Residency Update: PGY2 Begins

Intern year is officially over for Scott and his second year of residency (otherwise known as post-grad year 2 or PGY2) has begun. Intern year ended with a night shift delivering babies (he personally caught 32 babies this last year). Second year began with Scott finishing that night shift, sleeping the morning away, and then waking up at lunch when some of our Western University medical school friends came to visit us on the way back from northern Wisconsin, driving to their residency home in Michigan.

Many have asked me, will second year be better than the first? It's hard to say at this point.

Scott and I had the opportunity to attend the graduation celebration for the outgoing Family Medicine residents leaving his program. While we mixed and mingled through the event, the new third year residents assured me that second year would be better than the first. They said Scott would have fewer drop-in shifts, and more weekends free, with the addition of having some elective rotations throughout the year. But then I reminded them that there would be 28 hour shifts added to second year schedules and more senior responsibilities. That was when those new third year residents told me, "Well, third year for sure will be better than second year."

Our intern year wasn't too bad, in my opinion. I've heard horror stories about residents being on their own with no seniors or attending physicians to run hospitals or weeks of work without the resident being given a day off to recuperate. Other than my dislike of Scott's night shifts and the obvious fatigue that Scott was feeling by the end of the year, I feel like I can't complain. At least Scott is in the same city as me and is home every day, even if I only see him for a couple hours.

As for whether second year will be better, I will wait to be the judge of that. Scott already came home from his first day in the clinic as a second year and said that he had to see double the number of patients in the clinic that day as opposed to the number scheduled for a first year resident. I'm crossing my fingers for some restful weekends for that boy!

If you want to learn more about the residency that Scott is in, or the residents that are in this program, you can watch some of the videos on the residency website. They asked Scott to answer some questions for the "Coffee with the Residents" section of the website. Of course, it's pretty clear from the video that Scott doesn't drink coffee, because he looks exhausted. Cute, yes, but completely spent!


And as for that line about wanting to be an obstetrician, I think that thought may have crossed his mind at some point during his third year of medical school. But if it did, it probably only lasted a minute. Ha!