I completed my 3-year pediatric residency training program in 2002. Needless to say, it was no walk in the park. For those of you who have never been through the trials and tribulations of residency it's hard to describe. Here's a few statistics in case you're interested:

• I had weeks where I worked over 100 hours in a consecutive seven-day period (we did not get overtime pay.)
• I worked 20 straight days without a day off that I could sleep-in (i.e. wake up whenever I felt like it).
• I went 26 consecutive days with only 1 day off to sleeep-in during that entire period.
• I went 33 consecutive days with only 2 days off to sleeep-in during that entire period.

A photo of myself and some of my colleagues at the NYU Medical Center. This photo was taken "post-call", about 24 hours into our shift.

 

Another picture in the NYU Tisch Hospital.

 

A "behind-the-scenes" photo of myself and Eddie Chang, another resident, at the Bellevue Hospital pediatric clinic in May, 2002. In this picture we're grabbing syringes to vaccinate the patients.

 

A photograph of our "on call" room. Please note the luxurious couch, elegant clock, fancy coat rack, and high-tech television (which usually did not work). This was our home-away-from-home, our in-hospital retreat, for quiet times in the hospital.