flexibility to travel as a surgeon?

[icarus2847]

I love traveling and want to travel as much as I can in the future. How much flexibility can I have to travel as a future surgeon? Like how often would I be able to get out of the country to travel and for how long?

Also, I'm not sure if I should make a separate thread for this, but I've recently heard of locum tenens, and how practical or reasonable/feasible is this for someone who wants to travel/live in different countries for a few months up to a year? Any help and advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

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[Praefectus]

You'll be working ~60 hrs/week, but you do get some vacation time.

 

[zwitterion34]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=715120

 

[Law2Doc]

You'll be working ~60 hrs/week, but you do get some vacation time.

60 hours a week might fly for ENT or Urology. Most of the non "lifestyle" surgical specialties work much more than this.

Depending on your practice structure you probably can have 3-6 weeks of vacation each year, maybe a bit more when you get more senior.

Locum tenens doesn't work for surgery, and isn't a great career progression move for anyone with a choice.

 

[icarus2847]

60 hours a week might fly for ENT or Urology. Most of the non "lifestyle" surgical specialties work much more than this.

Depending on your practice structure you probably can have 3-6 weeks of vacation each year, maybe a bit more when you get more senior.

Locum tenens doesn't work for surgery, and isn't a great career progression move for anyone with a choice.

What do you mean by practice structure? 3-6 weeks a year doesn't sound too bad and does allow time for a decent amount of traveling.

 

[tiedyeddog]

What do you mean by practice structure? 3-6 weeks a year doesn't sound too bad and does allow time for a decent amount of traveling.

Depends on group size, patient volume, contractual obligations to hospitals, etc. Lots of variables.

 

[Praefectus]

60 hours a week might fly for ENT or Urology. Most of the non "lifestyle" surgical specialties work much more than this.

Depending on your practice structure you probably can have 3-6 weeks of vacation each year, maybe a bit more when you get more senior.

Locum tenens doesn't work for surgery, and isn't a great career progression move for anyone with a choice.

It was meant to be a ballpark figure, and I didn't include any time that you might be on call. I know that some surgical specialties have procedures that can take up to 12 hours, such as heart transplants for CT surgeons. The actual hours would depend on the slate of surgeries for the day.

 

[pre med 2014]

well the surgeons you read about in the Flying magazines routinely take their personal piston aircraft on 4 day long flights to the emirates in the middle east. But they might not be representative of surgeons in general.

 

[45408]

60 hours a week might fly for ENT or Urology. Most of the non "lifestyle" surgical specialties work much more than this.

Depending on your practice structure you probably can have 3-6 weeks of vacation each year, maybe a bit more when you get more senior.

Locum tenens doesn't work for surgery, and isn't a great career progression move for anyone with a choice.

General surgeons average 56 hours a week, according to one of the general surgery magazines I get. Neurosurgeons, transplant, and cardiothoracic may or may not work more than that, but 60 hours a week would be above average for gen surg, which is never considered a lifestyle specialty.

What do you mean by practice structure? 3-6 weeks a year doesn't sound too bad and does allow time for a decent amount of traveling.

Three weeks off per year is not much when you're working many/most weekends/nights/holidays. Trust me.

 

[circulus vitios]

General surgeons average 56 hours a week, according to one of the general surgery magazines I get. Neurosurgeons, transplant, and cardiothoracic may or may not work more than that, but 60 hours a week would be above average for gen surg, which is never considered a lifestyle specialty.


Three weeks off per year is not much when you're working many/most weekends/nights/holidays. Trust me.

That's a breath of fresh air when compared to the "ALL SURGEONS WORK 80 HOURS A WEEK UNTIL THEY DIE" stuff I've been reading on here.

 

[45408]

That's a breath of fresh air when compared to the "ALL SURGEONS WORK 80 HOURS A WEEK UNTIL THEY DIE" stuff I've been reading on here.

Some of those hours are at 3am, which is much more painful than working 7-5 for 5-6 days/week though...


But yes, it's better than 80 hours/week.