How is the life of a medical resident?

Question

I am a high school junior in Bangladesh but me and my family are immigrating to the USA this summer. I will apply to college in 2008. Although I have no definite idea on what career I want to follow, I intend on majoring in Biology or Biochemistry and might apply to medical school later on. Recently I was watching a program on CNN about the life medical residents at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. I was appalled: the residents work 30-hour shifts, coming in one morning and leaving the next afternoon. It put a lot of doubt in my mind about my motivation to be a physician; I do not think I could bear the stresses of a job that demands 30-hour shifts and 100+ hours a week. I want to ask, do all physicians have to go through such rigorous schedules as residents, or are residencies in certain specialities, e.g. General Practitioner less stressful? And must all residencies be completed in hospital settings or are residencies also performed in primary-health clinics or doctors’ chambers.

Answer 1

Cheap labor is correct. Residents make less than some hospital staff who don't even have 4 year degrees. I wouldn't mind the hours if the pay was in line with the responsibilites. The 80 hour work week is a myth and most residents work 80+ hours a week. You do have an opportunity to see and do a lot, but then you have no life. Not all residency programs are the same. Make sure you research each program you intend to apply to and talk with residents. Program directors can and do lie.

Answer 2

I doubt you're a doctor. To permit you be attentive to nevertheless. There are frequently too many volunteers for stated learn. maximum cancers sufferers and those afflicted with HIV are frequently the 1st to affix. Why provide Murders extra therapy than harmless human beings? Edit: human beings in severe threat categories such human beings probably to settlement HIV nonetheless volunteer in droves for vaccine trials. Edit: ok then, in case you advise to objective a vaccine on a prisoner then purposely and repeatably inject stay HIV1 or HIV2 with a view to make sure if it takes, then no, that may no longer ok. you're a doctor, prisoners are nonetheless human beings, undergo in strategies first do no harm. Edit: I see what you assert, yet that actuality is, this is medically unethical. You pose an exciting question and that's some thing to think of approximately, however the assumption does pass the line. Society can not manage prisoners as expendable lab rats, fantastically in considering that those detention center populations are mixed with drug suitable expenses which will at last be launch back into society.

Answer 3

Residents are a cheap labor force, and working long hours allows you to see and experience a lot in just a few years. If you worked only 40 hours a week, you'd need 5-6 years to see what you would otherwise see in 3 years. (Double that for surgeons)

It's tough, but it's necessary. Yes, it's stressful, but so is a life in medicine. If you're not cut out for that life, pick something else.

Answer 4

hi!

I'm a bsn stud and also planning to become a medical doctor. as an s.n i'm having my internship and its really stressful. well my prof once told me that being a doctor needs a lot of thinking over. being a doctor is really fulfilling and a big plus for one's career not to mention the ego boost that you get. though the life of a medical doctor is really "fatal"...nothing can be more fulfilling. God bless you and hope that you can have discernment

Answer 5

I have a feeling they're overworked and sleep deprived so you won't get too many residents on Y/A to tell you.