a more practical question on lifestyle

[newyorkdoc9]

Hi-
I've done a fair amount of searching on this forum and many posts have come up regarding lifestyle. I have a few questions that weren't addressed and would like to ask:

(1) do surgeons usually do call from their homes (assuming they live relatively close) or is it in-house? What would be a very avg ballpark range for frequency of call (if you could break it up by subspecialty that would be amazing)

(2) how many hrs/wk would you say surgeons put in (again, i understand its a difficult question, i'm just looking for a range to get an idea)

2) how many weeks vacation on avg would you expect a surgeon to get (again, some rough range)..

3) do attendings work 7 days a week? do they generally get weekends off?

Again, I know that everyone here loves surgery and it is understood to not be a lifestyle specialty...i am trying to comprehend what a "bad lifestyle" means as best I can, thats all..

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[FatPigeon]

Hi-
I've done a fair amount of searching on this forum and many posts have come up regarding lifestyle. I have a few questions that weren't addressed and would like to ask:

(1) do surgeons usually do call from their homes (assuming they live relatively close) or is it in-house? What would be a very avg ballpark range for frequency of call (if you could break it up by subspecialty that would be amazing)

(2) how many hrs/wk would you say surgeons put in (again, i understand its a difficult question, i'm just looking for a range to get an idea)

2) how many weeks vacation on avg would you expect a surgeon to get (again, some rough range)..

3) do attendings work 7 days a week? do they generally get weekends off?

Again, I know that everyone here loves surgery and it is understood to not be a lifestyle specialty...i am trying to comprehend what a "bad lifestyle" means as best I can, thats all..

I used to ask the same questions, until I was finished with my core surgical rotation and subsequently an away rotation. I realized that my questions (similar to yours above) suddenly seemed a bit silly, because it's more a feeling that you have while on surgery....and the hours, call, etc are far too variable to quantify or predict.

The feeling I'm talking about, regardless of how many hours I actually worked, was that of being suffocated (not literally, of course). No matter what else I wanted to do, it wouldn't get done. I had no time for it. My life, from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep, was about surgery...and this somehow holds true even if you DO get off at 5pm one day (eat dinner, shower, and realize it's time for bed...since you DO have to get up at 4am the next day once again).

I honestly think the question is whether you're willing to live for surgery or not. People who rationalize it, ask questions and look for anecdotes of that rare resident with the 60 hour week....are the ones who end up joining and later leaving a program at the end of the second year.

Not too cynical sounding, I hope. Just how it felt for those 4 months I spent on it. I'm still considering surgery, by the way, if that makes it any better.

 

[newyorkdoc9]

yea, the lifestyle is def harder than most..i'm ok with that. I'm just trying to assess how bad is bad.

do surgeons usually do call from home? or are they in-house all the time? to me this makes a big difference

 

[deleted89854]

Honestly, it doesn't feel that bad. You have rotations where you get punished (Vascular, Trauma), and those where life if great (endocrine, lab). The thing that I've noticed is that the more often it's actually YOU performing the procedure, you become more invested. I want to get the phone calls at night if my patients aren't doing well or stick around until 10 pm if things come up.

Here interns usually have a regimented call schedule (q3-q4), whereas the second years split home call for the VA (1-2x/wk), except on trauma (q3).

Third year and up is a mixture of senior in house call (covering gen surg, vascular, pedi, and helping if trauma is overloaded), with chiefs always on home call for their service if one of their patient starts crapping out.

Hope that helps. The only way to choose is by where you have fun. I rotated through the ER and almost died from boredom, medicine rounds too log, etc. Lifestyle means squat if you're miserable when you're at work. I'm sure some of those guys would be miserable doing my job, having upredictable hours, dealing with some of the disgusting crap we see.

 

[Pilot Doc]

Hi-
I've done a fair amount of searching on this forum and many posts have come up regarding lifestyle. I have a few questions that weren't addressed and would like to ask:

(1) do surgeons usually do call from their homes (assuming they live relatively close) or is it in-house? What would be a very avg ballpark range for frequency of call (if you could break it up by subspecialty that would be amazing)

(2) how many hrs/wk would you say surgeons put in (again, i understand its a difficult question, i'm just looking for a range to get an idea)

2) how many weeks vacation on avg would you expect a surgeon to get (again, some rough range)..

3) do attendings work 7 days a week? do they generally get weekends off?

Again, I know that everyone here loves surgery and it is understood to not be a lifestyle specialty...i am trying to comprehend what a "bad lifestyle" means as best I can, thats all..

1) Vast majority home call. Huge variation in frequency from Q1 to Q14. Highly dependent on practice size. And the intensity of call will vary substantially as well. What you see in an academic hospital is a poor sample with which to judge most surgeon's day to day life.

2) 50-60 in most cases. Attending surgeons have much mroe control over their hours than residents do, though this is usually through choosing a work vs income vs where to live situation.

3) 4 weeks

4) Some work 7 days, most have weekends off when not on call. Typically a practice will have one partner cover everything overa a weekend. Again, as an attending you schedule your own cases which will influence how many patients are still around friday at 5pm.

 

[maxheadroom]

4) Some work 7 days, most have weekends off when not on call. Typically a practice will have one partner cover everything overa a weekend. Again, as an attending you schedule your own cases which will influence how many patients are still around friday at 5pm.

One of my smartest attendings has a hard and fast rule that big cases are done on MONDAY so the patient can be out of the hospital by FRIDAY. It is rare that he has an inpatient from elective surgery who stays over the weekend. I will emulate this practice.

 

[Winged Scapula]

One of my smartest attendings has a hard and fast rule that big cases are done on MONDAY so the patient can be out of the hospital by FRIDAY. It is rare that he has an inpatient from elective surgery who stays over the weekend. I will emulate this practice.

Absolutely what you want to do.

My Friday block time is for lumps and bumps, all outpatient stuff.

Took awhile to impress upon my scheduler because she just wasn't thinking about the implications of doing a bigger case on a Friday. Since most of my don't stay more than a day or two, I'll do the bigger ones on Wednesday and Monday.