•••quote:•••Originally posted by brian:
•Can anyone comment on what kind of hours (lifestyle) ENTs have after residency? How frequent is call? Thanks.•••••This is whole dependent upon where you practice, what the scope of your practice is, and how many partners you have in your practice.
If you're a solo guy and all you do is T&As and sinuses, you may never be on call. If you're a university attending, you have a rotating call schedule and may work long hours. If you're a true general otolaryngologist in a group practice, you may perform everything from the plain Jane surgeries to the bigger whacks and be on a weekly, rotating call schedule. It's so variable.
According to polls, however, the average otolaryngologist works about 60 hours/wk *on patient care* after residency. This may or may not reflect how much time s/he takes to manage the practice or paperwork.
The bottom line is that your life as an otolaryngologist can be as easy or as rough as you want it to be. If you want to be private Joe and just do T&As, you'll be earning on the low end of the spectrum, may never have call, and may work from 9 to 5. If, however, you are fellowship bound, want to join the faculty, want to teach residents, want to perform big whacks and complex cases, you could be working closer to 70-80 hours per week and rounding on patients on the weekends.
There is not a simple answer to your question. It's region-dependent and practice-dependent.