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Resident Schedule and Work Hours

Our residency schedule is created to maximize learning while helping residents to achieve a good work-life balance. While residency can bring long hours, we monitor our residents’ work hours closely to ensure our residents’ wellness as well as compliance with all ACGME-duty hour requirements. On average, residents at Children’s National work far below the ACGME-duty hour regulations (maximum 80 hrs/week).

  • First Year (PL-1): Average 57 hours/week
  • Second Year (PL-2): Average 58 hours/week
  • Third Year (PL-3): Average 53 hours/week
  • Program Mean: 56 hours/week

Read more about our specific rotation schedule on the Residency Curriculum page, but here are a few highlights of our program’s schedule that we believe set it apart from the others:

  • No “q3-4 call”: All inpatient rotations in our program, including those for interns, are covered by a night float system during the week. Residents do complete 24-28 hour shifts on the weekend. Therefore, no rotation is covered by a resident taking call every nth night. This prevents a “q3-4” call system, which can be incredibly taxing when done for months at a time.
  • “Float week” during inpatient rotations: During each intern inpatient month on the wards, 1 of those weeks is “float week”. This is a week of ambulatory experiences to provide residents opportunities to learn both the inpatient and outpatient care of pediatric patients. It also offers a break from the early mornings of inpatient ward rounding, which is important in protecting our interns’ wellness!
  • Platinum weekends on inpatient: All interns are guaranteed one 3-day weekend on each inpatient block.
  • Vacation & Holiday Time: All residents get two, 2-week vacations each year of residency (1-month total). All residents also get an additional 4 days off around at-least 1 holiday of their choosing.
  • Beach Week: All interns get an additional 1 week off at the end of the year. Typically this is used for “Beach Week”, where the interns take a group trip together to decompress, relax and recharge before starting second year.
  • Longitudinal research time: Our REACH program offers a half day of dedicated research time during the second and third years of residency. This longitudinal research time allows residents to work on meaningful research projects and produce impactful academic work.
  • Customizable residency schedule: Our residency schedules are customizable! The chief residents create each resident’s schedule by hand – taking into account that resident’s personal requests and circumstances.
  • Elective time and opportunities: Our residents get a lot of elective time! Children’s National Hospital and our location in Washington, D.C. offers an extraordinary array of opportunities for residents to explore during their elective time.