<p>I might get married pretty soon and eventually have children and I am wondering how I could possibly be a physician and still have time to stay at home and take care of the kids. I am inclined towards family practice, but I don't know what sort of hours would be available to me if I chose that route? I would like to be at home with the kids during the day and then go to work during the evening. Are there any other men on this forum that are facing this sort of a challenge? Your comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Emergency medicine really sounds right up your alley. It's shift work, there's always a need for physicians to staff it at night, etc. Most ED's I know of do two weeks on, two weeks off, or some other sort of rotating schedule so you're not always stuck with the night shift, but I'm sure there are options for people who would prefer that...</p>
<p>That said, a career in medicine is one of sacrificing your family and friends' time/events/etc for the needs of your patients. While medicine provides a wide variety of lifestyles, it's not perfect and you shouldn't expect to find an ideal solution to your "challenge".</p>
<p>One of my close friends comes from a two-doctor family, and one of the quotes that strikes closest to home for her is one from Grey's Anatomy:</p>
<p>"Being [a doctor] is about responsibility. Every single patient in the hospital is your patient, whether you’re the one who cut them open or not. You need to be able to look at a family and tell them your team did everything they could to save their child. The husband, the wife. You get caught up…taking care of other peoples’ families. And the responsibility… You take care of <em>other</em> peoples’ families. And you sacrifice your own."</p>
<p>Many doctors also take care of their families. However, "stay at home and take care of kids" is a different matter. That is incompatible with having any regular job outside the home. Training will be challenging, and it is very difficult to be a parent while a resident. After that, there are lots of part time arrangements. Depends on the field. Usually better to avoid the areas in medicine with high overhead, since you have to work enough to cover your costs. Family practice, general internal medicine, and psychiatry come to mind as practical choices.</p>
<p>Family practice and internal medicine practitioners must cover office overhead and take call. While overhead may not be as high as that of a surgical (equipment intensive) practice doing office procedures, compensation will likely be lower. The Kaiser system is perhaps the only system that really facilitates part time work for generalists.</p>
<p>As noted, emergency medicine might be a good bet. Other options with controllable hours include practicing anesthesia in a large group where call is compensated in a piecemeal fashion, pathology, outpatient anesthesia, outpatient radiology, derm, rad onc, and ophtho.</p>
<p>Most surgical specialties are very demanding in terms of time commitment.</p>
<p>I am a man also. My wife and I married just before medical school, had our first child during the fall of the third year of medical school and our second child during my PGY-3 year.</p>
<p>The absentee father/physician model is pretty well accepted, but far from optimal. Your spouse will likely shoulder a disproportionate share of parenting duties and you will likely miss some key childhood events due to your schedule. The previous recommendations regarding specialties still apply.</p>
<p>On the plus side, as a physician you will earn enough that your wife and kids will enjoy financial security without her needing to work. (One of my surgeon friends says that he wants to come back as a surgeon's wife if reincarnation is in the works.)</p>
<p>ER medicine is the way to go. Not only is there no other specialty that will allow you to work nights only, but you will have your pick of jobs because most ER docs want to work the dayshift too.</p>
<p>Looking at the choices of women is still good advice. </p>
<p>However, you should realize that many people in medicine will look down on a man who works part time in order to spend more time with children. This is more accepted for women. Medicine is a very traditional field and attitudes change slowly.</p>
<p>If you want time with your family, I would argue against most surgical fields. Your hours will be long and unpredictable. Surgery is the most macho, and conservative, of the fields, and the least likely to accept a man working part time to stay home with kids. Due to high malpractice, and other features of surgical practice, it is also difficult to make part time practice work.</p>
<p>Medicine is piece work. Thanks to the way insurance pays for care, it is difficult for doctors to increase fees based on skill or reputation. This means that within fields highly compensated doctors put in more hours than others. So you will not be a top earner unless you work long hours. You seem ok with that, but do not believe that you can expect compensation anywhere near the top if you are not working long hours.</p>
<p>In addition to E-Med, you should also consider radiology -- you can work as a nighthawk if you want to work nights only and many practices will offer you better pay or shorter workweeks to make it worth your while.</p>
<p>Child psychiatry but it takes as long or longer than surgery and doesn't pay nearly as well. Still, if things remain like they are now, there is great demand, In the right location you can do cash only and/or chose your hours. "After school" is important,though</p>