EM opportunities for better hours, less pay

[ERorPBR]

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[sawboned]

Daytime only/mostly positions you will find are challenging to land but not impossible.

While certainly not for everyone, a third option is to set up shop at a low volume/high acuity ED such as mine.

I used to dread night shifts as much as anyone. I'm finding since transitioning to this gig, I actually, shockingly find myself enjoying nights. The higher volume inevitably diminishes over the course of the shift. It's fun to start busy and know things will improve, sometimes dwindling to an empty ED.

While never a guarantee, I often get 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night. Will supplement this as needed with a brief nap when I get home and then I'm good to go for the whole day. Almost like I didn't even work a night shift at all.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

We allow partners to do days only in our group. They make about 2/3s what a night-only doc working the same number of hours does. You still have to do your shares of weekends/holidays. And I certainly wouldn't call hours "consistent" for anyone but you can probably get consistent in some groups, especially if you're willing to work nights.

 

[Groove]

Hello all, first time poster here. I'm an MS3 planning on going into emergency medicine. It has just about everything I'm looking for in a career, but I still have one main reservation about the field--the sporadic hours. I have no problem working long hours, but I'm worried about constantly switching from days to evening to night shifts and how this can mess with sleep, health, and family interactions (I'm hoping to start a family in the next few years). Can anyone comment on potential opportunities in EM where it's possible to work consistent, daytime hours even if it's for less pay?

This doesn't make or break my decision to do EM. I really think I'd still be happy working the sporadic EM hours, but I'm just curious what all is out there. Thanks!

No, it's not make or break but I think you should consciously accept the fact that you may be required to share equal day/nights with your colleagues. That's more the norm than not in most gigs though it's not uncommon to have nocturnists who prefer nights and enjoy a differential to work them. My current gig has a lot of guys that prefer nights so the rest of us usually don't have to work many of them though we have a weird swing shift that is 5p-3a and just sucks. I should probably consider that a night because it totally messes with my sleep patterns. I'd totally do nights if the differential was worth it and I didn't have admin responsibilities though they are minor.

Anyway, even if you have to work nights... 12 shifts a month with 4-5 nights is not going to kill you.

 

[HooliganSnail]

The swinging around of hours is worst during residency, where you have to do 18-20 shifts a month. Residents get jerked around.

I frequently have to switch from a night shift to a day shift within a 24 period, and it does wear on you. A lot of that is (partially) self inflicted, because many ER residents in my program cover local urgent cares for extra money, so what would have been a decent transition period gets screwed up, but the extra money really helps a lot.

I joke often that a spend a lot of my life in "jet lag"

Attending's seem to have it better, less shifts a month, WAY more money for their time. Although I can't comment too much on that because I am not an attending.

ER is an awesome field, there is no on-call responsibilities. I don't even know where my hospital pager is, I never wear it. However, in order to get that freedom from the pager, we work weird hours, there is just no getting around that.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

You always have the choice to become a locums tenens doc. You can make a ton of money as a locums, and completely control what shifts you are willing to work. The downside, you'll be working all over the place and numerous different hospitals and you'll have to adapt to constant change, will never be in one place too long (usually), and may have to travel a bit.

If you can find a group where they have dedicated night folks, that would be great. But everyone wants that, so its going to be hard for someone coming right out of residency to snatch up a job where they only work day shift.