Because this is the same forum where the majority of people constantly spew junk about how you shouldn't be a doctor for money or prestige or lifestyle, etc - it should all be for altruism and for the love of patient care. So can someone please explain to me how a glut of part time doctors (I'm talking under 30 hrs week here) will benefit overall patient care and continuity of care? Can someone please explain to me how it's altruistic for a FP physician to work 20 hours a week when the waiting time for a patient to be seen in the clinic is 2 weeks? Sounds like putting family before patients to me. So much for medical altruism, eh? Turns out maybe being a physician is actually just a job afterall.
Example: I have a friend who is a pediatrician (husband is a banker), and after four kids, she decided she didnt want to be working 50 h/wk, she didnt want weekend call, etc etc. So, she now works at a public clinic three days per week, making just a little over 10,000/yr! The major pay cut doesnt bother her, cuz shes NOT doing it for the $. it works for her, it works for her patients, and it works for her family. She is happy where she is, her kids love having a mother home when they get home a couple days per week, and I truly think she is helping people who REALLY need her. Now you may argue that not everyone has the "luxury," of no loans to pay off, a spouse who has a higher-paying job so that both husband and wife dont HAVE to be working full time to support a family, etc etc. but does that mean that those who do, are inherintly doing something wrong? Is she a worse doctor because of it? Is she NOT helping people who otherwise wouldnt even be seeing a dr? Think abt it. It works for some people, not for others. each case is different.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not actually saying I'm inherently against doctors working part time or anything. It's fine by me. I just hope you folks will agree that if wanting to have a family is a good reason to work part time as a physician, then having a family should also be a good reason for why someone would want to make great money, not want to have to rack up all these crazy volunteer hours to get into med school, and think residents shouldn't have to work more than normal hours in the name of learning and "patient care".
NOT necessarily. A: Two people are not ALWAYS required to "make great money." if one spouse is making enough to support a family comfortably, it may not be necessary for both to work full-time, and for that particular family, it might work to have one home at least on a part time basis.
B: with regard to racking up volunteer hrs and all the other crazy stuff we do to get in, in a majority of cases, all that is done BEFORE having kids, and in alot of cases, BEFORE getting married as well. Why should the crazy hrs a person works, all the hard work they do at TWENTY, to get into school, automatically mean that they have to be working JUST as much at THIRTY?
C: "think residents shouldnt have to work more than normal hrs?" - I think (I hope) that everyone going to med school, including all those who are toying w/ the idea or are even 100% sure that they want to work part time after finishing their training, are well aware of the 7-10 yr stretch that lies ahead of them, which WONT be easy. I want to have a family, and I want to be a good dr, MAYBE work part time at some point later on, but I still ****le when i hear other girls say stuff like "well ill just do a derm residency." like A: do you realize that those are pretty hard to come by, and if youre intending on doing this all half-assed like that, its not happening? do you understand what the "MATCH" really means? even funnier are the ones who are like B: "well ill just do a part time residency." OK then. Good luck on that. I think that most people going into medicine (with the exception of these few pretty dumb premeds who throw lines like those i mentioned, who probly wont be getting in anywhere in the US anyway...), are well aware of what a residency entails. Even if theyre willing to sign their life away for those 3-7 years, its not written anywhere, that once those 7 yrs are up, they MUST continue that grueling schedule OR ELSE theyll be a bad dr.
