The main goal of the University's teaching hospitals, he says, is to see all residents succeed and learn as much as they can. Our residents are much better trained than they ever were. Peterkin completed his residency in psychiatry and family medicine at McGill. He now teaches psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital. He says hospitals often overwork their residents to save money.
Nobody can ever justify how working excessive hours can promote learning.
Both Irshad and Lombardi admit to periodically neglecting exercise because of their crazy schedules. Yet the two stress that learning as much as they can during their residency justifies long hours. Not even illness, which fatigued residents are prone to catch when various viruses circulate through hospitals, can keep them away from their jobs. Unless a resident is deathly ill, they are expected to work. Residency's main fallout, Irshad admits, is that he rarely sees his old friends, most of whom also studied medicine at McGill, and whose schedules are incompatible with his own.