Anesthesiology flexibility: Winters off/away?

[plusultra]

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Hey,

Hate to have my first post make me sound like some sort of lifestyle hunter. I've been genuinely interested in anesthesiology since I shadowed in the cardiac ICU even before med school, and for intellectual/personality reasons think it'd be a good fit. Halfway through 3rd year my hunch seems only to be getting stronger.

This is a curiosity of mine, though: Where I live gets super cold, gray, and sad in the winters, and I'd love nothing more than to get away for 1 or 2 months during this time, every year. Anesthesiology is clearly flexible theoretically, but would this be practical to do? This is more of a question for any residents or staff: would someone who left in Jan and Feb be looked down upon? Would it even be possible from a staffing/scheduling perspective? I wouldn't necessarily be sitting on a beach somewhere, but wouldn't mind volunteering or doing some research in a warmer place. Waking up at 530am just really gets to me for a couple months of the year, but pretty much everything else about anesthesiology really appeals to me.

BTW: I know this is the case for lots of people, seems pretty much everyone would love to hibernate over the winter and I always hear docs talk about it, so I don't see myself as a unique flower from this standpoint. Just wonder that, since this seems like one of the few specialties where you *could* do this, whether anyone actually does, and if their colleagues would think any less of them for it.

 

[powermd]

Hey,

Hate to have my first post make me sound like some sort of lifestyle hunter. I've been genuinely interested in anesthesiology since I shadowed in the cardiac ICU even before med school, and for intellectual/personality reasons think it'd be a good fit. Halfway through 3rd year my hunch seems only to be getting stronger.

This is a curiosity of mine, though: Where I live gets super cold, gray, and sad in the winters, and I'd love nothing more than to get away for 1 or 2 months during this time, every year. Anesthesiology is clearly flexible theoretically, but would this be practical to do? This is more of a question for any residents or staff: would someone who left in Jan and Feb be looked down upon? Would it even be possible from a staffing/scheduling perspective? I wouldn't necessarily be sitting on a beach somewhere, but wouldn't mind volunteering or doing some research in a warmer place. Waking up at 530am just really gets to me for a couple months of the year, but pretty much everything else about anesthesiology really appeals to me.

BTW: I know this is the case for lots of people, seems pretty much everyone would love to hibernate over the winter and I always hear docs talk about it, so I don't see myself as a unique flower from this standpoint. Just wonder that, since this seems like one of the few specialties where you *could* do this, whether anyone actually does, and if their colleagues would think any less of them for it.

Move somewhere warm, then you can get away for a few weeks in the winter time to go somewhere that is the opposite of super cold, gray, and sad... like Vail, Bozeman, Tahoe... St. Barts...

 

[inmyslumber]

This plan would be highly unlikely to accomplish as a resident. As for post-residency, you can always do locum and plan your schedule accordingly.

 

[BobBarker]

You don't have to live in the same place for the rest of your life.

 

[plusultra]

I'm well aware that one doesn't have to live in the same place their whole lives. That isn't the scenario I was asking about though. I've got family responsibilities that limit me to living within a certain area after my residency, for most of the year at least. I also expect that during residency I won't have any such control and I'll definitely have to suck it up. Inmyslumber, do you mean that I would have to work only as a locum to get this setup, or that I can still join a team and get a locum to replace me while I take a locum position somewhere warm for a month or so? From a professionalism standpoint would an anesthesiology practice have any issues with that?

 

[ssmallz]

You can do anything you want if you find the right place but finding the right place is tough. If there were no qualified candidates b/c the area is rural or you have a specific skill set you would have more leverage and could negotiate something like that w/out a problem. Another option would be to be your own locums person. If you get yourself credentialed at a bunch of local hospitals/surgicenter and work strictly as a locum you can call your shots in terms of when and how you work. The flipside of course is that you may or may not have work when you want it and if you go away for too long, someone will be taking your spot so there's always a chance of losing your job.

What you are asking to do is not unheard of but it will make things difficult for you to have job security. If this is something you are planning on doing my advice would be to work hard for a year or 2 save as much $$ as possible because you're going to want to have a years worth of living expenses saved before you institute this plan

 

[plusultra]

You can do anything you want if you find the right place but finding the right place is tough. If there were no qualified candidates b/c the area is rural or you have a specific skill set you would have more leverage and could negotiate something like that w/out a problem. Another option would be to be your own locums person. If you get yourself credentialed at a bunch of local hospitals/surgicenter and work strictly as a locum you can call your shots in terms of when and how you work. The flipside of course is that you may or may not have work when you want it and if you go away for too long, someone will be taking your spot so there's always a chance of losing your job.

What you are asking to do is not unheard of but it will make things difficult for you to have job security. If this is something you are planning on doing my advice would be to work hard for a year or 2 save as much $$ as possible because you're going to want to have a years worth of living expenses saved before you institute this plan

Thanks. That's an interesting, constructive response, if not exactly what I was hoping to hear. I actually would have thought this would be harder in a rural center than an academic center since it would seem harder to get a locum than in a bigger, more attractive city. I suppose though that taking your skills to a less attractive city would position you to negotiate better time-off terms for yourself.

 

[inmyslumber]

I'm well aware that one doesn't have to live in the same place their whole lives. That isn't the scenario I was asking about though. I've got family responsibilities that limit me to living within a certain area after my residency, for most of the year at least. I also expect that during residency I won't have any such control and I'll definitely have to suck it up. Inmyslumber, do you mean that I would have to work only as a locum to get this setup, or that I can still join a team and get a locum to replace me while I take a locum position somewhere warm for a month or so? From a professionalism standpoint would an anesthesiology practice have any issues with that?

plusultra, I was thinking that you would have to be employed as a locum. You would then arrange for work so that in the winter months you can be elsewhere.

Locum work is a less secure option (in my opinion) than a permanent position. My hospital practice had several locums who came here on a regular basis. Then a couple years ago, a decision was made to cut down the locum coverage and to hire qualified full-time anesthesiologists for those positions.

 

[drccw]

I think it's probably possible...

My job grants 8 weeks of vacation a year. Some have up to 12....
The prime months at my gig are the times when kids are off from school- summer, thanksgiving, christmas, spring break, etc... the easy time to get vacation? January, February, first two weeks of December are pretty easy months to get vacation. I tend to take two weeks every January.

My job grants a max of 3 weeks off at a time. So, I think it's doable.. Now if you wanted Xmas off every year? Ain't gonna happen...

FDW

 

[yappy]

Dang! 8 weeks?

Is this common? How many hours do you work a week?

 

[plusultra]

Yeah, 8 weeks sounds pretty nice. Thanks for the information, seems like something might be workable to get away for at least a bit, if the stars align and I work in a practice with a suitable setup.

 

[pjl]

In my group, despite technically having plently of time off for 10 weeks in the winter, it would not be possible to do the whole thing as a chunk. As with many groups December is very busy and vacation may be limited, and multiple Christmas weeks would be unlikely. It would be relatively easy to take 6 weeks off during Dec-Feb, but they would not all be able to be in a row. I would imagine this is a pretty common setup.