Duty Hours

When I was a medical student an attending once stopped the entire medical team during rounds in the middle of the hallway, singled me out by asking what my Step 1 score was, and then (appearing only semi-impressed) stated the following: "You know, you guys will never be as smart as I am."

Long awkward pause..

"And it is because of the new duty hours."

What!?! Did he actually say that I, and I imagine the rest of the team, was thinking. He went on an entire monologue about how we could only hope to be half the physician he is because his workload during residency was much more demanding. "We didn't have post-call days off and the ability to leave once we had worked eighty hours. We had to see everyone, not being able to leave until all patient care was completed," he continued to ramble. As arrogant as he was at the time, I can't say I entirely disagree with him. A lot of the younger generation will argue that the oldies didn't have half the patient population that we deal with on a daily basis, and there is some truth to that. However; regardless of whether it is family medicine, surgery, or everything in between (ok, maybe not so much dermatology), residency is hard, and it is hard because not only are you juggling your time at the hospital, but also your family life, your social life, and even your personal life. Everyone needs there alone time at some point.

There are times when I go over my 80 hours, but it is rare. I worked 86 hours a few weeks ago and it was a drag. Here is some math if you work 12 hour shifts:

12 hour work schedule + 30 minutes round trip to and from work + 6.5 hours of sleep + 30 minutes of reading a day = 4.5 hours in the day of "free time".

We're not done yet, however. That 4.5 hours of "free time" is not all yours. Some of it belongs to your family and friends, and trust me, if you don't make time for them you'll go crazy (and so will they). At the very least residency makes you figure out who your really good friends are because they other ones you make time to see. I have good friends that I haven't seen since the start of residency, but they understand.

At the beginning of my residency, my director told me to think about all of my hobbies and which one I like the most because that is the only one I would have time for, and now I believe her. Maybe that is why older doctors are so cranky: they lost of their hobbies.