Objectives: (1) To investigate how pediatric post-graduate year-1(PGY-1) residents spend their work days during their inpatient ward rotation.(2) To assess how pediatric post-graduate years 1 thru 3 (PGY 1-3) residents spend their time outside of work.

Setting: Medical school affiliated 186 bed children's hospital; 15 pediatric residents per year.

Methods: Ward Time: Pediatric PGY-1 residents, 11 in 1995 and 15 in 1996 recorded their activities every 30 minutes on the inpatient ward rotations on selected Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays when the PGY-1 resident was not on-call, post-call, nor had continuity clinic during April, May, and June (N=77). Time Spent Outside of Work: Pediatric PGY1-3 residents retrospectively recorded their activities from the preceding evening, (N=76), or weekend, (N=41), on randomly chosen days from December, 1995, to June, 1996.

Results: Ward Time: During the Ward Rotation, pediatric PGY-1 residents worked(Mean,(hours:minutes),9:13,(9:30(men),9:05(women);Median, 9:15). Time spent in patient care related activities was (Mean,5:26;Median,5:15). Mean hours in patient care per mean number of patients was ((5:26/5.26),(5:40/5.21(men));(5:19/5.28(women)). Time spent in educational activities was(Mean,3:14, (3:15 (men),3:14(women);Median,3:20) with 51.3% rounding, 40.8% in conferences, 5.4% in self-education, and 2.5% teaching. Recreation time was(Mean, 0:31, (0:33(men);0:30(women); Median, 0:25). Time Spent Outside of Work: Mean time outside of work was (Weekdays, 13:27; Weekend days, 23:36). Mean time spent in self-education outside of work was(Weekdays,0:30;Weekend days,0:20). Overall, self-education time outside of work had a mean of 0:27 (0:33(men);0:24(women)).

Conclusions: During the Ward Rotation, pediatric PGY-1 residents spend the majority of their days performing patient care related activities with female residents, on average, caring for more patients than male residents in less time. Minimal time is spent in self-education either during the Ward rotations or outside of work. Rounds and conferences are the main forums for pediatric PGY-1 education on the Ward Rotations; as a method of resident education, rounds and conferences need further study to assess their effectiveness.