"It has been said that if medical training is like military service, then surgical residency is Marine Corps boot camp... Torturous on-call schedules often demand exceedingly long work hours almost unimaginable in any other profession, 100-hour work weeks being the norm for a surgery resident. Compounding the problem are the very high stress levels intrinsic to the job, the burdens shouldered by the resident's family in his frequent absence and the enormous educational debt under which the large majority of trainees labour."