the.com/residency
The decade where doctors trade sleep for competence, one 28-hour shift at a time.
means The years of supervised hospital training after medical school where a new doctor practices medicine under guidance before being trusted to do it alone.
from From Latin residere, 'to sit down, remain, stay behind' — the same root that gives us 'reside' and 'residence.' The term stuck because trainee physicians historically lived in the hospital itself, sleeping in on-call rooms between shifts rather than going home; they quite literally resided where they worked. The word kept its roots long after the live-in requirement loosened.
- origin
- named because doctors used to literally live in hospitals
- length
- 3 to 7 years depending on specialty chosen
- pay
- roughly 15 dollars an hour for saving lives
- irony
- you finally become a real doctor by nearly dying first