First Week of Residency

How about a little old fashioned life update? This past week was Mark’s first week as a medical resident, which meant big changes for all of us.

For those of you without family and friends in the medical field, I thought I’d share a little bit about the hours and lifestyle of a first year resident. They came as quite a shock to me when Mark started medical school.

• A resident (meaning a doctor who has an MD but still needs supervision before practicing on his/her own), is supposed to work no more than 80 hours in a given week, with at least 10 hours between shifts. The hours however can be averaged over a four week span, which means it’s possible to have (and likely) a doctor who worked 90 hours one week and 70 the next, or 100 hours and 60.
• Furthermore, a resident is required to be given one day off a week, but again, this is averaged over 4 weeks, which means as long as they are given 4 days off a month, it is all legal and okay. A
• Also stipulated in the duty hour requirements is that a resident may only work 24 hours straight, except that there is a 6 hour grace period given for “education and continuity of care.” In reality, this means that residents are scheduled for 30 hour shifts.
• In house call is stipulated to be no more than once every 3 days. What this means is that a 30 hour shift can be assigned no more than once every 3 days. As always, this is averaged over four weeks. For Mark, his call schedule will range between once every 4 days and once every 6 days.

You can read the entirety of the duty hour requirements here. If these seem absurd to you, you aren’t the only one. I get plenty of people who tell me that this is what I signed up for, and I should just accept this as part of the long term payout for marrying a doctor, which I personally think is ridiculous. Yes, I did know that the system was this messed up when we started medical school, but that doesn’t mean I can’t advocate for change, especially for those whom I love.

Anyways, here’s what these requirements looked like in action for Mark’s first week. He left for the hospital between 3:30 and 4:00 am each morning. Praise the good Lord, he didn’t wake the kids up! This is one of the major perks of a bigger house where everyone is not sleeping right on top of each other. Most nights he was home a little before 7pm. Now, we are expecting the days to shorten slightly as he gets used to the workload and more efficient at his charting, but a 12/13 hour day is pretty normal. This week, Mark’s 30 hour call came on Saturday, which meant he didn’t have a day off, and worked 7 days straight.

Needless to say, this was a huge transition for the kids. After having daddy home every day since graduation, they have all struggled with not seeing him. Gianna and William understand where their dad goes each day, and grasp the concept of working which helps quite a bit, but Charlotte has been a hot mess of baby. As soon as he walks through the door, she clings to him like a little spider monkey, refusing to let go and sobbing if she’s taken from him.

The first few nights of the week after the kids went to bed, Mark and I had about a 5 minute conversation of the quick highlights of the day and to pass on any critical information, finished the necessary chores, and went to bed. I’m hoping that as we both get more used to the long days, we’ll build up some stamina and be able to have more for each other at the end of the day.

Thankfully, we have a fabulous village. Every family needs a village, and I would be lost without ours. My mom is the most spectacular help to us. She stops in and pitches in with whatever we are in the middle of. Without being asked, she starts to sweep the floor, tidy the lawn, run a load of laundry, or any other task she sees that needs doing. The kids absolutely adore her. They are always excited to see her, and always willing to do chores with her (currently they are in the yard pulling weeds from the garden together). She loves us all so well.

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We were also blessed to have my college roommate (and William’s godmother) and her son visit from GA last week. They visit about twice a year, and this one was planned to coincide with Mark’s first week so that they would be a welcome distraction to the kids, and a help to me while we readjust. Having the physical and emotional support from Caitlin was huge the first week of adjustment. And Alexander kept the kids so happy and occupied that they missed Mark less.

We are also blessed to have my in-laws living about an hour away, so for last Saturday, I loaded up the car (Gram included) and headed to their house for some swimming and family time to make the day go by faster.

I learned during medical school, and I’m sure that it will be true during residency, that it’s important to make our own plans, so that when Mark gets stuck at the hospital for longer than expected, we aren’t just waiting around for him. So this past week we also went to the park and splash pad, organized an art area for G, found Will a fabulous thrift store bike, and started our Mary garden.

All in all, the start of residency has been difficult, and we are still in the middle of the transition period, but it hasn’t been more than we expected, and I’m sure that in many ways it will get easier as we progress.