美国国家公共电台 NPR--80-hour weeks and roaches near your cot? More medical residents unionize

80-hour weeks and roaches near your cot? More medical residents unionize

Transcript¹

Medical residents at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia move to unionize in search of better working conditions. (This piece originally aired April 4, 2023, on All Things Considered.)

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Since the pandemic, more doctors in training have moved to unionize. They say they want better working conditions and wages that cover their cost of living. From member station WHYY in Philadelphia, Alan Yu reports on one of these campaigns.

ALAN YU, BYLINE²: Doctor Leah Rethy was pregnant during the first year of her internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. She gave birth during her second year.

LEAH RETHY: I worked through my 40th week of pregnancy³, really trying to maximize the amount of time I had with my baby after he was born.

YU: Now she's back at work and needs child care - a lot of child care. Residents often work long and irregular hours, sometimes as much as 80 hours a week. She says there is child care affiliated⁴ with her workplace, but the waitlist is impossible. And finding her own child care or a nanny is prohibitively expensive.

RETHY: The cost of day care is - in a month is about half of my salary in total. And the cost of a nanny is essentially⁵ the entirety of my salary.

YU: She says this is not an unusual problem. Residency comes on the heels of at least eight years of schooling⁶, so it overlaps⁷ with childbearing years for a lot of people.

RETHY: I know a lot of people who've delayed having children, and I also have heard a number of stories of people delaying having children and then ultimately having real challenges getting pregnant because of being older and various factors.

YU: She says unionizing is the best way to ask for better working conditions and higher pay. She says that would ultimately lead to better patient care. Penn Medicine says in a prepared statement in part that they are proud of how they improved resident life and increased salaries to make wages competitive. They also say residents should work directly with administrators⁸ through an existing advisory⁹ council. Dr. Madison Sharp is an obstetrician and gynecologist in the third year of her residency.

MADISON SHARP: I was the president of this council last year, and I can tell you firsthand that the House Staff Governing Council is extremely limited in what we could accomplish. And it was incredibly frustrating¹⁰ to advocate for residents and fellows and not be heard or have our concerns brushed aside or dismissed.

YU: The vast majority of residents and fellows filed a petition to unionize with the Committee of Interns¹¹ and Residents. That union represents resident physicians across the country. Before 2020, there was roughly one union campaign a year. In 2022, there were eight. Communications director Sunyata Altenor says residents who want to unionize know the program is supposed to be hard work with long hours, but they want to be treated fairly for the work they put in at a workplace they cannot just choose to leave because it's part of their training.

SUNYATA ALTENOR: It's easy to exploit physicians during this time in their career. They're only going to be there for a few years. It's sort of expected that you go through this hard hazing¹² culture, and then you come out at the other end an attending physician.

YU: The campaign in Philadelphia comes as residents at other hospitals around the country are unionizing as well. Recently, residents at Montefiore Hospital in New York won a union election, and residents at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Mass General Brigham in Boston announced they want to unionize as well.

For NPR News, I'm Alan Yu in Philadelphia.

(SOUNDBITE OF AMIINA'S "CROCODILE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

7 overlaps   

v.部分重叠( overlap的第三人称单数 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• The style in these two books largely overlaps. 这两本书的文体有许多处是一致的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The new office overlaps the functions of the one already in existence. 新机构的职能与那个现存机构的职能部分重叠。 来自辞典例句

8 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

9 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

10 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 interns   

n.住院实习医生( intern的名词复数 )v.拘留，关押( intern的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Our interns also greet our guests when they arrive in our studios. 我们的实习生也会在嘉宾抵达演播室的时候向他们致以问候。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• The interns work alongside experienced civil engineers and receive training in the different work sectors. 实习生陪同有经验的国内工程师工作，接受不同工作部门的相关培训。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

12 hazing   

n.受辱，被欺侮v.（使）笼罩在薄雾中( haze的现在分词 )；戏弄，欺凌（新生等，有时作为加入美国大学生联谊会的条件）

参考例句：

• With labor, the hazing period ends. 费了好大力气，痛苦的时期终于过了。 来自互联网
• A high-gloss paint surface is one that directly reflects light with minimum hazing or diffusion. 高度光洁的漆表面可以直接反射光源。 来自互联网