Sunday in our home is our "Get Stuff Done" day. Between J and me, our typical Sunday To Do list includes:
This do-it-all-on-Sunday schedule works just fine for me with my Monday-Friday job, but is less convenient for J whose schedule has no concept of seven-day-cycles and that perpetually enigmatic "weekend." Indeed, finding a way to balance the demands of our two conflicting schedules has been among the biggest hurdles in residency, because not only does getting things checked off my list bring me a sense of calm, but so does spending quality time with J. While tasks and errands and obligations multiply, quality time is hard to come by.
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In my last post I shared an overview of a single week in our home and explored the ways in which both our lives tend to revolve around J's schedule. Today, I'm going to dive a little deeper into "Call," "Post-call," what it means for J in his general surgery program, and how it differs from those in other surgical residency programs like orthopedics, ENT, and plastics.
In preparing this blog post I reached out to other spouses of surgeons and surgical residents to ask them what call was like for their partners throughout residency. The answers were insightful, eye-opening, and far more varied than I was anticipating. They incited strong feelings of solidarity alongside plenty of head-shaking. They reminded us all of the ways our partner's schedules seem to defy the arbitrary distinctions in calendars and dates. And they revealed some of the flaws in the overall surgical education system, flaws which I hope to explore with more research (and not just gut reactions) in the coming months. |
AuthorNashira is a music teacher and proud Small-Town Jew who, after surthriving six years in Brooklyn for her husband's surgical residency, is finally back in Wisconsin where she belongs! At least until the end of the two-year surgical fellowship, that is. It's a wild ride, and she's ready to tell you all about it! Archives
September 2019
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