OB/GYN work hours. OBs have no life???

[Peaches]

I have had people make disparaging remarks about OBs and the hours. They say the work long hours and must forget having a life. I wish people could be more contructive in what they have to say. This leaves me with the following question: Does this mean 24 hr shifts, 12 hr shifts 6 days a week, a 70hr work week. What exactly do they mean?? I find this hard to believe that there is no way to balance it. One Dr I spoke with was in a practice(hospital based) of 4 OBs and a PA, and still felt the hours were long.
Pardon my naivety.
What can I expect in terms of typical work hours, or is there no way to quantify it to any ballpark figure?

Thanks for any insight.

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[Al Pacino]

All I can say is that you will never have a full grasp of the hours until you rotate through Ob during your third year. Then you will truley see the lives, or should I say the lack thereof, of the attendings

 

[neilc]

well, i already have no life, so no problem!

all kidding aside, my grandfather was an ob/gyn. and i really didn't see him that much. i remember reading his obituaries and such in the med society newsletters and newspapers. he was a very, very accomplished obstetrician, delivered an average of 30+ babies a month, chief of staff, very active in organizations, etc...he was always on call, he always fell alseep at the dinner table, he was very busy. but, he was very happy. we knew that he absolutely loved what he did, and he would never have been able to turn patients away or take less call. and we never felt slighted because he was always wonderful and glad to have time with us when he could.

i don't have any idea how my life will be as an ob/gyn, or even if i will get the privilege to be one. but, i would love to do it, and if you love your work, you never work a minute or however that goes!

now, what i am really worried about is that damn malpractice...i hope that gets sorted out by the time i finish!

 

[rebe131]

I just talked to a graduate from a KC residency program who is now practicing in Kansas (a state with good malpractice rates). Here is her schedule:

works 4 week days (always has thursday off)
clininc closes early on fridays (3pm)
works every 4th weekend (fri-sun)
on call one week day night every week

doesn't sound so bad to me!

 

[Blade28]

I'm in my OB/GYN rotation now, and the residency program here really tries to stick by the 80-hour work week. Of course, that's just an average of 80 hr/wk, so it doesn't always happen (especially when residents need to cover for each other, family emergencies, illnesses, etc.). The attendings have work hours dependent on their situation - are they working for an HMO, in private practice by themselves, or in a group practice?

 

[Lizzy]

In general, obgyns do have longer work hours than other specialties. But you can definitely tailor your career to fit the lifestyle of your choice.

If you want easier hours, you can always join an HMO group. You sacrifice some independence and salary by doing so, but at least you'll have time to enjoy life.

On the other hand, you can join a group practice. I know of a huge group practice of ~20 or so obgyns, and on average they take call only twice a month!! The downside is that your ob patients may end up being delivered by a partner.

And in this day and age where malpractice insurance is ridiculously high, there's a trend for obgyns to leave the ob portion behind. When they start practice, they'll have mostly ob patients, but will start building a larger gyn practice. Also, as you and your patients age together, they'll no longer be child-bearing and will become your gyn patients. Gyn practice has hella better hours.

As for residency hours, many programs are still having difficulty cutting down the hours to 80 a week. If the programs don't comply, they risk losing the program. But I did hear some attendings at my school complain that if the residents are not working the traditional long hours, then they will not receive enough training to graduate. I think part of the difficulty is in the reluctance of the "old school" attendings to change. They consider the long hours to be a rite of passage. Of course, I beg to differ and pray they'll get the changes established before I start my residency!!