6 required rotations: trauma surgery (
KILLER), medicine wards (
KILLER), CCU (middle of the road from what I hear), surgery elective (colorectal, GI onc, or vascular--vascular is rough-80+hrs/week; the other two are totally manageable-60hrs/week), ER (5 8hr shifts per week), and outpatient medicine (Peds, family, or IM--4-5 days/week, weekends off).
1 month vacation (not including the week you get off before your R2 year)
6 electives months, which can all be 40hrs a week or less
. One of these months can be WHATEVER you want. You can seriously make up your own elective. Most people do a research elective (which can be done anywhere you want) or RadiHOLIDAY. Other popular electives include anesthesia, dermatology, Pediatric ER, Psychiatry ER, ophtho, etc.
Basically, it is possible to get a schedule with only 4 call months. And call on the surgery elective is x-cover only, and I have never slept less than 6 hours, so it doesn't even really feel like call. This is not to say everything is perfect. You will work harder than you have ever worked in your life on trauma and medicine (one intern on trauma can be responsible for 30+ patients by himself--no lie), but that's only 2 months. And besides, I don't think there is any program where you won't work hard at least a couple of months. All in all, it's a totally reasonable transitional year, and the location (South Bay, So Cal) is absolutely unbeatable. Most people live in Hermosa or Redondo Beach, where it's sunny 99% of the time, and people party 365 days a year. The transitional also go on a trip to Vegas every year, and you're excused from your rotation to attend.