Recently in a surgical residency program somewhere in the United States, the residents requested a meeting with their program director and surgical department chairman to discuss a concern they had.
A few of them were upset because during a 31-day month, one resident on a three-person rotation ended up working an extra night of call.
6/28/13 ADDENDUM#1: The residents who complained included some non-designated PGY-1s who were hoping to be converted into categorical residents if any such positions became available. This would not be perceived as favorable by those in charge.
I know that old guys like me aren't supposed to say things like this, but if residents had approached my chairman with a complaint like this, he would have thrown them all out of his office immediately.
Residents were summarily fired for lesser offenses than that too.
Despite my previous post about a Harvard Symposium that suggested we should train residents like Navy SEALs, I know we can't turn back the clock.
But people, there is something really wrong when residents start haggling about the number of days worked.
What's next? Requesting an extra hour off because you worked the Saturday to Sunday overnight when Daylight Savings Time ended?
I didn't see anyone volunteering to work an extra hour to compensate for the night the DST begins.
OK, tell me I don't understand this generation of residents. Tell me I'm out of touch.
But you won't convince me that there isn't something wrong with complaining about an extra day of call.
6/28/13 ADDENDUM#2 As pointed out to me in comments on Twitter, my post does not pertain to all millennials. I acknowledge that such a generalization was unfair.