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Let me preface this with saying that my husband is the pharmacist, not me, so I may have a completely false idea of how this whole process works. I've looked through past threads about the topic pf quitting a residency but they were either pretty old or not very similar to my husband's residency issues. Sorry this is long!
My husband is seriously considering quitting his residency. Right now, the only reason he is staying is that he's heard (and I've read here) that it is career suicide. His plans all along have been to eventually work at a research hospital. Doing a PGY-1 residency at a research hospital seemed like a no-brainer. He got matched to his first choice, everybody was happy. Now, three months into the residency, nobody is happy.
My husband is so stressed out and over worked. He's working about 16 hours a day. He literally comes home just so he can sleep. He's only getting 4-5.5 hours of sleep a night. He used to be a vegan, but now he gets one meal from the hospital cafe. and one fast food meal a day. So far this month he's lost enough weight that his co-residents and other hospital staff have commented on his weight loss. He's also got a lot of guilt about never seeing the kids. Between the stress and health habits decline, he's not doing so well mentally or physically.
Shortly after residency assignments were released, we found out I was pregnant with #4. While my husband is very excited about having another baby, it is a lot more to add to his plate. Because of my past birth experiences, we've estimated that I'll likely go into labor during the first week of Dec. Unfortunately, this is also during Midyear. He spoke to his residency director about not having to go to Midyear since I'll be giving birth. He was told that his not wanting to go was understandable, but he has to go in order to pass the residency. So he's going. I also have a history of postpartum depression, which he is also worried about since I'd be on my own with the baby and three other kids while he's pulling 80 hours a week. It just isn't do-able. We have no family near us and even with medication, he's worried it will be too much for me and something bad may happen.
He's also run into issues with his two current preceptors. Both have told him that his #1 focus needs to be their area. Hubs was told he needed to step it up in the area that was getting less of his attention or he'd fail that section. He went to his residency director to figure out which was the priority. The preceptor who was told their work was not the priority got angry and basically said "if you don't keep this your priority, I'll just have to fail you". He feels as though he can't win either way. If he's going to fail, wouldn't it be better if he just quit? There's no way he can continue on the way he's been working, especially after we have a baby. If he quits the program because his wife has a mental break down, would his quitting still be a black mark against him?
I don't know if it matters, but he did really well in school. He has glowing recommendations because pretty much everybody who meets him, likes him. When he was doing his rotations for P4 he was told by more than one hiring director or preceptor to contact them when his residency was done if he wants a job. Before pharm school he worked for two drug companies (he was a chemist) and has great references from them.
The way things are now cannot continue. He absolutely does NOT want to do retail pharmacy. He wanted to do clinical research in a hospital, but we also don't want to live in a large metro area. Now he pretty much just wants to work at a community hospital and the research part he'd like, but can do without. Could he still get a job like that if he quits residency?
ETA: He also has a MS in Clinical Research
My husband is seriously considering quitting his residency. Right now, the only reason he is staying is that he's heard (and I've read here) that it is career suicide. His plans all along have been to eventually work at a research hospital. Doing a PGY-1 residency at a research hospital seemed like a no-brainer. He got matched to his first choice, everybody was happy. Now, three months into the residency, nobody is happy.
My husband is so stressed out and over worked. He's working about 16 hours a day. He literally comes home just so he can sleep. He's only getting 4-5.5 hours of sleep a night. He used to be a vegan, but now he gets one meal from the hospital cafe. and one fast food meal a day. So far this month he's lost enough weight that his co-residents and other hospital staff have commented on his weight loss. He's also got a lot of guilt about never seeing the kids. Between the stress and health habits decline, he's not doing so well mentally or physically.
Shortly after residency assignments were released, we found out I was pregnant with #4. While my husband is very excited about having another baby, it is a lot more to add to his plate. Because of my past birth experiences, we've estimated that I'll likely go into labor during the first week of Dec. Unfortunately, this is also during Midyear. He spoke to his residency director about not having to go to Midyear since I'll be giving birth. He was told that his not wanting to go was understandable, but he has to go in order to pass the residency. So he's going. I also have a history of postpartum depression, which he is also worried about since I'd be on my own with the baby and three other kids while he's pulling 80 hours a week. It just isn't do-able. We have no family near us and even with medication, he's worried it will be too much for me and something bad may happen.
He's also run into issues with his two current preceptors. Both have told him that his #1 focus needs to be their area. Hubs was told he needed to step it up in the area that was getting less of his attention or he'd fail that section. He went to his residency director to figure out which was the priority. The preceptor who was told their work was not the priority got angry and basically said "if you don't keep this your priority, I'll just have to fail you". He feels as though he can't win either way. If he's going to fail, wouldn't it be better if he just quit? There's no way he can continue on the way he's been working, especially after we have a baby. If he quits the program because his wife has a mental break down, would his quitting still be a black mark against him?
I don't know if it matters, but he did really well in school. He has glowing recommendations because pretty much everybody who meets him, likes him. When he was doing his rotations for P4 he was told by more than one hiring director or preceptor to contact them when his residency was done if he wants a job. Before pharm school he worked for two drug companies (he was a chemist) and has great references from them.
The way things are now cannot continue. He absolutely does NOT want to do retail pharmacy. He wanted to do clinical research in a hospital, but we also don't want to live in a large metro area. Now he pretty much just wants to work at a community hospital and the research part he'd like, but can do without. Could he still get a job like that if he quits residency?
ETA: He also has a MS in Clinical Research
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