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</p>
<p>That’s ideal, but I guess it’s more or less important depending on exactly what was done. If the kid was choking and Heimlichs weren’t working and he needed a tracheostomy, that’s probably relatively safe. If the kid had an intussuscepted bowel and needed that corrected… that’s a lot less safe.</p>
<p>Pharm- that doesn’t include things like stock options.</p>
<p>^^^ i second that. The stock option accounts for like… 2/3 of wage income for corporates.</p>
<p>
die now or live and maybe have an infection later…</p>
<p>Again, if you want cash payment, medicine is not the place for you (esp after Obama’s passage of universal cheap pay insurance) - unless you want to do Hollywood cash only plastic surgery (nowdays, perhaps it is Miami…). Or go to Rio which has the highest % of plastic surgery…</p>
<p>The payment in medicine is something far greater than cash.</p>
<p>Universal health care is half way passed. It PASSED IN THE HOUSE.</p>
<p>OMG OMG OMG OMG.</p>
<p>lets pray that the senate republicans are more useful…</p>
<p>This isn’t halfway. For one thing, the Senate bill isn’t even up for a vote yet, and the versions that they do have are much smaller changes than the one the House passed. It then still has to make its way through conference and reconciliation.</p>
<p>In other words, we’re less than a quarter of the way to a new bill. And the Dems’ most skilled political operator (Pelosi) barely got it done in the House. Their grossly inept one (Reid) has managed to upset several of the most important players in the Senate (Snowe), and all the while Obama has already begun using up his political capital just to get it to (barely) pass in the House.</p>
<p>We’ll see where things go from here, the ammunition that the Democrats had to expend just to get this through the House is already pretty substantial. We’ll see what they have to do to get it through the Senate, then conference, then the House again, then the Senate again.</p>
<p>I am a Psychiatrist and I control my schedule but don’t make anything close to 250K.</p>
<p>“Outside of derm, radiology, and family practice/office pediatrics, docs don’t control their own schedules.”</p>
<p>I worked with an orthopedic surgeon, and she had quite a flexible schedule. No, she wasn’t working at a trauma center, so that’s part of it, but she did take call a lot (like every other doctor). She does clinics for 2.5 days a week, and surgery the other 2.5 days. Works from 9-6 in the office, and OR days vary, anywhere from 1 or no cases, to 7am to 6pm. The way she phrased it was “I decide how hard I want to work, and I’m happy with the lifestyle I have.”
So no, she’s probably not making crap tons of money, and yes she works hard, but she takes vacations a few times a year and has time for hobbies.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on where you work, and what your specialty is, but I think portraying every specialty outside of those as slavery is a little extreme.</p>
<p>Now… orthopedic surgeons, if memory serves from the Medical School visit, average something like 512k. </p>
<p>Id say she is banking a good 400k plus because its logical that she would be in a specialist group, not in some 100k academia.</p>
<p>The neurosurgeon that I do clerkship with is a 9-5 guy with no weekends except for emergency surgeries. Obviously the 5 end point might be variable on surgical days.</p>
<p>Really? That sounds like a ridiculously nice schedule for a neurosurgeon.</p>
<p>These stories are incomprehensible to me. I’ve never met surgeons who work hours like these. I’ve never met a single physician (outside of part-time) who worked 9-5, much less a neurosurgeon.</p>
<p>“These stories are incomprehensible to me. I’ve never met surgeons who work hours like these. I’ve never met a single physician (outside of part-time) who worked 9-5, much less a neurosurgeon.”</p>
<p>I guarantee you it’s true. Sometimes she’d leave at 5, sometimes 7. But usually around 6. And that’s only Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday were surgery days, which were widely variable. Sometimes 1 or no cases, sometimes it was a 10-12 hour day. Friday was half day, surgery in the morning for small cases, and the afternoon from 1-5 was clinics, mainly operation followups from that week. Yes she had call, but since it wasn’t a trauma hospital, most cases were things that would just be put into her surgery schedule the next morning. She said she has gone in in the middle of the night, but that it was not a common occurrence at all. </p>
<p>Like I said, yes there were days she was in the OR from 7am to 6pm (I spent most of one of those days with her, from 8am to 5pm) but those were extremely rare.</p>
<p>The tradeoff however is that she doesn’t make a killing like someone who works like crazy. But she definitely made a comfortable living for sure.</p>
<p>I’m sure that he also does work out of the office, but he is pretty damn efficient from 9-5. 30 minutes per visit. He spends 10-20 with the patient then promptly marches back to his room and dictates. Focuses almost entirely on straightening spines, if what I have seen is normal for him (he did a fellowship in ortho, so he tends to focus on that area of spinal surgery). Patient days MW, one or two surgeries a day TTHF. He’s in an academic position by the way, in a department with something like 30 (yes 30) neurosurgeons. It’s a really, really big hospital system, there’s 22 of them at the branch that I clerk at.</p>
<p>The way I’ve seen it is that you can have a lifestyle if you are willing to put your foot down hard and take the pay cut.</p>
<p>Ya… private practice is definitely the way to go. Can you imagine having some 30 Neurosurgeons at 1 hospital system? Imagine all those internists and general surgeons…</p>
<p>
**
Ibid</p>
<p>I am in surgical specialty with 8 years of training after med school, division chief, 30 years of practice. My younger wife did 2 years grad school and is VP in fortune 500 company and makes 3 times what I do and does not take night or weekend call, has use of corporate jet and us usually home by supper. </p>
<p>You will never make as much as Corp does. But she never gets hugged by cashier at walmart for saving her kids life</p>
<p>Princess’Dad, Your wife is one in a million to be so lucky! I did grad school in Pharmacology. I have been in R&D in top Pharma for 20 yrs but I don’t make 3 x Surgeon’s salary. Ha ha. My days begin at 6:45 am with calls to Japan (which is 13hours ahead of EST) and end often with review of patient data from Investigators on West coast way into 10 pm. I do get home around 6 pm but I continue to check my emails for progress in Clinical trials… So, not everyone in Pharma gets a Corp jets…LoL. I do get business class for travel though…Perhaps your wife’s grad degree is not in Science?</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I agree with you, I feel absolutely thrilled when I meet patients who are either using drugs I have worked hard to get in the market or could benefit from them. This alone keeps me going.</p>