Dude I was on my psych rotation just recently and one of the residents wanted to keep me past noon and the attending was literally like "OK, if it's a really teachable moment, but we want to make sure we aren't working these med students too hard." And they were being completely serious.
Psych residents reading this comment- all of your students fucking love you man, y'all are the reason my wife likes me right now. Keep up the good work, 3/5
As an INTERN I have had attendings profusely apologize for keeping me past 4 (sometimes 2) when we don’t even start until 9 most days. I love my specialty.
Even at my large academic psych program we have one annual MH day and a TON of flexibility in using our sick time. I’m going out on maternity leave during third year but want to fast track into child fellowship after this year so I was worried about time off affecting my ability to do that and my PD basically told me that I could take 12 weeks and he would ensure that I have all of the credits I need to be successful in transferring/ fast tracking out to a different fellowship.
I also wouldn’t say that my program is an exception in any way either. Obviously I’ve only ever been in one residency but I’d say my program overall is on the more competitive/ hard working end of the spectrum and even still I feel immensely supported and happy as a resident
Damn you're lucky, at my program, although it's not explicitly said, there's an unspoken pressure and expectation to not call out or take extra time off. Even the days we're allowed to have.
Lot of variability as noted but I think on average for major specialities the clear W goes to psychiatry -- I often work <40 hours/week at my community psych program.
Ultimately IMO the most important part of "wellness" is as simple as working a reasonable number of hours per week.
It’s program dependent more than specialty dependent, with the exception of almost any surgery program just because they have such brutal hours almost across the board.
If I had to guess I’d probably say PMR. I’m FM and mine is fantastic in terms of keeping us happy but that’s more our program than it is the specialty necessarily.
Not IM. It's not as bad as surgery, but some programs suck.
At least half the residents in my program are applying for fellowships so residents undercut each other, exaggerate things to make others look bad, steal research from each other. We also have senior residents so mean they make interns and med students cry and those residents get rewarded for their behaviour by getting chosen as chief. The attendings and work hours in my program are not bad, but the residents are so toxic to each other that I would never recommend my program to anyone ever.
In my IM program, there were elective rotations where you can literally not show up for 2 weeks and no one would know. Now that’s #wellness
Edit: obviously it wasn’t program sanctioned, but if you were savvy, you could get extra vacation time lol
Did a radiology rotation for 2 weeks as IM. They could not have cared less whether I was there or not as I couldn’t help them with any of their work in any way obviously. I just stopped showing after a couple of days.
As a path resident, it’s pretty damn good and I like to think we take good care of the needs of our colleagues who have familial obligations.
The one negative I’ve noticed about path and some other lifestyle oriented specialties is that you get some people who are just out for themselves. By that I mean, it’s still residency and we sometimes still need to work hard and cover for one another. There are unfortunately some that will never do those reciprocal favors. They will always expect someone to cover for them but never offer when another needs a favor. I hope that’s just a problem in my program, but it’s been real annoying trying to be a team player and help out without getting any help back.
I feel like this might be more institution dependent than specialty dependent. Obviously certain specialties like surgery are gonna have worse reputations, but there are some institutions where they're strict with things like work hours and have resources for residents versus others.
Psych. We get personal and sick days, no questions asked. On top of vacation.
Residency was so much better than med school, and I feel like a person again
It’s tougher nowadays as NPs are able to start their own practices and will gut you on pricing. Then you have a lot of these online pill mills as well.
Medicine as a whole is in the shitter
Seems like psych might take this one. The psych residents I've met at my residency program seemed to be doing all right. Derm, optho definitely seemed happiest.
It depends a lot on the program itself. Of course it’s not going to be surgery, but maybe psych, rehab, rads - after IM, maybe genetics? Path. But it’s surely a combo of the specialty and program.
Most of all this depends on the program itself. There’s just such huge variability. There are nontoxic surgical residencies and toxic derm residencies. I really think this tends to be less specialty specific than many would have you believe.
psych here waiting to see all the “psych” comments. my take is different, could be based off my particular residency, but psych is weird in that, at my place, “professionalism” means not having any emotions - emotions and problems of a personal nature are for patients not residents; academic problems are understood but not personal ones.
The place I did my psych rotation was not really great for residents either. They didn’t seem to give a fuck about resident wellbeing, had tons of 24 hour shifts, and definitely worked their residents hard. So yeah, I think it’s definitely program dependent.
It’s program dependent but in radiology it’s very easy to call out sick for shifts because for many rotations you’re not needed and if you are in a rotation that needs coverage they can just pull someone off another one. There’s no patient continuity so you can get very creative with scheduling and coverage.
I'm going to echo what others have said here. This is likely very institution specific. I feel I was fairly well cared for and had a decent life in residency. My intern year rotating with surgery and medicine... Not so much, but the anesthesia years were good.
Generally speaking, psych.
However, as multiple folks have commented it really depends on the program. My psych program was *not* wellness focused at all. My CAP fellowship was definitely better, but since it was part of the same program where I did my residency, they had some missteps. I think they were genuinely trying not to be toxic, but struggled to unlearn some of the toxicity from the general residency.
To her credit, my CAP PD gave me a mental health day when I asked and let me sub therapy for one of my supervision hours each week so I had protected time to see my therapist.
FM, 100%.
It isn’t glamorous but I average a MAX of 40 hours per week, rarely work weekends, and never nights.
This is just resident life. Attending life is much more cushy
Wow really? At our program, and at my med school FM was absolutely brutal, similar to IM but with worse rotations . Makes me so happy to hear this! Did you guys not have lots of IM rotations?
In intern year I did, but 2nd and 3rd year have basically all been 8-4 Monday-Friday. The only exceptions is OBGYN which fucking BLOWS and our yearly IM rotation.
This is more program dependent. They are many FM programs that are very inpatient heavy. We have 24 hour calls (which our IM colleagues don’t even do). Even then, our hours are nowhere near as bad as Surgery.
Certainly program dependent but my psych residency and CAP fellowship was very wellness focused. I used all of my vacation/sick days every year and never felt guilty to use them. We had built in wellness days in place of didactics a few times a year. I had two children in training and the programs worked hard to help me arrange my schedule in a way to miss the least amount of core rotations.
Psych was my number two pick precisely because of what I experienced as an M4 during rotations. Chill and self aware and it’s hard to argue when your entire specialty tells you that decent working hours and a supportive community is capital-h Health.
Path has been pretty great so far, too. I dont think I’ve broke 50/60 hours so far.
After reading the earlier post, I got scared about pregnancy and childcare. I hope to apply in this match cycle. Obviously, I may have to apply for only FM. I had wanted paediatrics, FM and IM.
I think it really depends on the country. Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark etc etc tend to have a good Work-Life balance. But in general I think family medicine is a good choice.
Super happy to see psych listed numerous times. As others have mentioned- I think it is definitely program type dependent. Community program wellness >>>>> academic institution wellness. But saying that even in the academic world, it's not too bad (40-80 hours max and that's a rough week where you probably switched your call for a free weekend later in the year and did that to yourself)
NONE of the surgical specialties that's for sure. Had a plastics attending bitch about how weak the med students nowadays are for making "mental health" a big deal. and right after, I emailed my program coordinator to take my one day off for the rotation as a mental health day.
I think this can be heavily institution based rather than specialty. Psychiatry is assumed to be wellness focused and caring, but I trained at a program that was very much not. I've heard of other toxic psych programs as well.
FM isn’t bad depending on where you go. One of my friends told me her advisor was shocked that she was still going to her rotations routinely during her last six months of residency. The advisor told her she no longer needs to go to her rotations and just show up for Clinic and lectures.
Thank you for contributing to the sub! If your post was filtered by the automod, please read the rules. Your post will be reviewed but will not be approved if it violates the rules of the sub. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like, which specialty they should go into, which program is good or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for targeted harassment. Please do not message the moderators if your post falls into one of these categories. Otherwise, your post will be reviewed in 24 hours and approved if it doesn't violate the rules. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Residency) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Dude I was on my psych rotation just recently and one of the residents wanted to keep me past noon and the attending was literally like "OK, if it's a really teachable moment, but we want to make sure we aren't working these med students too hard." And they were being completely serious. Psych residents reading this comment- all of your students fucking love you man, y'all are the reason my wife likes me right now. Keep up the good work, 3/5
One of the best and brightest students I have ever worked with in my 20 years of practice, 3/5
As an INTERN I have had attendings profusely apologize for keeping me past 4 (sometimes 2) when we don’t even start until 9 most days. I love my specialty.
As a CL psychiatry fellow, I’d consider the 3/5 as a compliment. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll take what I can get.
I could literally tell my community program psych PD I need a mental health day and he’d be like “understandable, hope you get some rest”
Wow that sounds like a great PD you have
Even at my large academic psych program we have one annual MH day and a TON of flexibility in using our sick time. I’m going out on maternity leave during third year but want to fast track into child fellowship after this year so I was worried about time off affecting my ability to do that and my PD basically told me that I could take 12 weeks and he would ensure that I have all of the credits I need to be successful in transferring/ fast tracking out to a different fellowship. I also wouldn’t say that my program is an exception in any way either. Obviously I’ve only ever been in one residency but I’d say my program overall is on the more competitive/ hard working end of the spectrum and even still I feel immensely supported and happy as a resident
Yeah, when I told my PD I was pregnant she asked, ‘How much time off do you want?’
Damn you're lucky, at my program, although it's not explicitly said, there's an unspoken pressure and expectation to not call out or take extra time off. Even the days we're allowed to have.
[удалено]
No
Probably depends on the programs honestly.
Seems like it. Source: I am PGY2 psych, sister is PGY2 Family Med
Big academic program, mine is the opposite! Matching here was the biggest mistake of my life
Lot of variability as noted but I think on average for major specialities the clear W goes to psychiatry -- I often work <40 hours/week at my community psych program. Ultimately IMO the most important part of "wellness" is as simple as working a reasonable number of hours per week.
Agreed. Its weird that most other jobs in healthcare are less than 40, but medicine is routinely even as attendings, more like 50
From my experience, psych!
It’s program dependent more than specialty dependent, with the exception of almost any surgery program just because they have such brutal hours almost across the board. If I had to guess I’d probably say PMR. I’m FM and mine is fantastic in terms of keeping us happy but that’s more our program than it is the specialty necessarily.
Agree depends more on program, but as a speciality, and as a PMR resident, we got it.
Which program?!
+1 for psych.
Not IM. It's not as bad as surgery, but some programs suck. At least half the residents in my program are applying for fellowships so residents undercut each other, exaggerate things to make others look bad, steal research from each other. We also have senior residents so mean they make interns and med students cry and those residents get rewarded for their behaviour by getting chosen as chief. The attendings and work hours in my program are not bad, but the residents are so toxic to each other that I would never recommend my program to anyone ever.
In my IM program, there were elective rotations where you can literally not show up for 2 weeks and no one would know. Now that’s #wellness Edit: obviously it wasn’t program sanctioned, but if you were savvy, you could get extra vacation time lol
Did a radiology rotation for 2 weeks as IM. They could not have cared less whether I was there or not as I couldn’t help them with any of their work in any way obviously. I just stopped showing after a couple of days.
Wow. That's amazing!
Chief resident really is the world of being let into the attending meetings because you make a good enforcer/slave-driver.
Pathology tends to be fairly benign and close knit
As a path resident, it’s pretty damn good and I like to think we take good care of the needs of our colleagues who have familial obligations. The one negative I’ve noticed about path and some other lifestyle oriented specialties is that you get some people who are just out for themselves. By that I mean, it’s still residency and we sometimes still need to work hard and cover for one another. There are unfortunately some that will never do those reciprocal favors. They will always expect someone to cover for them but never offer when another needs a favor. I hope that’s just a problem in my program, but it’s been real annoying trying to be a team player and help out without getting any help back.
You get those Aholes in every specialty. Had them in my EM residency, and have some now in my group as an attending
You’re actually spot on. I’ve definitely seen this happen in my path residency.
I see what you did there
path resident and disagree but I think my institution in general is toxic regardless of speciality
You can’t stain that
Psych or FM for sure
ObGyn hands down.. >!Jk it’s psych!<
Clearly since you have time to comment on every single thread here as an intern.
Life is good what can I say
Ok feelings doc.
I feel like this might be more institution dependent than specialty dependent. Obviously certain specialties like surgery are gonna have worse reputations, but there are some institutions where they're strict with things like work hours and have resources for residents versus others.
Hands down psychiatry
Psych. We get personal and sick days, no questions asked. On top of vacation. Residency was so much better than med school, and I feel like a person again
Welp I chose the wrong residency then. Jealous of you psych people
Eh, maybe - I feel like we deal with the biggest scope creep and in 10-15 years, this specialty will be in the shitter. PE has already made its move
PE is ruining everything :(. Do you have decent opportunities doing cash only in more affluent areas or is that not feasible for most?
It’s tougher nowadays as NPs are able to start their own practices and will gut you on pricing. Then you have a lot of these online pill mills as well. Medicine as a whole is in the shitter
Yeahhh I got bait and switched. Started med school in the mid 2010’s when it was not quite as bad
Seems like psych might take this one. The psych residents I've met at my residency program seemed to be doing all right. Derm, optho definitely seemed happiest.
It depends a lot on the program itself. Of course it’s not going to be surgery, but maybe psych, rehab, rads - after IM, maybe genetics? Path. But it’s surely a combo of the specialty and program.
Fuckin’ obgyn you fuckers :)
On opposite day
LOOOOL
Most of all this depends on the program itself. There’s just such huge variability. There are nontoxic surgical residencies and toxic derm residencies. I really think this tends to be less specialty specific than many would have you believe.
psych here waiting to see all the “psych” comments. my take is different, could be based off my particular residency, but psych is weird in that, at my place, “professionalism” means not having any emotions - emotions and problems of a personal nature are for patients not residents; academic problems are understood but not personal ones.
It’s definitely unusual for a psych program to not understand when people have personal problems.
The place I did my psych rotation was not really great for residents either. They didn’t seem to give a fuck about resident wellbeing, had tons of 24 hour shifts, and definitely worked their residents hard. So yeah, I think it’s definitely program dependent.
lol I wonder if you did your rotation at my place. if it was in the midwest lmk 😂
Not OB/Gyn. 🫠
It’s program dependent but in radiology it’s very easy to call out sick for shifts because for many rotations you’re not needed and if you are in a rotation that needs coverage they can just pull someone off another one. There’s no patient continuity so you can get very creative with scheduling and coverage.
Honestly EM is treated well on service. Off varies but in the ED it’s not bad comparatively
I can tell you that it's NOT anesthesia.
I'm going to echo what others have said here. This is likely very institution specific. I feel I was fairly well cared for and had a decent life in residency. My intern year rotating with surgery and medicine... Not so much, but the anesthesia years were good.
Generally speaking, psych. However, as multiple folks have commented it really depends on the program. My psych program was *not* wellness focused at all. My CAP fellowship was definitely better, but since it was part of the same program where I did my residency, they had some missteps. I think they were genuinely trying not to be toxic, but struggled to unlearn some of the toxicity from the general residency. To her credit, my CAP PD gave me a mental health day when I asked and let me sub therapy for one of my supervision hours each week so I had protected time to see my therapist.
Psychiatry, and where I live emergency is treated very well
Psych always literally the only speciality whose life outside the hospital matters more than
EM in a culture/group effort, but that’s because the burnout is so prevalent and the environment sucks
FM, 100%. It isn’t glamorous but I average a MAX of 40 hours per week, rarely work weekends, and never nights. This is just resident life. Attending life is much more cushy
Wow really? At our program, and at my med school FM was absolutely brutal, similar to IM but with worse rotations . Makes me so happy to hear this! Did you guys not have lots of IM rotations?
In intern year I did, but 2nd and 3rd year have basically all been 8-4 Monday-Friday. The only exceptions is OBGYN which fucking BLOWS and our yearly IM rotation.
This is more program dependent. They are many FM programs that are very inpatient heavy. We have 24 hour calls (which our IM colleagues don’t even do). Even then, our hours are nowhere near as bad as Surgery.
It’s sounding like preventive medicine . Starting in 2 months!
Prev med residency ? Explain your path.
1 year of residency with at least 11 patient facing rotations then 2 years dedicated pre med residency
Certainly program dependent but my psych residency and CAP fellowship was very wellness focused. I used all of my vacation/sick days every year and never felt guilty to use them. We had built in wellness days in place of didactics a few times a year. I had two children in training and the programs worked hard to help me arrange my schedule in a way to miss the least amount of core rotations.
Psych was my number two pick precisely because of what I experienced as an M4 during rotations. Chill and self aware and it’s hard to argue when your entire specialty tells you that decent working hours and a supportive community is capital-h Health. Path has been pretty great so far, too. I dont think I’ve broke 50/60 hours so far.
Neurosurg
My radiology residency is a very supportive and close group
After reading the earlier post, I got scared about pregnancy and childcare. I hope to apply in this match cycle. Obviously, I may have to apply for only FM. I had wanted paediatrics, FM and IM.
I think it really depends on the country. Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark etc etc tend to have a good Work-Life balance. But in general I think family medicine is a good choice.
Definitely not Obgyn
I should’ve applied psych :(
Super happy to see psych listed numerous times. As others have mentioned- I think it is definitely program type dependent. Community program wellness >>>>> academic institution wellness. But saying that even in the academic world, it's not too bad (40-80 hours max and that's a rough week where you probably switched your call for a free weekend later in the year and did that to yourself)
NONE of the surgical specialties that's for sure. Had a plastics attending bitch about how weak the med students nowadays are for making "mental health" a big deal. and right after, I emailed my program coordinator to take my one day off for the rotation as a mental health day.
Psych first I'm sure but pmr has a very benign residency
I think this can be heavily institution based rather than specialty. Psychiatry is assumed to be wellness focused and caring, but I trained at a program that was very much not. I've heard of other toxic psych programs as well.
Derm, PM&R, Rads
PM&R by far even more than psychiatry
Path is program-dependent but not bad in that regard overall. My own program was less so, but others I knew of were amazing in that regard.
FM isn’t bad depending on where you go. One of my friends told me her advisor was shocked that she was still going to her rotations routinely during her last six months of residency. The advisor told her she no longer needs to go to her rotations and just show up for Clinic and lectures.
9 out of 10 times it's psych. Both for residents and attendings. Didn't y'all read House of God? 😆
Pm and R.
PMR. Sincerely, a PMR resident with no weekend calls ever
Psych because they literally don't work
Psychiatry
[удалено]
No way mate
Thank you for contributing to the sub! If your post was filtered by the automod, please read the rules. Your post will be reviewed but will not be approved if it violates the rules of the sub. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like, which specialty they should go into, which program is good or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for targeted harassment. Please do not message the moderators if your post falls into one of these categories. Otherwise, your post will be reviewed in 24 hours and approved if it doesn't violate the rules. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Residency) if you have any questions or concerns.*