I'm married to a resident and this article is a very accurate portrayal of a resident's life. Her work schedule is insane. It's not just the amount of hours but the fact that these hours are packed and spent with difficult people and life or death situations. After a day of work she often mentions she didn't have time to eat or pee during the day. She has had some call shifts that lasted 40h strait (more than 3 days) where she got only 3 to 4 hours sleep breaks per night plus a few eating breaks here and there because it was busy the whole time. That meant no time for a shower in those three days, only superficial cleanups and quick change of scrubs when things got too bloody/amniotic.
Also, anyone thinking about medicine should realize how little autonomy they have. When my girlfriend explained how residency works, I was shocked: it sounded like a circumstance ripe for an anti-trust lawsuit. Turns out it was the subject of a lawsuit: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/14/us/antitrust-lawsuit-over-... , but one that Congress and President Bush granted an anti-trust exemption. So residents can't even negotiate outside the match. The legal barriers to medicine help explain why it's so miserable.
