Day in the life of a ent resident?

[SandP]

Hi all--

Interested in the field. What is the day-in-the life of an ent resident pgy1-pgy5? Please describe your lifestyle both with logged and unlogged hours. Thanks! Just want to know how life would be like....

Appreciate the help!

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[Savannah]

Hi,
Daily schedule depends on service/rotation. Below is an average for most rotations.
5:30a Prerounds
6a Rounds with staff
7a-5p Cases (or clinic)
5p-7p Consults/floor work
I usually spend about an hour preparing for the next days cases from home.
I usually take call one in three weekends. Depending on the weekend, I may spend three to 12 hours at the hospital Saturday and Sunday.
Except for a rare week, I log all my hours that are spent at the hospital without going over 80 hours.
It's a good life.

 

[AOK123]

Would any other residents like to chime in? I am wondering about resident lifestyle as well...

 

[Wordead]

Im over 80 pretty much every week. But I'm happy about it. I've logged a ton of cases already as an intern and I'm learning a lot, and my attendings are bomb.

The day to day is pretty similar to savannah, except I do clinic 1-2 days a week

 

[VisionaryTics]

Would any other residents like to chime in? I am wondering about resident lifestyle as well...

Head and neck:
Pre-round 5am, rounds 615, cases 730am until whenever. We do free flaps Tuesday/Thursday so that generally means OR until at least 10pm (worst so far 4am) those days, plus a couple of other days with similar end times. Consults/floor work in between cases/during day. Round every other weekend. We usually have a major case every Saturday. Clinic 1.5 days per week. Q5 "home" call, no post call days.

I usually log my hours truthfully, see what I end up at, laugh, and then put 80 hours/week. ENT is not "surgery lite". At my hospital, ENT and neurosurgery are routinely the first ones in and last ones out. Neurosurgery has a worse call schedule since they're smaller.

Non head and neck rotations are similar to what @Savannah posted. I haven't done peds yet, but apparently peds-heavy programs are busy as hell.

 

[OtoHNS]

Head and neck:
Pre-round 5am, rounds 615, cases 730am until whenever. We do free flaps Tuesday/Thursday so that generally means OR until at least 10pm (worst so far 4am) those days, plus a couple of other days with similar end times. Consults/floor work in between cases/during day. Round every other weekend. We usually have a major case every Saturday. Clinic 1.5 days per week. Q5 "home" call, no post call days.

I usually log my hours truthfully, see what I end up at, laugh, and then put 80 hours/week. ENT is not "surgery lite". At my hospital, ENT and neurosurgery are routinely the first ones in and last ones out. Neurosurgery has a worse call schedule since they're smaller.

Non head and neck rotations are similar to what @Savannah posted. I haven't done peds yet, but apparently peds-heavy programs are busy as hell.

For applicants, you should be aware that the skill and speed of your microvascular attendings (i.e. free flappers) will have a major impact on your quality of life during residency. I would advise you to (tactfully) ask at your interviews about how long big head and neck free flap cases usually last. I also had a slow free flap surgeon during my residency which led to many late nights as well as a higher complication rate, both of which make your life miserable as a resident.

There are places out there where a big cancer whack, B neck dissection, and free flap case is done before 5:00 (and that's PM, not AM). In particular, I've heard Oregon (and places with Oregon trained microvascular attendings) are very efficient at free flaps with very low complications and flap failures.

 

[SandP]

For applicants, you should be aware that the skill and speed of your microvascular attendings (i.e. free flappers) will have a major impact on your quality of life during residency. I would advise you to (tactfully) ask at your interviews about how long big head and neck free flap cases usually last. I also had a slow free flap surgeon during my residency which led to many late nights as well as a higher complication rate, both of which make your life miserable as a resident.

There are places out there where a big cancer whack, B neck dissection, and free flap case is done before 5:00 (and that's PM, not AM). In particular, I've heard Oregon (and places with Oregon trained microvascular attendings) are very efficient at free flaps with very low complications and flap failures.

Thanks for the tip! What programs in specific are good about providing good training while also being efficient?

For applicants, you should be aware that the skill and speed of your microvascular attendings (i.e. free flappers) will have a major impact on your quality of life during residency. I would advise you to (tactfully) ask at your interviews about how long big head and neck free flap cases usually last. I also had a slow free flap surgeon during my residency which led to many late nights as well as a higher complication rate, both of which make your life miserable as a resident.

There are places out there where a big cancer whack, B neck dissection, and free flap case is done before 5:00 (and that's PM, not AM). In particular, I've heard Oregon (and places with Oregon trained microvascular attendings) are very efficient at free flaps with very low complications and flap failures.

Thanks for that info! Would this mean that landing a top residency (i.e. meei, hopkins) would provide for a better quality of life during residency, supposing that top program have more skilled attendings? Or by virtue of being prestigious, are they also busier?

 

[OtoHNS]

Thanks for the tip! What programs in specific are good about providing good training while also being efficient?

Thanks for that info! Would this mean that landing a top residency (i.e. meei, hopkins) would provide for a better quality of life during residency, supposing that top program have more skilled attendings? Or by virtue of being prestigious, are they also busier?

1. I don't know other than what I stated in the last post.

2. The prestige of a residency program has no correlation with the skill of the surgeons there (sad but true). And in my post above, I'm speaking only about head and neck/microvascular attendings, for which the length of a big cancer case can vary dramatically depending on how fast the surgeon is. All other things being equal, you would probably rather be at the program with a fast micro attending where the free flap cases are done at 5:00 pm than the program with a slow micro attending where the same case lasts until 2:00 am. The other subspecialties of ENT (otology, sinus, laryngology, etc) have much less variety in terms of length of surgeries.

 

[ThePursuit]

Thanks for the tip! What programs in specific are good about providing good training while also being efficient?


Thanks for that info! Would this mean that landing a top residency (i.e. meei, hopkins) would provide for a better quality of life during residency, supposing that top program have more skilled attendings? Or by virtue of being prestigious, are they also busier?

1. I would challenge you to show me a program with a better overall training experience than Jefferson. Assuming you want to be surgically competent when you're done.

2. Don't confuse well-known undergraduate campuses with "top ENT residency programs". They are not necessarily the same. Larger residencies will probably give you broader exposure, and MAY have a better lifestyle (more backs to share the burden). That's a complete blanket statement.

 

[SandP]

1. I would challenge you to show me a program with a better overall training experience than Jefferson. Assuming you want to be surgically competent when you're done.

2. Don't confuse well-known undergraduate campuses with "top ENT residency programs". They are not necessarily the same. Larger residencies will probably give you broader exposure, and MAY have a better lifestyle (more backs to share the burden). That's a complete blanket statement.

Thanks for your response. I mean top ent program according to USWNR

 

[Wordead]

Thanks for the tip! What programs in specific are good about providing good training while also being efficient?

Thanks for that info! Would this mean that landing a top residency (i.e. meei, hopkins) would provide for a better quality of life during residency, supposing that top program have more skilled attendings? Or by virtue of being prestigious, are they also busier?

Not really because the "top" residencies that you are talking about are all 4-5 residents per year because they have so many faculty and a ton of volume. Like yeah, at my program our micro guys are amazing and flaps are done by 5 pm and all....but we also do 3-5 a week. Caring for flap patients is pretty labor intensive from the residents perspective - they're in the hospital 4-7 days, need regular flap checks, usually have a crap ton of dispo stuff that has to be dealt with, can have a lot of complications, etc. Whereas a program that does a few a month doesnt have to deal with that. But I agree that overall having fast and skilled micro guys is a good thing - you havent felt pain until that flap starts congesting right when you get to PACU at midnight and you have to go back to the OR again. To retract.

 

[OtoHNS]

But I agree that overall having fast and skilled micro guys is a good thing - you havent felt pain until that flap starts congesting right when you get to PACU at midnight and you have to go back to the OR again. To retract.

Thank you for the PTSD flashback...

 

[buonassezia]

echoing what others have said on here, ent is not for the faint of heart. spouse and co-residents consistently work at least 100-hr wks and everybody just puts down 80. other places seem to have similar workload due to large volume distributed among a small number of residents in each class, but there is so much to learn that there's a perpetual concern about any cushier of a schedule translating into lack of competence.

 

[applicant0704]

An additional question about the life of an ENT resident... What are the "bread-and-butter" cases of this specialty? Someone told me that you gotta like the routine work to really like the profession, even if the complex cases are fascinating.

Any input on either of my statements would be great!

 

[VisionaryTics]

An additional question about the life of an ENT resident... What are the "bread-and-butter" cases of this specialty? Someone told me that you gotta like the routine work to really like the profession, even if the complex cases are fascinating.

Any input on either of my statements would be great!

Tonsils and ear tubes, sinus surgery, septoplasty, tracheostomy, thyroid surgery, endoscopic laryngeal surgery to remove benign growths or perform biopsies, repair of facial trauma including soft tissue and fractures, sleep apnea surgery, tympanoplasty.