Hours/Pay (-logists/Surgeons)

[finance1212]

<p>I'm under the impression that doctors who are employed in hospitals work long hours and are always on call. Is this true? Would it be realistic for a doctor to work 10-12 hours a day, but have weekends completely off? Do doctors get paid leave? I'm also wondering about the social aspects of being a med-student. Would it be possible to get married while studying medicine? It seems like the students who are aspiring to be doctors don't have much time to themselves. Would they ever see their families? By the way, I'm most interested in cardiology, dentistry, gastroenterology, and their surgeon counterparts as well.</p>

[saxplayer123]

<p>if you are in it for the money, you might as well choose a different career</p>

[WayOutWestMom]

<p>On the average a doctor works 50-60 hours/week. EM has the shortest average work week, but EM docs work rotating shifts that always include weekends, holidays, nights and swing shift. </p>

<p>Surgeons of all types have highly variable schedules. For example, I have a friend who is transplant surgeon, his planned surgeries are long and are typically scheduled to start at 8-9 pm or later (when the OR is available for a long period of time) and last for 3-8 hours. He may get home at 3 am and still have to be back at the hospital at 7 am for rounds and appointments.</p>

<p>It would be extremely unusual for a physician to never have call-- which involves being available on nights and weekends (though not necessarily actually <em>in</em> the hospital, but available to go in on short notice). If the practice group has hospitalize patients, then whoever is on call that day will do hospital rounds. Surgical specialties almost always will have weekend rounds both Saturday and Sunday. Rounds can take anywhere from one hour to several hours depending on how many patients the doctor needs to check up on.</p>

<p>Doctors do get paid vacation and sick leave. (But scheduling a vacation often requires requesting time off 6 months in advance.)</p>

<p>Med students can and do get married. You need an understanding, patient and supportive spouse. (Residency is much worse than med school in terms of hours worked. Residents and fellows typically work 80 hours/week. )</p>

<p>In D1’s med school class, the divorce rate at the end of MS2 was ~60-65%.</p>

<p>Dentistry is separate career path from medicine.</p>

<p>Cardiology requires a 3 year internal medicine residency after medical school followed by a 3 year fellowship.</p>

<p>GI requires a 3 year internal medicine residency followed by a 3 year GI fellowship.</p>

<p>General surgery requires a 5 year residency. If you wish to have a surgical specialty, you will do a fellowship of 1-3 additional years after residency. Cardiothoracic is 3 additional years; colorectal is 1 additional year.</p>

[i_wanna_be_Brown]

<p>WOWmom,</p>

<p>when you say “divorce rate” do you mean actual divorces or couples splitting up?</p>

<p>There were definitely a fare share of breakups in my class but no one who came in married has gotten divorced. Let alone dealing with a partner, a couple of my classmates had kids before med school started, and several have had kids during med school.</p>

[bluedevilmike]

<p>Very old data below.</p>

<p>

Over 30 years of follow-up, the divorce rate was 51 percent for psychiatrists, 33 percent for surgeons, 24 percent for internists, 22 percent for pediatricians and pathologists, and 31 percent for other specialties. The overall divorce rate was 29 percent after three decades of follow-up and 32 percent after nearly four decades of follow-up.</p>

<p>Physicians who married before medical school graduation had a higher divorce rate than those who waited until after graduation (33 percent versus 23 percent). . . . Female physicians had a higher divorce rate (37 percent) than their male colleagues (28 percent).

[Hopkins</a> Medicine: Physician Divorce Rate May Be Linked to Specialty Choice](<a href=“http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/1997/MARCH/199703.HTM]Hopkins”>http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/1997/MARCH/199703.HTM)</p>

<p>For comparison’s sake:

for college graduates, the divorce rate in the first 10 years of marriage has plummeted to just over 16 percent of those married between 1990 and 1994 from 27 percent of those married between 1975 and 1979.

<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/health/19divo.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/health/19divo.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[bluedevilmike]

<p>

I remember one of my medical school friends who interviewed at a top-tier surgical program where they bragged that over the seven year training period the divorce rate of residents was more than 100%, because some of them divorced twice. They were bragging; I was horrified.

</p>

<p>[I&lt;/a&gt; will never be the physician that my father was](<a href=“http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/11/physician-father.html]I”>I will never be the physician that my father was)</p>

[WayOutWestMom]

<p>I mean actual divorce rate, IWBB. As in married couples getting a legal divorce. (Her class is probably close to 60% non-trads, including a number of 30-somethings with kids.)</p>

<p>There have been weddings too. D1 said she attended 3 during the summer between MS1 and MS2. And babies.</p>

<p>Her best female med school friend had a baby a week before the deadline to take STEP 1, and was allowed to take a year’s maternity leave without penalty. She’ll resume her training next Feb after she takes her STEP.</p>

[i_wanna_be_Brown]

<p>ok yeah, sounds like the class is older than mine. Only 2 or 3 came in married, two people with kids. Several have had kids and several have gotten married. No divorces but plenty of break ups.</p>