AllMovie

Described as "ER without the soap opera," this 13-week reality series followed 26 resident doctors from 18 academic departments as they worked their first rounds at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, TN. The cameras recorded all the triumphs and tragedies attending the formative years of these men and women of medicine, with remarkable dramatic impact. By the time Resident Life debuted September 8, 2003, a federal law mandated that residents could work no more than 80 hours per week, making the 110-hour-per-week shifts that had been so common at Vanderbilt a thing of the past.