r/Residency • u/idkwtda115 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Working conditions for Residents US vs UK
People often talk about the hours in the US being higher (although part of this is balanced out with the fact that the intensity of the hours is less in the US compared to the UK), but I’ve seen no threads which discuss the day-to-day differences.
I’m a PGY3 in the UK. We often have to deal with crappy PCs that are really slow, spend time trying to get the printer to work, fighting to find a space to just sit and use a computer on the ward (a lot of wards don’t have a “doctors office” anymore, and even the ones that do usually cram more doctors than there are seats/PC’s). Moreover a lot of our time is taken up with basic procedures like venepuncture, cannulation, urinary catherisation etc. A lot of the time it feels like you’re not “doctoring”.
Was just wondering how the average US resident experience compared?
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u/DilaudidWithIVbenny Fellow 1d ago
All the things you describe are considered ancillary or nursing tasks in the US (venipuncture by phlebotomy, IV cannulation by the nurse, urinary catheters by the nurse). Resident level procedures in IM include things like paracentesis, thoracentesis, bedside (informal) ultrasound, lumbar puncture, arterial puncture/ lines, central lines. Programs where residents are required to do nursing tasks are uncommon (many NYC programs are know culprits), and competitive residents tend to avoid those places.
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u/idkwtda115 1d ago
Sounds like a dream. Are residents in the US expected to scribe for attendings when they round?
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u/DilaudidWithIVbenny Fellow 1d ago
No. Residents write the progress note for the day and the attending co-signs it. Scribing is considered something not even a med student should be doing because your job is learning to practice medicine. Some high volume attendings in certain specialties (EM or surgical ones) will often hire a dedicated scribe, but these are typically pre-med students working a low paying job in exchange for experience and exposure.
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u/CorrelateClinically3 1d ago edited 1d ago
You guys have 48 hour work limits. Sit this one out bud. We are capped at 80. Some of us cross that.
“bUt ThE pRiNtEr DoEsNt wOrK iN tHe uK”
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u/Petitoiseau13 MS4 1d ago
I have spent many hours on the phone with IT trying to get our computers/printers to work in the US, lol. We even have to clean our own work rooms (like sweeping and mopping, not just keeping surfaces clean). I don’t think this experience is universal all over the US but a LOT of what we do doesn’t feel like “doctoring”.
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u/FloridlyQuixotic PGY2 1d ago
lol wut. For like 3 months only one of our printers in clinic worked because they couldn’t find any paper for the other printers and then once that one ran out of paper were for just printing stuff to the deck on the other side of the hospital. It took one of our residents to figure out that there was printer paper somewhere in the hospital because the supply person just didn’t bother to check.
Our computers are slow as hell and our EMR freezes regularly. We also don’t have enough computers for everyone in many parts of the hospital. I am frequently doing the med rec because it’s not done by the clinic staff or ward clerks. When I want to book surgeries, I am doing essentially all the tasks of a surgery scheduler because we don’t have one. We also don’t have a cap on patients.
We very frequently have to do non-physician tasks on top of all the physician tasks we have to do.
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u/bagelizumab 1d ago
Tbf, US also spends a lot of time and effort doing med reconciliation and chart digging because there are often times different hospital systems and their communication can be pretty ass, unlike having a single unified system for NHS.
I would also imagine patients tend to have higher BMI in US vs UK just based on national average, and as you are imagine they are not healthy. These patients with a BMI of 60+ rolling in and out of hospital with massive charts due to multiple co-morbidities takes a lot of effort to care for and chart appropriately.
Like I can ensure you, just because there is a cap doesn’t mean US residents are just out there drinking milkshakes and playing Pokémon Go.
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u/idkwtda115 22h ago
Yeah I never said you guys are, but the truth is, pretty much every post out there made by a UK doctor who moved to the US reports the hours were less intense. Most of the people commenting on this thread having probably only worked in the US system, so how would they know how it compares to the intensity in the NHS?
Clarification: I’m talking about the intensity of each individual hour worked, rather than the intensity of 48 vs 70-80 hours.
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u/Powerful-Forever9996 14h ago
I have worked in both systems. Being a doctor in the USA is immensely easier than being a doctor in the UK. The hours are longer but other than that every aspect of your professional life is better and easier than in the UK.
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u/idkwtda115 11h ago
Hush hush, the US residents don’t like hearing this - so I’ve learned from this thread.
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u/chicagosurgeon1 1d ago
Why don’t you buy your own laptop?
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u/idkwtda115 22h ago
How does that solve anything
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u/chicagosurgeon1 19h ago
You complained about finding a PC and slow PCs. I just solved 2 of your problems.
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u/idkwtda115 11h ago
No you didn’t. How are you getting the clinical systems on there? I don’t need a laptop to send emails bro.
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u/chicagosurgeon1 9h ago
Huh? In america, not your terrible country, we have Epic on our laptops. Im sorry your country sucks
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u/SOFDoctor Attending 1d ago
Please elaborate how the hours in the US are less intense compared to your venipunctures, waiting for slow computers, getting printers to work, and not even “doctoring.”