Resident physicians are often expected to reside in the hospital and put in long hours for considerably less pay, based on the notion that they are training within their respective fields. But with inflation and labor shortages on the rise, could these expectations be harming residents?
Karen Lee, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine says yes in an opinion piece published in MedpageToday on July 15. According to a 2023 report by the AAMC, first-year residents can work up to 80 hours per week for a median yearly salary of $62,722.
For some grueling weeks, Lee wrote, this can be equivalent to $12 per hour. And, according to the Medscape 2023 Resident Salary and Debt Report, 86% of residents said their compensation does not reflect work hours. Another 64% said compensation did not reflect their cost of living, often leading residents to moonlight in other jobs to make ends meet. .
This adds to the existing financial burden being carried by medical students, who face a median debt load of $200,000-$500,000 for medical school.
Lee argues that the consequences of this burnout and strain have tangible consequences for the medical industry. Burnout correlates to a higher occurrence of mistakes and adverse events. According to a 2019 study in the National Library of Medicine, conservative estimates place the cost of physician turnover and burnout to be around $4.6 billion a year.