EM in the real world: how many weekends?

[-Goose-]

Hi there,

I have long thought that I wanted to do surgery, but now I am considering EM as well. The thought of shift work, nights, and some weekend work does not bother me; however, I had a summer job in college (as an EMT) where I worked every other weekend (12 hr shift on both Sat & Sun). I thought this really sucked b/c it was hard to coordinate plans with friends and family. I think this would especially bother me with kids.

Now I understand that weekend work in EM is a neccessary evil, but I was curious as to how many weekends you work as an EM attending in the real world (ie private). What is your setup?


thanks!

-Goose-

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[EM_Rebuilder]

Anticipate from half to one every month.

 

[kungfufishing]

make sure you like the work and not the schedule.


How many weekends you work depends on how big your group is and what their policies are. I would expect at least one a month, maybe more, and the likelihood is this will vary month to month.

 

[edinOH]

Expect to work everyother one.

Remember that when you aren't working, somebody else is. Unless you somehow have less docs scheduled in the department on the weekends vs the weekdays, it is very unlikely you will not be splitting the weekends evenly with your partners averaged out over the course of a month.

 

[DrQuinn]

We get 2 weekends, full weekends, off a month, which means fri night thru sun night off. even if i do work weekends, some of teh shifts are 7a-3p, which means i get the weekends off. and if i work nights, 11p-7a, i can still do stuff during teh day, or even at night, its not really that big a deal.

keep in mind, that you may work some weekends, but you will get a LOT of weekdays off. Do you know how nice it is to go to a mall or to a museum during the week? WAYYY better than during the weekend.

Q

 

[SoCuteMD]

Quinn makes a good point.

*sigh* I'm on eternal medicine at the moment, and although my team is great and our senior likes to teach and everyone is really nice, I do wish we got more than one day off a week! We have to come in and round (surprise surprise!) on Saturdays even if our team isn't on call!!!

 

[packitinstan]

are there jobs that allow you to work week on/week off or something similar? if so, is this rare?

 

[southerndoc]

are there jobs that allow you to work week on/week off or something similar? if so, is this rare?

No, it's not rare. Some of the smaller hospitals do that. I know a hospital group that works 7 days on, 7 days off with 2 rotations of days followed by 2 rotations of nights.

The beauty of emergency medicine is you can work how you want. If you only want to work 6 shifts/month, you can arrange it. If you want 2 months off every year to do international or volunteer work, you can arrange it. Anything is possible, but it might require some searching to find your perfect mix of shifts, pay, benefits, etc.

 

[alreadylernd]

at my program, there are some attendings who are "nighthawks" and because they only do the overnight shifts, they get their pick of the overnights - one does monday-thursday overnights only, ensuring he always has the weekends off.

 

[deleted77919]

On average 2/7 (28.6%) of your shifts will be weekend shifts unless you have less coverage on weekends or work out a deal where some guy gets paid extra to take the crappy shifts. In some groups more senior partners get preference for shifts and the junior guys have to suck it up and do more nights and weekends.

 

[-Goose-]

I guess as long as they weren't both 12s, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. I think that was what I didn't like about it. 12s on the weekend would suck.

 

[VALSALVA]

There's a group not far from where I live where everyone does 3 days on, 3 days off, 3 middays on, 3 days off, 3 nights on, 10 days off - in that order. Sweet! Comes out to approx 12 shifts/month.

 

[EdEmEr]

There's a group not far from where I live where everyone does 3 days on, 3 days off, 3 middays on, 3 days off, 3 nights on, 10 days off - in that order. Sweet! Comes out to approx 12 shifts/month.

Dear God!! My heart literally skipped a beat at this prospect. Thoughts of monthly 10 day sailing trips danced through my head.

 

[directdoc]

This is off topic...but how difficult is it to find jobs in ER? Like if you were to go to an area in Texas with 300,000+. It just seems like ER is too good to be true (most aspects).

 

[EM2BE]

This is off topic...but how difficult is it to find jobs in ER? Like if you were to go to an area in Texas with 300,000+. It just seems like ER is too good to be true (most aspects).

This reminds me of a statement I heard from a residency director - he didn't even bother interviewing anyone from Texas (he was from another state) because his past experience told him that they would all return back to Texas after they finished their residency (none would stay to work there). I guess maybe residency helps you get your first job after hearing that statement.

 

[directdoc]

This reminds me of a statement I heard from a residency director - he didn't even bother interviewing anyone from Texas (he was from another state) because his past experience told him that they would all return back to Texas after they finished their residency (none would stay to work there). I guess maybe residency helps you get your first job after hearing that statement.

Wow...I've always heard the opposite. Being from South Texas, there are tons of programs that are trying to convince doctors to come back to this area after med school. Its one of the most medically underserved areas in the country because doctors fear all sorts of things, the biggest being malpractice lawsuits. I will be coming back to Texas only because I'm in an 8 yr medical program that guarantees me acceptance to med school. The point of the program is to increase the # of docs in this region. Although it is not required to come back, I feel like I should because I may have been chosen over somebody else for this reason.

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

This is off topic...but how difficult is it to find jobs in ER? Like if you were to go to an area in Texas with 300,000+. It just seems like ER is too good to be true (most aspects).

I hear ya on that last sentence "EM is too good to be true".

I thought the same thing all through medical school and still after 6 mos of residency, the positives WAY out weigh the bads.

You should not have a problem getting a job ANYWHERE in the state of Texas. Obviously, major medical centers such as DFW/Houston/Temple/Austin/SA/Galveston are going to be slightly more difficult to tap, but I assure you there are many jobs for years to come in all those places....espically BE/BC EM physicians. I would also say that most EM teaching facilities are open to taking new grads as attendings.

If you go even slightly smaller such as Laredo/Kileen/Lubbock/Amarillo/Abilene/Midland/Odessa/Wichita Falls/Texarkana/Longview/Lufkin then those places are more apt to hurl money at you as most have few (in some cases NO) BC/BE EM Physicians.

As far as Texans going back to Texas...and the contrary statement of doctors moving out of Texas. I think the latter has not really been seen in the EM world in Texas, in fact, I would say Texas actually attracts EM physicians in....many jobs avalible, higher than average pay, and Prop 12 helps with protection. Its the PCPs, esp OB/Gyn, that has packed up and headed out.

 

[VALSALVA]

Dear God!! My heart literally skipped a beat at this prospect. Thoughts of monthly 10 day sailing trips danced through my head.

Tell me about it...did I mention the partners (takes two years) are making 350,000+ for that work and they are completely democratic? I'd sell myself to the devil himself to land a spot in that group!