[rileyteige]

I can definitely relate with you on this story.

My wife is getting ready to start an OB/GYN residency next year (lasts 4 years for those who don't know). She just wrapped up interview season and each program had just about the same scheduling for their residents: 5 12-hour shifts at a minimum if you're lucky with one 24-hour shift per week on top of that. Often times I heard "one weekend off every six weeks". Then there's call.

I write this as I read more through your comment... the statement on the kids, medical training running your life... all true.

The other part, that I'm sure you can personally relate to, is "The Match". The "sorting hat" algorithm that all 4th-year med school students have to go through. For those unaware, the match dictates the program that a doctor candidate (MD or DO) must attend for residency. Given where my wife attended medical school, we already know that we're going to have to pack up and leave the home that we've established over 4 years since there are no residencies in our region. But since everything is done through "The Match", it's really a toss-up where in the country we end up (she applied to every program in the country since competition mandates that everybody do absolutely everything)... we'll be finding out in about 6 weeks where we will live come summertime. "Runs our lives"... so accurate.

I do what I can to support my wife through this endless process, but boy is it exhausting for everyone involved. I have no clue how she does it.

It truly is an enormous sacrifice of - really - some of the best (at least youthful) years of your life. Want to become a doctor? Say bye-bye to your 20s.

Edit: drawing context from another person who also commented on your post, we've also heard kids during second-half of residency can be a good route to go. We're thinking 3rd year ourselves.

[pdxandi]

Can relate to all those points.

The Match was especially brutal on us because there were only a handful of programs within 2000 miles of our home (West Coast) so we said goodbye to our lifelong friends and family and moved out East.

It's a bit late for you, but I created a website (https://medmap.io) to help with The Match process. I have plans to improve it and make it more community driven, but it at least helps visualize your options.

[rileyteige]

That is a really cool website. I have some comments, and let me preface them with the fact that my wife is going to be a DO so I'm always looking for "Where is the love for DOs?":

- I don't see a way to differentiate between DO and MD programs. Along the same lines, several of the programs she applied to (like Grandview in Dayton: http://www.ketteringhealth.org/grandviewmeded/residencies.cf...) don't appear on this map (though some do, but again no indication of DO). What is the datasource for the map? Is there any way it could be enrichened?

[user5994461]

> My wife is getting ready to start an OB/GYN residency next year (lasts 4 years for those who don't know). She just wrapped up interview season and each program had just about the same scheduling for their residents: 5 12-hour shifts at a minimum if you're lucky with one 24-hour shift per week on top of that. Often times I heard "one weekend off every six weeks". Then there's call.

How does this work out in the long term?

In the places I've seen that (not medical). It stops after a while because either the rhythm got back to normal or people burned out.

[rileyteige]

Well I can't say for sure about post-residency, but during the programs the shift scheduling was consistent all four years (some months you work the day 12-hour shift, other months you work the night 12-hour shift). The only thing that changed was during 3rd and 4th year, the call schedule was a bit more relaxed (after all they have to prep for another round of board exams).

As for burnout, alcoholism is relatively high among many medical specialties: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160314111353.h...