General Surgery Lifestyle / Hours Work Per Week

[grapp]

Hi,

I've been doing some shadowing lately and have found a huge interest in general surgery... I noticed the average general surgeon works 58.8 hours a week or so, while some even work 65+. With an average of 2-3 days on call. I was curious about how flexible the time would be per week...

Example...
Then we have job openings, will some of them be somewhere around 40-50 hours remaining less than normal?
While on the other hand I'm sure some will be 60+.. Is this is a 40-55 hours a reasonable expectation assuming you or I were to finish a general surgical residency??

Thank you in advance.

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[Ismet]

Moving to pre-allo

 

[mimelim]

Hi,

I've been doing some shadowing lately and have found a huge interest in general surgery... I noticed the average general surgeon works 58.8 hours a week or so, while some even work 65+. With an average of 2-3 days on call. I was curious about how flexible the time would be per week...

Example...
Then we have job openings, will some of them be somewhere around 40-50 hours remaining less than normal?
While on the other hand I'm sure some will be 60+.. Is this is a 40-55 hours a reasonable expectation assuming you or I were to finish a general surgical residency??

Thank you in advance.

Pretty highly variable. Depends on the type of practice that you end up in, the kinds of cases that you are seeing and if you end up sub-specializing. You should expect to be working 60-90 hour weeks through residency. It would be difficult to find positions post graduation with a weekly commitment less than 45-50 hours/week, but I'm sure they exist.

@SouthernSurgeon may have a less vague answer than me.

 

[caffeinemia]

Pretty highly variable. Depends on the type of practice that you end up in, the kinds of cases that you are seeing and if you end up sub-specializing. You should expect to be working 60-90 hour weeks through residency. It would be difficult to find positions post graduation with a weekly commitment less than 45-50 hours/week, but I'm sure they exist.

@SouthernSurgeon may have a less vague answer than me.

LOCUMS in the SICU.... if you can even call that general surgery.

Anyhoo... at my institution the gen surg residents do

12-16 hour days + q3 24hour call (24 hrs post call are off).

 

[grapp]

Pretty highly variable. Depends on the type of practice that you end up in, the kinds of cases that you are seeing and if you end up sub-specializing. You should expect to be working 60-90 hour weeks through residency. It would be difficult to find positions post graduation with a weekly commitment less than 45-50 hours/week, but I'm sure they exist.

@SouthernSurgeon may have a less vague answer than me.

Understandably so... I was just wondering if I get to a position where I'd like to have more of a family life, if it would be a viable option. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Nietzschelover]

Understandably so... I was just wondering if I get to a position where I'd like to have more of a family life, if it would be a viable option. Thank you for your reply.

My guess is that you can and will have a family. You just won't be coaching their soccer teams.

 

[mimelim]

My guess is that you can and will have a family. You just won't be coaching their soccer teams.

Our busiest surgeon coaches his daughter's soccer games. He works 80+ hours/week. It all comes down to priorities.

 

[caffeinemia]

Our busiest surgeon coaches his daughter's soccer games. He works 80+ hours/week. It all comes down to priorities.

Operating room soccer is a growing sport.

 

[mimelim]

Operating room soccer is a growing sport.

Actually a couple weekendso ago I was on call with him and we did two cases Saturday morning and between OR cleaning he went and coached a game and was back in time for the important part of the case...

 

[Nietzschelover]

Our busiest surgeon coaches his daughter's soccer games. He works 80+ hours/week. It all comes down to priorities.

I'm still fascinated in the power of symbols and signifiers to influence perception. Your avatar is perhaps the most effective on the site in adding a little heft to your always "surgical" posts. Right up there with @Womb Raider.

I'm sure you're going to tell me that he successfully battles schizophrenia as well. Does he run 2-3 practices a week? Coach for the out of state tournaments? Still manage high quality sexual relations 3-4 times a week? Run 6-8 miles every morning at 5:00 am before heading off to rounds?

I am determined to continue loving you even if there will be no affection in return. I'm not, however, going to shudder at your feet.

I think the OP is asking about the challenges of being a surgeon and having time to enjoy other areas of life. Perhaps you could speak to those challenges a little more wholeheartedly instead of being contrarian. My response was more metaphoric than literal. And perhaps you can find time to respond to my question in another thread that you ignored about degrees of saturation and need for surgeons, including sub-specialty surgeons across the country.

 

[mimelim]

I'm still fascinated in the power of symbols and signifiers to influence perception. Your avatar is perhaps the most effective on the site in adding a little heft to your always "surgical" posts. Right up there with @Womb Raider.

I'm sure you're going to tell me that he successfully battles schizophrenia as well. Does he run 2-3 practices a week? Coach for the out of state tournaments? Still manage high quality sexual relations 3-4 times a week? Run 6-8 miles every morning at 5:00 am before heading off to rounds?

I am determined to continue loving you even if there will be no affection in return. I'm not, however, going to shudder at your feet.

I think the OP is asking about the challenges of being a surgeon and having time to enjoy other areas of life. Perhaps you could speak to those challenges a little more wholeheartedly instead of being contrarian. My response was more metaphoric than literal. And perhaps you can find time to respond to my question in another thread that you ignored about degrees of saturation and need for surgeons, including sub-specialty surgeons across the country.

He does not battle schizophrenia, not sure why you would think that. He runs practice twice a week. One of the weekly practices is on one of his OR days and every resident/fellow knows that his expectation is that he is leaving the hospital by 5pm, so things need to move quickly and efficiently. He does not coach out of state tournaments. It has been a while since I've been around 9 year olds and their soccer teams, but I don't think that that is a standard part of most 9 year olds soccer experience, could be wrong. I have no idea about his sex life. He does not run as far as I know. I know what the OP was asking about, hence why I gave a thought out response well before you showed up to this thread and citing my own limitations bat-signaled someone who will know a lot more than I.

I am simply correcting your post. I certainly don't know the lifestyles of every surgeon in the United States, but out of the couple dozen I do know, at least one coaches soccer his children's soccer games. He also happens to be our busiest surgeon. While you may be "guessing", I know this as a fact as I have first hand experience in it.

Regarding another thread, I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't read every thread on this forum, if you wanted a response from certain people tag them.

 

[caffeinemia]

Actually a couple weekendso ago I was on call with him and we did two cases Saturday morning and between OR cleaning he went and coached a game and was back in time for the important part of the case...

So you mean.... sign in and sign out?

 

[mimelim]

So you mean.... sign in and sign out?

Not sure what you mean

 

[Nietzschelover]

He does not battle schizophrenia, not sure why you would think that. He runs practice twice a week. One of the weekly practices is on one of his OR days and every resident/fellow knows that his expectation is that he is leaving the hospital by 5pm, so things need to move quickly and efficiently. He does not coach out of state tournaments. It has been a while since I've been around 9 year olds and their soccer teams, but I don't think that that is a standard part of most 9 year olds soccer experience, could be wrong. I have no idea about his sex life. He does not run as far as I know. I know what the OP was asking about, hence why I gave a thought out response well before you showed up to this thread and citing my own limitations bat-signaled someone who will know a lot more than I.

I am simply correcting your post. I certainly don't know the lifestyles of every surgeon in the United States, but out of the couple dozen I do know, at least one coaches soccer his children's soccer games. He also happens to be our busiest surgeon. While you may be "guessing", I know this as a fact as I have first hand experience in it.

Regarding another thread, I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't read every thread on this forum, if you wanted a response from certain people tag them.

I imagine you agree that is atypical. And to repeat my comment was a metaphor for being able to have a family but probably having to miss out on some things regular 9-5 folks might not. I imagine most surgeons miss out on some things, that's all, but that doesn't mean being a surgeon and having a family are undoable. The latter is a translation of what I intended. 9 years olds do go to tournaments but perhaps not out of state. But his 9 year old will soon be a 12 and 13 year old. The time demands for even getting to all of the games just as a parent, much less coaching, become more difficult. I've had first-hand experience too. I lived with a surgeon for 18 years before going off to college. It's possible a child of a surgeon has a bit of insight as well.