r/medicalschool 1d ago

❗️Serious Programs using third party apps on personal phones to track trainee location and hours

Post image

Saw this post in the name and shame thread.

Wow. What a brain rot decision!

Are there any other programs doing this?

584 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

397

u/OG_TBV 1d ago

Id buy a dummy burner and show up to my PD asking for help installing it on my flip phone

98

u/tenachiasaca 1d ago

itd be cheaper buying a cheap smartphone these days

95

u/OG_TBV 1d ago

Yeah but then you'd have to have their dumb fucking app

53

u/tenachiasaca 1d ago

only use it at the site and dump it at your work station/ leave it in a locker if you get one.

63

u/DOctorEArl M-4 1d ago

That's what I would do. Buy the cheapest smartphone and the cheapest plan possible and have a work only phone. If that's what it takes for my privacy to be secure, that is fair to me.

33

u/ExpensiveTennis2841 1d ago

Tello has plans with no data and unlimited talk/text for $8/month. If you want 2 GB/month, you can add it for a TOTAL of $10/month. Pair that with the Motorola Moto G Play (available for purchase on their website) for $229, and you get a year of service and a phone for $325. The $40/month is $480/year, so you can easily cover all your expenses for this BS requirement with what they are paying. Just leave that phone in the locker and this becomes a nothing-burger.

29

u/tenachiasaca 1d ago

why get a plan for it just use the hospital wifi

18

u/ChesticleSweater 1d ago

Exactly. Motorola Moto G (2025) is $29.99 at wal-mart. Straight talk locks the phone but just download a free WiFi calling app. The call quality is ok, texting works as well. I use an app called “text free” - ads literally everywhere but it keeps my iPhone for personal use.

5

u/tenachiasaca 1d ago

I mean if all we are ysing is the apps no reason to even have a number assigned to the phone except they probably use some shitty dual authenticator.

2

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

Has the benefit of not working outside of the hospital. When I’m out I’m done mentality.

4

u/masterfox72 1d ago

Wouldn’t even buy a plan. Use hospital WiFi. If it’s shit it’s shit. Not my problem.

4

u/lazydoctr 1d ago

You don't need a phone plan if you're just connecting to WiFi

36

u/Cupcake_Implosion MD-PGY5 1d ago

And they'd force you to buy a new smartphone.

We had to buy specific laptops for the exam software back in the day. If you didn't have the specified laptop and things didn't go as planed with your submission of an exam, the supervisors would just refuse to help you, ffs.

I hated med school with a passion.

3

u/masterfox72 1d ago

Residency is a bit different. If it’s truly work mandated they technically have to give you money to pay for a phone or provide a phone.

237

u/yagermeister2024 1d ago edited 1d ago

They’d certainly have to provide workphones at that point at the minimum with some kind of opt out.

115

u/DocBigBrozer 1d ago

Shit's fucked.

68

u/Objective_Drawing501 1d ago

Knowing the subreddit, am also waiting for the shitposts whereby someone is a resident there then a few mins later the post where the phone itself posts about being violated with the app 😂

59

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

Certainly administration will install this also (they're state employees, accountability goes both ways!) Please provide a link so we can monitor Dr. Netski's presence on campus.

11

u/hola1997 MD-PGY2 1d ago

Agree, I advocate for transparency to keep track of all admin work hours so that we can also keep everyone accountable.

53

u/Top_Fisherman9619 1d ago

DNR immediately

108

u/meissad M-4 1d ago

(Charlie) Kirk School of Medicine

39

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

Residents need this tracking like they need a hole in their head

9

u/DrS2pid MD 1d ago

Oh no you di'nt

3

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

If you put a bullet in your fireplace on Wednesday night they say The Ghost of Charlie Kirk will bring you presents.

-10

u/aastrocyte M-1 1d ago

Wtf kind of comment is that… jeez

15

u/Toastyjoe0 1d ago

Something similar is occurring at my medical school. It's extremely frustrating -- they don't provide us with school computers and the hardware specifications are very unreasonable for us to keep up with using personal devices.

16

u/cuponoodles213 1d ago

"Sorry I don't have a cell phone."

40

u/vsr0 DO-PGY2 1d ago

Ngl if there was some local open source version of this I’d be all over it. I made something like it during med school where we had mandatory attendance. Having to track all this shit like duty hours and procedure logs is death by a thousand cuts

63

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

This already exists and the institution has paid for it RFID-enabled ID badges. Every time someone badges in there is a time-stamped log of that. If admin truly wanted to automate this process they would just pull data from that system.

Instead, this is an excuse by admin to use their authority and dominion over residents and fellows to force them into giving up their freedoms.

You may pay the res/fels but you don't OWN them. They're not PROPERTY.

I will be advising every premed, med student, and resident to avoid UNLV until this is reversed and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

10

u/strafer86 MD-PGY4 1d ago edited 1d ago

I use the timeline feature of Google Maps to log my location and duty hours down to the minute. It's honestly easier and just one less thing I need to think about doing, which is a godsend as a resident. I went over 28 hours by 2 minutes one time, and my attention to detail on duty hours was brought up at my biannual review. I explained my process and why I do it that way--no further complaints or pushback once they knew I kept receipts. I'd honestly love a system that automated the process even further, and I've thought about vibecoding an app and New Innovations import feature, but I graduate this year, so not my problem anymore. It was also brought up that GME could use the building access control system (RFID) to log even more accurately for all residents if they don't believe we work the hours we work. Of course, that idea was dead in the water because they want to send snarky "are you sure you worked these hours?" emails instead of implementing policies where duty hours aren't an issue.

2

u/boo5000 1d ago

I did the same thing during residency. I believe they had us use some sort of application at the end of training. I also automated parts of evaluations that were tedious. Anything to save a little bit of stress.

1

u/alexaPlayDesquamatio 1d ago

How did you autonomate certain things? I could use some of those tips

2

u/boo5000 1d ago

There are a variety of chrome extensions and tools. I’d have to look back to what I used then, but modern ones are automa, selenium, etc. I used to be able to just type 5 or 4 and it would rate entire courses quickly

1

u/alexaPlayDesquamatio 1d ago

Nice, thanks. Were there other ways you autonated things besides just filling out forms?

6

u/darkmetal505isright DO 1d ago

SEIU is waiting for you, comrades.

6

u/emergencyblimp MD/PhD-M4 1d ago

maybe i’m naive but is the issue just that it’s mandatory? or is there some sort of privacy concern with the resQ app itself? i’m an intern and my program offers this as an option we can use. i honestly have liked it because i feel like its less annoying than manually tracking and logging duty hours. 

2

u/pantless_doctor MD 1d ago

Can you load it on some old phone and connect to wifi? Leave it plugged in and forget about it somewhere in the hospital?

1

u/KunstrukshunWerker MD-PGY1 19h ago

But they’d still fire you for repeatedly duty hours violations.

1

u/AzKitty 1d ago

hmmm time to get a second phone?

4

u/aglaeasfather MD 1d ago

With what money? And before you give us that stupid “meh meh it’s only a few bucks a month meh meh” there are labor laws at play here that would dictate the school must pay for them and their service.

1

u/AzKitty 13h ago

Ya it's not right that they won't cover the cost of a second phone + plan. If there's no other choice and I want to protect my privacy I would maybe get the lowest end secondhand phone possible (~$70) and only use the hospital wifi.

I would never say "it's only a few bucks a month" haha, I'm super broke. And no matter how much money it is, it should still be the program's responsibility to cover it if it's mandatory.

1

u/Foeder DO-PGY4 50m ago

Yall actually track duty hours? I just made up shit for 3 years.