 1 gastric bypass (~3 hours)
at least 1 whipple procedure (~6-8hours)
at least 2 other procedures (lap chole, hernia repair, etc., ~2hrs)
Totalling about 12hous in the OR 2-3 times per week.

Plus, we have a service consisting of 75% post-whipple patients.

As a result the time demands have easily been >90hours per week as a medical student. Is this the type of schedule to expect every week of orthopedic residency?

Cannot speak for other areas in the country but I can tell you that in New York the 80-hour work week is alive and well. We are frequently audited by an independent agency hired by the state to ensure compliance. Our residents (and fellows) must log in via an on-line system that keeps track of all of the work hour guidelines including: 1) 80-hour work week averaged over 4 weeks; 2) at least 1 24-hour period off per 7 days; 3) no shift can last more than 24 + 3 hours (if in-house call); and 4) 10-hour rest period between work shifts.

New York has actually enacted stricter rules than those mandated by the ACMGE but nonetheless we have to adhere to and enforce these rules or the hospital and the individual program will face huge fines.

wnl

Ok i would first like to say that the ACGME has specific guidelines for duty hours at orthopaedic-residency.blogspot.com/

dr. levine was exactly right in all he has said and new york is probably more acutely aware of these restrictions than others because that is where it all began ....

i do feel that many good orthopaedic programs are very aware of the restrictions and have developed plans of reducing the numbers of hours ...

ways of reducing hours are the night float call system and home call ... these have limited the number of 24 hour stretches that eats away at the 80 work week ... so, with out a call day you can have 5 - 16hrs days (a 5am to 10pm shift) or 6 - 12 hrs days (6am-6pm) ...

i can speak for our residency, we are very aware of the restrictions .... academic time is protected time (my favorite because i get to operate by myself, fabulous ) we have implemented home call on our service ... and our typical day is a 10 to 12 hour day ... so we are way under the hour restrictions ...

remember also that the reason for the hour restrictions is to prevent chronic fatigue. you will have some really busy days and sometimes spent more time than you would like ... but it should be less frequent and you should be allowed time to recovery ...

so that all i got to say about that ...

ps. i'm not sure where that hospital is .... booking 4 cases a day that are going to be greater that 12 hours including turnover ... that's tuff to do