<p>so guys i may become a doctor and i just want to know the typical life of a doctor after he graduates from med school. Do doctors have enough time to spend with their family and just have free time to pursue other goals in life?</p>
<p>Well a lot depends on what type of doctor you're talking about, where they practice and the sorts of personal choices they've made.</p>
<p>The lifestyle of a neurosurgeon or interventional cardiologist is much different than that of a general pediatrician, dermatologist or psychiatrist who specializes in chemical dependency. </p>
<p>Where one works matters a lot too. For example, I want to be a pediatric invensivist (work in Pediatric Intensive Care Units). Some peds intensivists work at large Children's hospitals associated with academic medical centers and work as part of a large group of intensivists who also have fellows (the step of training after residency) working with them. They may have to take in-hospital call once every 12 days, or less and may only have primary clinical responsibilities during the days 1 week a month. They spend the rest of their time teaching and doing research. s
On the other hand some peds intensivists oversee small PICU's at community hospitals and they maybe only one of 5 on the staff. They end up having to take in-hospital call once every 5 days or even more frequently.</p>
<p>Lastly the choices a doctor makes matter too. I've worked with two general internists (like pediatricians but for adults) who live in the same city, went through the same Internal Medicine residency programs but have office practices that are extremely different. One, only schedules appointments for 20 minutes or longer, usually the majority being 30 minutes with the occasional hour block thrown in. And he NEVER double books a time. The other, only does 15 or 30 minute appointments, and usually triple books each time slot (he does have a PA who works most days of the week). The first doc, always out of the office by 5pm, usually 4:30. The second, usually doesn't leave until after 6:30. Why the difference? Money mainly, the second has created a life (condos in Breckenridge and Cabo, country club membership, cars, etc) in which the financial demands necessitate that he see 45 patients in an afternoon. The other is content with less and so is less busy. It should be noted though that both men are "on-call" for their patients (even though they both belong to group practices) and rarely let hospitalists care for their patients who are sick in the hospital, so they do calls from nurses throughout the night to make treatment decisions.</p>
<p>In general, if you're looking for a lifestyle which is 9-5, 5 days a week, with no weekends, medicine is not for you. But that doesn't mean you have no time for family, it just requires that you're more flexible with the spare time you do have. I've found, even as a medical student, that I have to be open to having a dinner date on a Tuesday night rather than a Friday because I have clinical responsibilities. So sacrifices have to made, but nothing impossible.</p>