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I recently finished my MD degree in Canada and am wondering what to do for a career. I know (after trying) I'm definitely not able to work the long hours residency programs in North America demand. I see that in some other countries the law specifies more reasonable working hours, but that these laws are often disregarded in practice. So, where could I actually work as a medical resident doing 40 hours a week?

EDIT: If anyone is still interested in this question, here's what I have found out more recently:

  1. Some European/Scandinavian countries (Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, etc.) do seem to respect maximum hours more seriously. However, these countries accept very few international candidates, and require language proficiency and exams in their local languages BEFORE applying (if acceptation were conditional to passing a language exam within the 1st year or whatever it might work, but as it stands now you would have to learn several languages to apply in several countries with still a large probability of rejection)!
  2. Canada is still very bad, my fellow graduates who are now doing residency report many hospitals require 80 to 100h weeks (against the threat of failing the rotation), with lots of cases of burnout and/or depression among the residents.
  3. For now I've gone back to academia where the work culture is much less hostile (though you can see from the Academia SE that it's far from perfect).
Alexbib
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  • This is off topic here, you could ask for migration to the workplace stack, but I don't know that it will fit there either. – bob1 Jun 05 '23 at 04:54
  • @bob1 - Is it off topic? I have no idea. It's certainly a common problem in medicine, though. – anongoodnurse Jun 05 '23 at 11:40
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    I did my residency during the bad old days: on my first year 3 + break + 3 month Internal Medicine rotation I worked 36 consecutive hours plus 2 more 10 hour days every 72 hours. That year, I never saw daylight during wintertime except through a patient's window. Nope, nope, nope. I confirm that humans were not designed to work efficiently that way. I fell asleep standing up listening to a patient's heart; a fellow (male) resident fell asleep against a woman's thigh while doing a pelvic exam! – anongoodnurse Jun 05 '23 at 12:01
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    Technically, it is off topic because it doesn't fall under any of the categories listed in What questions can I ask about here. However, it's kind of in a grey area and it already has an answer, so I'm going to allow it to stay. – Carey Gregory Jun 05 '23 at 14:01
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    @Alexbib - Thanks for the update! Just last night I was daydreaming about practicing in Denmark, but suspected that there would be language proficiency required ahead of application. Academia is a good option (well, better than some others!) – anongoodnurse Jan 14 '24 at 19:13

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In the states (US) where laws restrict the number of hours a resident can work, there is a common "workaround" - e.g. a minimum number of hours off to rest - and a return to duty, in effect legally complying (e.g. if the law states no more than 13 consecutive hours, the resident might get a 2-hour break after 8 hours, only to return for another 8 hours.) It's not enough for true compliance. Furthermore, they do not include the increasing number of hours that doctors are charting from home due to the complex and time consuming requirements of Electronic Medical Records. (Even the majority of older, experienced physicians do at least an hour of charting during "off duty" hours/workday. I'm not sure about other countries.

If you're looking for a residency where there is compliance with the spirit of the law, I'd look at the Scandinavian countries, esp Sweden and Denmark.

Resident duty hours around the globe: where are we now?

anongoodnurse
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