Medical Residency

My wife has started her residency in Occupational Medicine here in Tennessee. This is a program within the more general Preventive Medicine program. Since she doesn't have clinical experience in the USA, she has to go through internship training.

She leaves home at 6am, drives 45 minutes to a VA hospital in the area, gets off at 4pm, and drives home. Every few days she is on-call, and has to work overnight, with very little sleep. It seems brutally intense to me, as she barely has time for lunch or a break. We are hoping that it gets a little easier after her Internal Medicine stint is over. And when her stint at the VA is over, she will be at a local hospital which is a 10 minute commute.

I really have to wonder who thought this system was a good idea. How effective can you be after 24+ hours on your feet? How much of what you hear are you going to be able to retain? My experience is that I have far less memory retention ability when I am exhausted. If the point of this internship is education, I think the long hours will be a hindrance.

For now, it's pretty tough. She's only home one day a week, so we don't get a proper weekend. I think both the baby and I miss her!