So I totally spent 3 hours last night learning about lung cancers – which are actually pretty interesting if you completely ignore the histology (sorry, histo fans!) – and it was awesome.
(And by “awesome”, I mean I feel like I can fake my way through a conversation about it now, which is pretty much my ultimate goal with everything in life, so: SUCCESS.)
In other news, today an internist talked to some of us about residency and took questions.
Dr. Prestige: … and that brings us to the end of my residency! Of course, with the new 80 hour work-week regulations, you’ll all have an easier time than I did.
Student: Uh, on that note – I was wondering – it’s just… 80 hours a week is still an awful lot of time.
Dr. Prestige: 80 hours a week? 80 hours a week is nothing. Look, think of it this way – you just go to work from 6am to 6pm. That’s all.
Student: … okay, but – 12 hours a day, plus weekends –
Dr. Prestige: You still get those! You still get every other weekend off.
Student: … Every.. other -?
Dr. Prestige: Well, until you start practicing. Then things get tough.
I know, I know – if you can’t stand the heat, you shouldn’t have spent several thousand dollars applying for the opportunity to get into the kitchen.
Still.
Action Potential 
kind of makes you want to puke, doesn’t it
Yikes. Objectively I know the time commitment and I’m okay with it, but subjectively, WTF.
Keep it in perspective. Any job that has the same income potential has roughly the same hours. Be it a tech start up or owning a couple fast food franchises. When I someday get to my residency it won’t be my first time pulling retarded work hours.
There are plenty of other jobs that call for 12-14 hour days. You’re really only stuck with it until the end of residency, though. Once you’re done with training, though, you get to decide what kind of lifestyle you want and only accept offers that will accommodate what you want to do.
The sad thing is I know a few people in residencies now where the work-hour “restriction” is not even close to honored. So they work 100, 110+ hour weeks but still get looked down on by the old guard for “having it easy.” Lame.