How likely is it to find a job working 40 hours a week?

[19pieces19]

Hello Radiologists,

I'm a med student who is interested in learning about the lifestyle of radiology. I know it's traditionally been a lifestyle field but things have been changing.

I would prefer to work 40 hours a week. How likely is it that I could find a position like this as an attending? I know there's always anecdotes of one doctor that makes a million dollars doing nothing, but I'm talking about the average radiology graduate with a fellowship - body, MSK, thoracic, etc. (not IR).

If 40 hours is highly unlikely, what about 50 hours a week? Is this something that's feasible? I get a sense that 60 hours is sort of the average right now, which is still a bit higher than I would prefer.

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[colbgw02]

It's not like I can give you odds, but there are radiology jobs out there that fit your criterion, e.g. employee of a private practice, teleradiology, and even some academic positions. In a sense, overnight positions work very few hours per week, but only if you average things out over off weeks. You'll be limiting your options, of course, but it's not as if you're destined to be unemployed.

 

[TCOM12]

There are a good chunk of radiology jobs that are 1 week on and 2 weeks off. The one week on is usually nights and brutal. But... 2 weeks off.

If you are looking for lifestyle, go into derm, psych, pm&r, anesthesia.

 

[loljkttyl]

I am an attending radiologist. I think ~50 hrs/wk is more avg for daytime/nontelerads.

Exceptions:
- For private practice, some work part-time, but this seems to be mostly available to radiologists specializing in women's imaging.
- For academics, some have the option to work 4 instead of 5 days per week, for less money of course.

Bottom line:
Radiology is no longer a lifestyle field, but the pay is still very good.

 

[Shifty B]

Also attending radiologist. I think it's pretty feasible. Most jobs are probably somewhat more than 40, especially once you factor in call, but probably closer to 50 than 60. A lot of jobs have a lot of vacation as well, which can be nice.

You can find something where you aren't working yourself crazy though. You might make less money or not be in your exact perfect location, but you can do it. Especially now. The job market has recovered considerably.

 

[txguy]

Common, no. Possible, yes definitely, especially if you are a breast imager. As stated above, you'll see lots of examples of part time breast imagers, no call/no weekend and 4 day a week setups. It is basically an outpatient specialty with no true emergencies and no ER or nights to cover.

I agree with 50 hrs/week as a more accurate standard than the traditional 40 hrs/week.

 

[tco]

Just work for VRad. I think my attending who worked for them previously said he worked three 12 hour shifts per week with the option to work more. He always signed off as soon as his shift was over, but if you want a few extra bucks, you could easily work more.

The only negative is benefits. (At that time, anyway) He had to find his own health insurance, and I'm not sure if they had a retirement plan.

 

[neurotransmitter]

Someone mentioned anesthesia for lifestyle, but I don't think that's a lifestyle specialty.

The average hours for most anesthesiologists are still around 55-65 hours even as an attending.

Anesthesioloigsts even as attendings take a lot of call where they are either in-house so they sleep over and spend the weekend in the hospital or have to come into the hospital in the middle of the night.

But even for mommy track jobs where you only work 40 hours, it's not exactly what I'd call stress-free because the nature of the job is you are responsible for keeping the patient alive during surgery. That is nerve-wracking unless you have the right personality. Some anesthesia residents get kicked out of residency or transfer because people realize they don't have the personality for it. It's acute medicine, you're constantly watching, and just because anesthesiologists make it look easy doesn't mean it's easy. That's why the whole joke about "99% boredom and 1% sheer terror" to anesthesia.

And you have to work with surgeons every day. That is a challenge all by itself! Even as an attending, you usually have to do cases when it's most convenient for surgeons, not for you as an anesthesiologist, so that's not exactly what I'd call lifestyle friendly because you're not as in control of your own schedule as you might want. And because surgeons make the hospital so much money, there's pressure for you not to cancel cases even if you think they are risky.

But some people can deal with all of this so then it'd be a good specialty for them.

 

[GadRads]

But even for mommy track jobs where you only work 40 hours, it's not exactly what I'd call stress-free because the nature of the job is you are responsible for keeping the patient alive during surgery. That is nerve-wracking unless you have the right personality. Some anesthesia residents get kicked out of residency or transfer because people realize they don't have the personality for it. It's acute medicine, you're constantly watching, and just because anesthesiologists make it look easy doesn't mean it's easy. That's why the whole joke about "99% boredom and 1% sheer terror" to anesthesia.

Fair points, but how come CRNAs do it well independently, or so it seems, to the point some of them even claim and believe they are good as anesthesiologists? Obviously there are more complex cases CRNAs can't touch.

 

[neurotransmitter]

Fair points, but how come CRNAs do it well independently, or so it seems, to the point some of them even claim and believe they are good as anesthesiologists? Obviously there are more complex cases CRNAs can't touch.

I would say a lot of CRNAs "don't know what they don't know" and think they are better than they actually are. For most places CRNAs get rescued by anesthesiologists, even in places where they are supposed to be practicing "independently." That's another stressful part of anesthesiology is that there are a lot of places where anesthesiologists have to supervise CRNAs. It's stressful to have to do your own case, but imagine how much more stressful it'd be to have to supervise a CRNA who might need to be rescued (or now supervising more than one CRNA at a time because it's more profitable for a hospital to have 1 anesthesiologist supervising multiple CRNAs)! In some places CRNAs can even do ASA-3 and ASA-4 cases which are usually more complex, but maybe they have an anesthesiologist supervising just in case anything goes wrong. Some people can handle doing this, but for me it would be stressful.

 

[vm26]

Just work for VRad. I think my attending who worked for them previously said he worked three 12 hour shifts per week with the option to work more. He always signed off as soon as his shift was over, but if you want a few extra bucks, you could easily work more.

The only negative is benefits. (At that time, anyway) He had to find his own health insurance, and I'm not sure if they had a retirement plan.

Another negative is that you have someone skimming off your professional fee. Telerad companies get paid less per RVU by the group that they are covering for (eg. we pay our telerad company $36 for an after hour CT that we would normally get $50 for). The Telerad companies then pay their rads less in order to make some profit. Upside is that your reads will likely be short prelims.

 

[GadRads]

I would say a lot of CRNAs "don't know what they don't know" and think they are better than they actually are. For most places CRNAs get rescued by anesthesiologists, even in places where they are supposed to be practicing "independently." That's another stressful part of anesthesiology is that there are a lot of places where anesthesiologists have to supervise CRNAs. It's stressful to have to do your own case, but imagine how much more stressful it'd be to have to supervise a CRNA who might need to be rescued (or now supervising more than one CRNA at a time because it's more profitable for a hospital to have 1 anesthesiologist supervising multiple CRNAs)! In some places CRNAs can even do ASA-3 and ASA-4 cases which are usually more complex, but maybe they have an anesthesiologist supervising just in case anything goes wrong. Some people can handle doing this, but for me it would be stressful.

I believe you. This is what happens when MBAs manage healthcare. Knowing what I know as a physician, I would always request an MD as my PCP.

 

[uhmocksuhsillen]

There are a good chunk of radiology jobs that are 1 week on and 2 weeks off. The one week on is usually nights and brutal. But... 2 weeks off.

If you are looking for lifestyle, go into derm, psych, pm&r, anesthesia.

Why does everyone else say anesthesia is a lifestyle field, but then over in the gas forum they all say its absolutely not?

 

[Aurum]

Why does everyone else say anesthesia is a lifestyle field, but then over in the gas forum they all say its absolutely not?

Everyone says rads is a lifestyle field but everyone on this forum says otherwise. Grass is always greener.

 

[neurotransmitter]

Why does everyone else say anesthesia is a lifestyle field, but then over in the gas forum they all say its absolutely not?

For any job, you have to like the core of the job.

For anesthesia, the core of the job is keeping patients alive during surgery while working alongside surgeons. Some people can handle this pressure, other people freeze like a deer in headlights. Some people get along or tolerate surgeons being surgeons, others dislike working with surgeons.

For radiology (DR), the core of the job is giving a sophisticated analysis and interpretation of various kinds of images. Some people enjoy this complex puzzle-solving, other people find this excruciatingly meticulous and tedious.

When the core of a job doesn't match someone's personality well enough, then the person could be at risk of finding the job stressful or worse, and conclude the job is not a "lifestyle" job.

 

[colbgw02]

I think it's just that everyone wants to think they work as hard or harder than everyone else.

I get to hear about how busy my MIL is even though she works like 20 hours a week and goes to the gym circa 9:00 every morning.