I am a PGY2, starting to feel a little burned out, would probably like to specialize at some point, but still undecided about what I fellowship I want to do. I just feel like once residency is over I want to take a BREAK, do something nice and relaxed, and meanwhile explore what I want to do next. I've been in school then training straight from high school without any time off. As my name suggests, I tend to have long hours at work because I am sometimes overly detailed and a little OCD about checking and rechecking that everything has been done and tucked in. I dont think i can change that about myself. I feel like residency has consumed my life. Obviously, I have no time to go out and meet people or develop my any nonmedical interests.

I am thinking of doing some translational research, at least temporarily. I do have some unfinished work from a prior research experience that I've been planning to go back and finish. It's related to hematology, which is one of the fields I know don't want to specialize in, so my mission is simply to finish what I started and look around for opportunities in fields I might be interested in. Ultimately researchwise, I think i might be interested in genomics-related topics that have some direct clinical impact.

Anyway, my question is, what other things can I do with an MD once i've completed residency, besides being a hospitalist, working in a clinic, or going for fellowship? What kinds of semi-relaxed jobs can I look into, that I can still apply my training to, with decent pay (doesn't have to be in the 100k's, but enough for a single person paying loans)? CDC, FDA? I've looked at the respective websites but there are so many different programs there, that i'm not sure which ones would be appropriate for my level of training and interests. Pharma? I am hesitant to affiliate myself with a pharmaceutical company at this point, though I could see myself enjoying an R&D or toxicology type role in the lab. Would this pretty much be a dead-end job though? I am not too familiar with how things work in industry.

Just a thought, I like the CDC fellowship for the emergency management of outbreaks, its called Epidemic intelligence unit or something like that . It has few spots for physicians. Its a one year thing and pretty exciting, and something not too boring, or too hectic. Just look into it. And wont look bad on your resume.

Or I am sure u will find excellent research jobs in places like mayo.

Just curious why not Hospitalist if you don't want to do a fellowship immediately? Yes they are long shifts and probably not what you are looking forward to after inpatient IM residency......but on the upside most are moving to a 7 on 7 off schedule so you will have that time to relax and do things other than medicine while still making 180K+ and not having to sacrifice the $$ you worked (or overworked) so hard to obtain.

B-


I am a PGY2, starting to feel a little burned out, would probably like to specialize at some point, but still undecided about what I fellowship I want to do. I just feel like once residency is over I want to take a BREAK, do something nice and relaxed, and meanwhile explore what I want to do next. I've been in school then training straight from high school without any time off. As my name suggests, I tend to have long hours at work because I am sometimes overly detailed and a little OCD about checking and rechecking that everything has been done and tucked in. I dont think i can change that about myself. I feel like residency has consumed my life. Obviously, I have no time to go out and meet people or develop my any nonmedical interests.

I am thinking of doing some translational research, at least temporarily. I do have some unfinished work from a prior research experience that I've been planning to go back and finish. It's related to hematology, which is one of the fields I know don't want to specialize in, so my mission is simply to finish what I started and look around for opportunities in fields I might be interested in. Ultimately researchwise, I think i might be interested in genomics-related topics that have some direct clinical impact.

Anyway, my question is, what other things can I do with an MD once i've completed residency, besides being a hospitalist, working in a clinic, or going for fellowship? What kinds of semi-relaxed jobs can I look into, that I can still apply my training to, with decent pay (doesn't have to be in the 100k's, but enough for a single person paying loans)? CDC, FDA? I've looked at the respective websites but there are so many different programs there, that i'm not sure which ones would be appropriate for my level of training and interests. Pharma? I am hesitant to affiliate myself with a pharmaceutical company at this point, though I could see myself enjoying an R&D or toxicology type role in the lab. Would this pretty much be a dead-end job though? I am not too familiar with how things work in industry.

Just curious why not Hospitalist if you don't want to do a fellowship immediately? Yes they are long shifts and probably not what you are looking forward to after inpatient IM residency......but on the upside most are moving to a 7 on 7 off schedule so you will have that time to relax and do things other than medicine while still making 180K+ and not having to sacrifice the $$ you worked (or overworked) so hard to obtain.

B-

It looks like you are still a med student. Maybe once you are halfway into your residency you will understand why not. People burn out doing hospitalist work, yes even 7 on 7 off. $180+ is not worth it to me, if i'm slaving my life away. And the hospitalists get dumped on BIG time. Hospitals squeeze whatever they can out of them. As I said, I am very detail oriented, and hospitalist work will not allow me to be that way due to the sheer volume of patients on their service. I have seen the hospitalists working, I have gotten patients from them, I see how things work over there. They run around crazily admitting patients, they have to consult every service even for little things because they just dont have time to work up things or write orders. I know I will not be happy doing that kind of work.

So that's why not.;)

It looks like you are still a med student. Maybe once you are halfway into your residency you will understand why not. People burn out doing hospitalist work, yes even 7 on 7 off. $180+ is not worth it to me, if i'm slaving my life away. And the hospitalists get dumped on BIG time. Hospitals squeeze whatever they can out of them. As I said, I am very detail oriented, and hospitalist work will not allow me to be that way due to the sheer volume of patients on their service. I have seen the hospitalists working, I have gotten patients from them, I see how things work over there. They run around crazily admitting patients, they have to consult every service even for little things because they just dont have time to work up things or write orders. I know I will not be happy doing that kind of work.

So that's why not.;)

Maybe that's how it works at your hospital, but not at my program. The hospitalists there for the most part love their job. They certainly don't consult every service for little things. Maybe when you are an attending you will understand there are different personalities at different programs and different hospitals. Just because the guy's a med student doesn't mean he can't see what is going on around him. ;)

The CDC program is one idea...I thought is was 2 year program, not 1, though. But you could look it up online.

Agree with the OP about the hospitalist job...though they do vary, I think a lot of the hospitalist programs have a high burnout rate b/c it's not that intellectually satisfying and the hospital tends to just work you as hard as they can and pushes to turf the patients out of the hospital ASAP because that's how they make money. Again, it does vary by the hospital and program.

You could just moonlight with your license, and/or do Locum Tenens, and only work 1/2 the time or something and probably still make enough money to pay your loans, etc. It wouldn't look that great on your resume either.

You could do a research year, which tends to be fairly laid back, and moonlight occasionally to get money, which is what I did the year after medicine residency. However, every job has its drawbacks...you'll probably be on someone else's grant or a training grant from the NIH and you'll basically be the indentured servant of whoever's lab you are working in...but no call and few weekends of work!

Thanks for the defense monkey! Yes I am a med student but will be an intern in 9 months and I have done plenty of inpatient medicine in the last 2 years. I was only suggesting it because you said "temporary" and eventually would want to do a fellowship. I have been at some hospitals where it is the case what you state, but some of the smaller well respected community hospitals in my area it is not that way. The Hospitalists are well respected and only have 10 or 11 patients on their service at a time. Most of them do work in the ICU as well which can be challenging and detail oriented which is what you said you wanted. I hope you find what your looking for.....

B-


It looks like you are still a med student. Maybe once you are halfway into your residency you will understand why not. People burn out doing hospitalist work, yes even 7 on 7 off. $180+ is not worth it to me, if i'm slaving my life away. And the hospitalists get dumped on BIG time. Hospitals squeeze whatever they can out of them. As I said, I am very detail oriented, and hospitalist work will not allow me to be that way due to the sheer volume of patients on their service. I have seen the hospitalists working, I have gotten patients from them, I see how things work over there. They run around crazily admitting patients, they have to consult every service even for little things because they just dont have time to work up things or write orders. I know I will not be happy doing that kind of work.

So that's why not.;)