Residency in Europe

[Orestis]

Hello people,

Introduction:

I am a 4th year medical student in Europe. I was thinking about doing my residency in USA or a western european country. Lately, everyone is telling that the working hours in USA are more compared to Europe(80 vs 48 to be exact, even though not all countries apply the 48 hours/week rule in europe). So I am more favorable to European countries.

My question is the following:
I would like to combine neurology residency and research(cognitive neuroscience). So I am searching for a country with good quality of life, need of doctors, good salary and good research. Most of the people suggest Germany. What do you think?

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[gcuddles]

That's such a subjective decision that I don't think anyone is going to be able to tell you 'yes do X' or 'no don't do Y'. What matters most to you? Residency in the US is both competitive to get into and pretty terrible for the duration of it. Attendings lead better lives, and are better able to control their own schedules, so it's not necessarily a given that you'd be working 80hrs/week once done with residency/fellowship. Research opportunities are, from what I understand, a bit better in the US (I have a lot of friends who turned down research positions/PhD programs in Europe to come to US schools because the "research is better") though Germany has excellent institutions. Europe is also home for you - I'm assuming you have a much better support network there compared to the US.

As for which country within Europe, I maybe wouldn't focus so hard on this? I admit that I don't know how the system works for residency there, but maybe apply to programs in a variety of places and see what you get and decide from there. Sweden has a good quality of life and good research (Karolinska), the UK has great research but maybe less on the QoL? As I said, really subjective here.

 

[mvenus929]

Few residents actually work 80 hours per week, every week. Those that do are typically surgeons. My program averages about 60-65--less on outpatient months, and more on inpatient months. That's not to say that residency is easy, or that it's as easy as a European residency, but my understanding is that we finish much sooner. I'm in peds, and I met a peds resident from Switzerland recently. We're both in our 3rd year, but I'm graduating in 2 weeks, and she has two more years to go.

Then again, I know next to nothing about European residency programs, so I can only provide information from my knowledge of US programs.

 

[Orestis]

yeah, after some conversations I had with people from europe they basically say "in theory it is 8 hours but in practice you should finish your work, if you finish on time then it is 8 hours, if not you stay more" but thanks for the replies. If someone has anything to add please let me know.

 

[JJRousseau]

Few residents actually work 80 hours per week, every week. Those that do are typically surgeons. My program averages about 60-65--less on outpatient months, and more on inpatient months. That's not to say that residency is easy, or that it's as easy as a European residency, but my understanding is that we finish much sooner. I'm in peds, and I met a peds resident from Switzerland recently. We're both in our 3rd year, but I'm graduating in 2 weeks, and she has two more years to go.

Then again, I know next to nothing about European residency programs, so I can only provide information from my knowledge of US programs.

I can only speak from secondary experience with two UK junior doctor friends of mine. UK vs US amounts to less hours/longer training vs more hours/shorter training. Also, I think doctors in the UK end up with more responsibility as junior docs than US residents. There were times that my buddies would be managing a whole hospital's gastroenterology ward with an on-call consultant who preferred to defer decision making to the senior junior doc. That said, I don't have a good handle on US resident responsibility yet as I'm just matriculating to med school next year.