How many hours a week does a doctor work during their residency years?

i did my family medicine residency 1994 - 1997. i'm sure things have changed but all i can tell you is my typical work week back then.

a lot depended on which rotation you were on. if it was an outpatient clinic rotation then probably i'd be at the facility roughly 7am - 6pm for 5 days a week. sometimes that was next to the hospital, sometimes that was at a nursing home or other type of facility.

if it was an inpatient rotation then probably i'd be at the hospital around 5:30am - 7pm. but you also need to remember that every 3rd or 4th day you'd be "on call". that means that you wouldn't go home when the day's work was done. you'd sleep in a call room overnight and get up to go admit a patient in the ER, or deliver a baby, or assist in a surgery, or see any hospital patient who was having problems overnight. you speak to nurses on the phone frequently. many, many nights you'd get no sleep whatsoever.

there were very, very few breaks from that schedule. once a year the entire residency program would go on a weekend retreat. depending on the rotation you might get a day off for a holiday. once a year you might be able to go on a short trip for a medical conference. very rarely you might be able to use a personal day.

hope that answers your question.