intern year

[Flynn]

I was asked by a 4th year med student the other day how bad intern year was for us.

Ok, so it was a LONG time ago but the blood started to boil again! Our intern year was pre-80 hour work week in General Surgery. Nuf said there.

However, I realize my experience is not everyone's. So, I am wondering, what is your spouse's area of medicine and how was your intern year? Not as bad as you thought? Torture -- or somewhere in the middle?

Tell tell if you care to relive that time!

[Vishenka69]

I hope I don't get stoned for saying that ours wasn't that bad. 80 hour rule was well in effect and DH picked a program known for it's friendliness (many of other ROAD'ies from his med school picked it too). Of course the reason we could be so picky is because there's a hospital in NY every few blocks. Sure, the hours and weekend calls still sucked but there seemed to be lots of time-killing activities, such as lectures, rep lunch/dinners, etc.

The worst part of intern year was living back in Brooklyn, very close to ILs.


edited to fix the use of "malignancy."

[DCJenn]

Internship year sucked- but not nearly as badly as it did for some:

1) We were newlyweds and it was the most amount of time that we EVER spent together- which was good that he was gone as much as he was- we were mid-30s and very comfortable with alone time!

2) He didn't have a quadrillion dollars in debt because he did the Army thing.

3) We were living in a Top 10 tourist town and had lots to do.

4) 90% of the fellow resdents were fun and we all went out or did stuff often. (there was a softball team, etc)

To be honest, fellowship has been soooo much harder because we got spoiled by both the residency program which was great, and the fun times we had during 3rd year. He's a fellow who has ben treated like an intern for 3 years. Toxicity of the program can make a huge difference in everyone's happiness.

Jenn

[Meenah]

It was great for me, I didn't know him!!!
Luanne

[SueC]

It sucked, simple as that! DH was either Q4 or Q5 (which I realize isn't as bad as Q3) and I hated it. We were newlyweds, and I hated having him gone all the time. This was before the 80 hour work week, and I know he worked a lot more than that. I still think the first year of fellowship was at least as bad as that, though. The 80 hour work week still wasn't in effect, and during his ICU months he would have at least 1 stretch of 12 days straight where he would go in at 6am, and come home as late as midnight, if he even made it home at all. The rest of the days were just as long, but he would at least have the weekend to recover.

It was great for me, I didn't know him!!!
Luanne

It was before the 80 hr work week but because it was Internal Medicine, not as bad as surgery or ob/gyn. But it still sucked and was over 80 hrs/wk quite often. I think that what made that year so bad were things going on in my life that I faced completely alone because he wasn't available. :titanic: I hope I never have a year like that again.

It sucked. DH was in general surgery and it was our first year of marriage (and before the 80 hour work week). Standard was Q3, a couple services were Q2, and he had two instances where he ended a month on call for one service and started the next on call for another service, so went in on a Tuesday and didn't come home until Thursday sometime. There was no "leaving early" if you were post-call, you just stayed until everyone else was done, and then reported back at 5 or 6AM the next day.

Our joke is that I dated his best friend during intern year. The guy had just been dumped a month before his wedding, and my dh was always working, so he and I were together all the time.

[Malpka]

Ours was a pre-80 hour OB internship. I actually cannot think of a week that was less than 80 hours. We got married 6 months into that year- very busy with wedding and buying our first house. The roughest part for me was just being in a new place and not knowing a soul, and a DH that was never around.

You know, I hate to say it, but as rough as it was it pales in comparison to any year since when we had kids. Single parenting is for the birds. When DH was an overworked intern I would kill time at the mall, or painting my nails. I am sure the work was hard on him, but for me it was just a little lonely

[SuzySunshine]

I will be one that says our intern year was better than this year (his 2nd year). Here the intern year is a "hybrid" surgery/neurosurgery intern year so every 6-12 weeks he switched from general surgery to vascular to neurology to neurosurgery, etc. etc. His hours were better and because he was the intern he wasn't expected to do or know a lot. This year has been crappy. Now he's lucky if he works less than 88 hours (they have an exemption here) and he has to round every Sat. morning so he never gets a true weekend, blah, blah, blah I could go on and on!

[spotty_dog]

DH picked a program known for it's malignancy

Vishenka, what does "malignancy" in a program mean to you? I picked up the phrase from context in the EM forum of SDN. I *thought* I understood it to mean that the other services of the hospital didn't "play well" with the ER docs -- that they were "malignant" toward off-service interns. But I'm not sure if that's the way you mean it? (I've been totally off base before with phrases I picked up in context, so this would not be the first time I goofed! )

[Vishenka69]

Alison, thanks for catching that. I actually meant the opposite of malignant. I mean the program is known as having an easy prelim year.

[mommax3]

Intern year.....OB/Gyn residency, Q3 call and working full days ('til around 6-ish) post-call, pre-80 hour work week, very busy military residency, working at two hospitals, with a required two month rotation away from home, (so I guess that really makes three hospitals) and we had moved 1000 + miles away from home to a place where we knew no one. I had a *very* active two year old and somehow got pregnant in September of intern year. It sucked, big time.

BUT.....DH had several "off-service" rotations, like internal medicine and ambulatory medicine, and those were much easier than the OB/Gyn rotations, with a much nicer call schedule.

I would have to say that second year was actually worse, because except for a T-Surg rotation at the beginning of second year, (right after DS#2 was born.....DH pretty much missed the first six weeks of his life.....good thing he was an easy baby!) and an ER rotation later on, during which DH took a week of leave but still ended up working the exact same number of shifts as the residents who DIDN'T take a week of leave, the OB/Gyn Dept. owned him and then it was Q-3 all the time, with the lovely addition of 2 months on the Gyn-Onc service (lots of surgery) which apparently was a privilege reserved for second year! I certainly hit bottom that year, due to the schedule and the trauma of having thought throughout the previous year that things were *sure* to be better 2nd year.

I am actually scaring myself over how bitter I still am about all of this.....and how well I remember every little horror of each year, including the order of his rotations!

Sally

[Vanquisher]

It sucked. Not as bad as this year though. This is after the 80 hour rule. Not that they follow that rule at all, or any of the other rules for that matter. It sucks, it sucks, it sucks. I have kids though, so a different perspective than those who don't. Kids make an enormous difference.

Total suckfest.

[Amiens]

It was great for me, I didn't know him!!!
Luanne

It was before the 80 hr work week but because it was Internal Medicine, not as bad as surgery or ob/gyn. But it still sucked and was over 80 hrs/wk quite often. I think that what made that year so bad were things going on in my life that I faced completely alone because he wasn't available. :titanic: I hope I never have a year like that again.

Nellie and I's hubbies were in the same program for internship. I have to say it SUCKED, but as she said not as bad as surgery- although there were a few months where I didn't see dh: 1st month of internship and his ICU medicine rotations at the county hospital. I will say the 1st 6 months for me were the hardest, mainly because dh had all of his hardest months, after that it was a bit nicer.

Crystal

Crystal -- DH had 2 ICU months at the county hospital in the winter, one with a horrible 3rd year. Scheduling snafu? It was the pits. His mood sort of reached a point of no return after that November. Yuck!

That 3rd year ended finishing and going into practice (of course) and whenever I would walk by his office on the way to my OB (at Rose), I wanted to put black tape over his name. :>

Another intern year horror story...during his ER rotation, he got really, really sick. His chief resident that night was one of the weaker chiefs and she refused to let him leave (she needed the help). He ended up not being a lot of help because he was getting dizzy standing up. So, she put him in a wheelchair and started an IV on him. I'm not kidding -- his next patients walked by him on the way to their little room. Then he went in to see them. Can you imagine seeing your doctor getting IV fluids and then coming in to take care of you? And THEN, the ER wanted to get his insurance info to charge him for the fluids -- and the $75 ER copay! Somehow they forgot which is good thing because that is the part where I was going to come completely unglued. I was able to pick him up much later that night. He couldn't the 6 blocks home.

I'm surprised by how much of this I remember, too.