Residency: Finally a doctor
It wasn't the day he found out he had been accepted to medical school. Nor the formal white coat ceremony his first year, when he and his classmates recited the oath bonding them philosophically and ethically to the countless generations of physicians who have preceded them. Nor the start of clinical rotations as a third-year medical student, nor even the commencement celebration last May. The day Ted Ruzanic, M.D., knew he'd arrived was June 23, 2005 — the day he first walked through the doors of Hennepin County Medical Center's emergency department as a medical resident.
Husband-and-wife team Ted Ruzanic, M.D., and Rachel Wenner Ruzanic, M.D., have to work to balance their personal lives with the demands of their medical careers. Both are first-year residents at Hennepin County Medical Center.
"Medical school was a great experience. I had a solid foundation when I graduated. But the feeling of becoming a physician and helping people in this profession really began when I started my residency," Ruzanic says. "There's a big difference between medical school and residency. There are certain things that are included in a resident's life that are not included in a student's life."
For the time being, at least, those "certain things" do not include a lot of free time. Ruzanic spends the bulk of his waking hours at work, squeezing things like meals, exercise, family time, and recreation in around the edges of nine- to twelve-hour shifts that can start and end just about any time — sometimes day, sometimes evening, sometimes night — and can total up to 80 hours per week. If medical school seemed a clock-and-calendar crunch, it was nothing compared with this.
But he loves it. In emergency medicine, "You get to see every person in the population — men, women, kids, adults," he says. "I really like the pace and the atmosphere of the emergency department." To his own surprise, he particularly enjoys working the night shifts. The people who come to the emergency room in the wee hours, he says, are typically people who are in serious need of emergent or urgent care.
"I get a lot of satisfaction helping people in the middle of the night," he says. "Plus I like the night atmosphere."
Ruzanic began his medical education at the University of Minnesota Medical School-Duluth. Students accepted there attend classes on the UMD campus for years one and two, then join Twin Cities medical students for their third and fourth years, during which they rotate among clerkships at various clinics, getting a taste for different kinds of medicine under the tutelage of established physicians.
"It's a fantastic place," Ruzanic says of his UMD experience. Along with taking the typically grueling medical student course load and discerning his future career, he also enjoyed the many outdoor activities the Duluth area offers. "Duluth was a great fit for me. I loved the campus and the town. Since it was my plan to pursue a career in family-practice medicine, it was perfect for me," he says.
Ruzanic decided to shift direction toward emergency medicine between his third and fourth years of medical school. Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) was his top choice for his three-year residency, the final formal stage of a medical education. He's extremely happy with the way it's turned out so far.
"You're in a learning mode, mentored by attending physicians," he says. "It doesn't feel like being thrown to the wolves. It's a very supportive learning environment."
If all that weren't enough, Ruzanic married fellow medical student Rachel Wenner in September 2003. Wenner is also at HCMC, in her first year of a four-year dermatology residency.
What's it like being a medical resident married to another medical resident? Hectic, for one thing, Ruzanic says. Great, for another.
"We're both very busy and we don't have much time together. But we both understand what the other is going through; there's a lot of empathy," he says. "It's a crazy life we're living, but it's fun. We feel very lucky to be in this profession."