Great Lifestyle?

[LuckyCharms83]

On my inpatient psych rotation now. From what I have seen, the attendings are out the door by 2 or 3 every day, work 4 days a week, and have minimal call on weekends. One of the docs said he's seen his salary go up $10 - 15K every year (a lot of this having to do with the shortage of psych docs in the midwest). I have had a classmate who has said similar things about the psych docs at her hospital.

Is this pretty typical of inpatient psych? I thought that residency was more laid back than other fields, but is psychiatry as a career also less demanding? I have been having a lot of trouble deciding between FP, psych, neuro, and PM&R (I'm indecisive by nature). Maybe a lifestyle like this might help tip the balance!

Thanks for your insight Guys!

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[whopper]

The midwest's shortage of psychiatrists is worse than other areas which may reflect some of the benefits the psychiatrists are experiencing that you are observing.

The lifestyle in general is better than several other fields of medicine. My father is a surgeon, 70 years old and still pulling all nighther calls.

In general, from what I've seen, I've seen psychiatry residency in general be more laid back than other residencies. By the time my IM rotation ended, I had blisters in my feet, developed athlete's foot, some old high school sports injuries were starting to be felt again (sore knee in the area where I was injured), mostly as a result of being on my feet & walking briskly for almost 10-12 hrs a day if not 24.

I would though reccomend that you not go into the field simply because of the lifestyle. You should have an interest in the field.

 

[colleezfascia]

By the time my IM rotation ended, I had blisters in my feet, developed athlete's foot, some old high school sports injuries were starting to be felt again (sore knee in the area where I was injured), mostly as a result of being on my feet & walking briskly for almost 10-12 hrs a day if not 24.

 

[michaelrack]

There are some cush jobs in psychiatry, but if you are expecting to make $180,000 per year you better be ready to work a solid 40 hours per week

 

[OldPsychDoc]

I work split inpatient/outpatient, teach, and fill in on the ECT schedule a few times a month. 45-50 hrs/week. Call 1 weekend a quarter (phone + Sat/Sun rounding). Grossed a little over $200k.

If there are places where the compensation was going up 10-15k/year, I'm guessing they were doing some "catching up" to the market , but I'd bet it's plateaued in the current economy.

 

[whopper]

Actually its starting to come back now with my current job, though my current one IMHO is tougher than the typical psychiatric job (forensic facility, has hundreds of patients, several of them are NGRI for things like manslaughter, and I'm on what's conisdered THE WORST unit in the hospital). Its actually reminded me of my IM rotation because I was thinking "when was the last time this happened?"

 

[Regnvejr]

Likely, when the attendings head out the door, they are heading for their clinic, rounding in nursing homes or group homes or similar. Yes, the residency is much easier to survive than other residencies (as far as I could observe), but being a psychiatric attending, especially in an underserved area means that you work quite a few hours just on keeping things up to speed. You will find that once you get away from urban centers, the community support for your patients is drastically reduced, and you end up trying to fix a lot of the problems your patient experiences because there are no social workers, attorneys or whatnot available. You can earn well, but not by going home by 4pm.