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Family Medicine Residency


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not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but I just had to ask this regarding the horror stories about residency. For family med residency, what are the working hours like? Do you still get called in early in the morning? (pardon my ignorance, I have NO idea what residency is like, and if it really is as brutal as it sounds). Also how much do you get paid (roughly??)

 

Thanks, I'm just curious :o

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Salaries and benefits for all provinces:

 

http://www.carms.ca/eng/r1_program_salaries_e.shtml

 

As a resident, you rotate through different specialties (even if you are a family medicine resident). Some specialties are busier than others. If you're doing your gen surg or obstetrics rotation - yes, you'll have to be at the hospital early in the morning (usually around 6.30am) and yes you'll get called in the middle of the night if you are on call. You stay in hospital all night for certain specialties, whereas others are 'home call' where you can stay at home while on call but must be able to reach the hospital in about 20 mins if you are asked to come in.

 

You only get called if you are "on call". Cant escape that no matter what residency you are in. You also do this during clerkship in med school.

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Salaries and benefits for all provinces:

 

http://www.carms.ca/eng/r1_program_salaries_e.shtml

 

As a resident, you rotate through different specialties (even if you are a family medicine resident). Some specialties are busier than others. If you're doing your gen surg or obstetrics rotation - yes, you'll have to be at the hospital early in the morning (usually around 6.30am) and yes you'll get called in the middle of the night if you are on call. You stay in hospital all night for certain specialties, whereas others are 'home call' where you can stay at home while on call but must be able to reach the hospital in about 20 mins if you are asked to come in.

 

You only get called if you are "on call". Cant escape that no matter what residency you are in. You also do this during clerkship in med school.

 

Oh ok, thanks for the info. How often are you expected to be "on call?" And how long do these specialties last (ie for how many weeks would you have to stay all night at the hospital? do you get to sleep much? lol) Also, I'd imagine you'd have to live very near the hospital in order to get there in 20 mins!! What if you live further than a 20 min drive?)

 

Thanks for the links as well :)

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Oh ok, thanks for the info. How often are you expected to be "on call?" And how long do these specialties last (ie for how many weeks would you have to stay all night at the hospital? do you get to sleep much? lol)

 

Thanks for the links as well :)

 

It varies with how busy the service is and how many other residents are on your team. Officially (at least in Ontario) you shouldn't be doing in-house call more frequently than one-in-four. You can do home call more frequently, and I forget the maximum. Some nights when you're in-house you'll get 3 or 4 hours of sleep, other nights you'll be running from dusk to dawn.

 

Heavy rotations for call include GIM, Gen Sx and Ob, and as a family med resident you'll do one or two months of each. Suggest you google some residency programs for details.

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You only get called if you are "on call"

 

Of if locating hates you. :rolleyes:

 

I have learned the hard way to call switchboard when I'm post-call and tell them I'm leaving. Then I turn off my pager. It only took a couple of post-call awakenings for me to learn that lesson.

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Ontario resident payscale here: http://www.pairo.org/Content/Default.aspx?pg=1094

 

Other provinces pay roughly the same. Quebec pays the least.

 

They pay the least, but they make it up through a generous (way too generous) benefit package, which oddly enough gets taken back through their sky high taxes. http://carms.ca/eng/r1_program_salaries_e.shtml#QC

 

Can you believe the highest tax bracket in ontario is the lowest tax bracket in quebec.

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Of if locating hates you. :rolleyes:

 

I have learned the hard way to call switchboard when I'm post-call and tell them I'm leaving. Then I turn off my pager. It only took a couple of post-call awakenings for me to learn that lesson.

 

hahaha

so true. locating doesnt hate me but the gyne floor needs to learn how to read a schedule. they always have me as being on-call when im not. i've gotten some 3am pages but luckily i sleep right through them.

 

to the OP: ploughboy summed it up nicely. there were days when i was up for 28 hrs straight, and others where i've gotten a few hours of sleep. i just finished a rotation on a very busy service that was shorthanded 2 residents - so even busier.

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ok thanks a lot for the info Madz25 and ploughboy.

 

One more question - do you guys in clerkship/residency have to change locations often (ie, place of residence). How do you guys get to the hospital in 20 minutes - do you leave like right across the street during clerkship/residency? Don't many people have to commute like 30 min-1hr to get to the hospital?? :confused:

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Oh ok, thanks for the info. How often are you expected to be "on call?" And how long do these specialties last (ie for how many weeks would you have to stay all night at the hospital? do you get to sleep much? lol) Also, I'd imagine you'd have to live very near the hospital in order to get there in 20 mins!! What if you live further than a 20 min drive?)

 

Thanks for the links as well :)

 

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2010/01/12/toronto-police-have-no-regrets-about-ticketing-md-speeding-to-heart-surgery.aspx (but when will journalists figure out that cardiologist != surgeon?)

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ok thanks a lot for the info Madz25 and ploughboy.

 

One more question - do you guys in clerkship/residency have to change locations often (ie, place of residence). How do you guys get to the hospital in 20 minutes - do you leave like right across the street during clerkship/residency? Don't many people have to commute like 30 min-1hr to get to the hospital?? :confused:

 

most med students/residents live close to the med school/hospital. if you cant make it to the hospital within 20mins or so when on home call, then i believe you are required to stay in hospital. not sure though. never had that problem.

 

depends on the school you are at but i often had to change locations during clerkship. sometimes the other sites provide housing for students for free or at a reduced cost, or you know someone in the town and crash on their couch, or you find someone to sublet from.

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