Residency: The First Two Weeks

Josh's first two weeks of his surgical residency are over.  Well, okay, he has to work tonight.  So I guess his first two weeks are officially over tomorrow, but close enough.  I am betting there are a number of people out there who are curious how residency really is compared to 3rd and 4th year clinical rotations.  And to be quite honest, there are a lot of similarities while at the same time a lot of differences.

First of all, Josh is loving residency.  He loves finally being a doctor.  He has his own patients, writes orders, creates plans, executes plans, assists in surgery, does procedural stuff in patient's rooms, and basically, gets to make decisions (some not all) without another physician having to sign off on it.  It seems to be at this hospital, that if you prove you can handle the work, you get more work.  Which is actually a good thing.

He is working a lot of hours as an intern, coming close to hitting the 80 hour limit set for interns each week.  It's hard to have him leave the house before 5am every morning and not get home until sometimes as late as 7pm.  He doesn't see much of me or Ryan but it could be worse.  During clinicals, he had to take 24 hour call 2 days a week and had some weeks where he was working 100+ hours.  If anything, ARMC prepared him for long hours.  ARMC also gave him confidence in patient care because he was required/allowed to do so much as a student that being an intern resident isn't quite as overwhelming for Josh as it may be for others.

He is really enjoying working with his senior residents and attendings and feels like it is really a team atmosphere.  Which, as a previous quarterback, he can appreciate.

He feels quite a bit of pressure to perform well, which I am sure is typical for most interns in any residency program, but since he is a preliminary surgical resident, that pressure is increased.  He and I really like Massachusetts so far and considering that he basically fell into this surgical residency position, UMass seems like the most amazing fit for Josh and I.  Despite the long hours of work, we are the happiest we've been in a long time.

We would love to stay here for the remainder of his surgical residency and so it's hard not to think about it on a daily basis. But for now, Josh can only work as hard as he can and hope that that's enough to keep us here.  I have faith that God will keep us here or put us where we are supposed to be.  And He hasn't let me down yet.