How Long

[SeekerOfTheTree]

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I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

Ran into the same issue (of several). I stepped away.

Recruiters told me they would allow me to be absent up to 2 years of non clinical work

ABEM set the bar at seeing 20 patients/yr to maintain cert /"clinically active" which is such an insanely low bar you could aim towards. That's what they told me when I emailed them about these questions earlier, anyway.

I still ended up just stopping entirely. Like you said, it just became "work", even on days it wasn't soul crushing, and it didn't give me purpose anymore. So you could go either route and still emotionally recover

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

How long has it been for you? Are you happy? My fear always is what if this other stuff dries up and I'm left trying to get back into the clinical life. I've been debating doing something like 1-2 shifts a month.

 

[RustedFox]

Good thread.
I'm on the upswing. Love the current setup I have.

I didn't work clinical EM for a year back in 2021. I had only modest ring rust coming back.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Good thread.
I'm on the upswing. Love the current setup I have.

I didn't work clinical EM for a year back in 2021. I had only modest ring rust coming back.

Dude you're happy? Still doing EM or something else now? I'm honestly bored. The shifts just feel like they drag.

 

[hoot504]

RVU shop? My understanding is most places will just pay you an hourly rate if part time. If you're still at 120 or above find a place that rewards you for staying busy.

2 and above pph + notes and my shifts fly by.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I am at that business typically doing procedures etc, pretty quick with charting and all so I tend to get bored alot. Just don't find any of this as exciting anymore or fun. Really drags the day.

 

[EMdoc235]

I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

I'm in my 4th year out and I find it boring. But I prefer it that way. My site is pretty chill, mostly low acuity non-procedural stuff while still paying well and close to home. I get all my notes done on shift and leave on time. Hard to switch careers with the opportunity cost and no guarantee of higher, easier pay.

 

[EctopicFetus]

I either like it pretty busy at 2+pph or very slow. At the busier sites time flies but i can still watch sports or listen to music. At the slow sites i am talking 1pph or lower I’ll watch movies etc.

 

[WhatJobDoIPick]

I find the work incredibly boring and braindead as well. My day is usually mindnumbing intellectually, punctuated by patients screaming or trying to manipulate me, listening to alarms no one pays attention to, or having to manage nursing personality disorders. I find the whole experience very agitating.

Once I achieve my financial goals, which isn't that far off, I will cut down to about 4 to 7 shifts / months, all days, no weekends / holidays. Not worth the time lost with my family. I'll do bee keeping and gardening and play golf.

 

[DocEspana]

I'm at the opposite end of this spectrum. PGY <pulls out an abacus> 12 and moved away from 12 hour shifts at a meatgrinder I loved for a mixture of "family life" and "the jobs around here that are 12 hours arent hiring/are located at actual hellmouths". I find myself hating these 8/9/10s at the nice place with a moderate amount of well adjusted people without bulletholes or untreated chronic illnesses. I always leave feeling like I have energy to do more hours and feel 'owed' the extra money I could have gotten if I had just worked a 12. And then I feel like 8-hour 6am shifts are nice to still see my family, but any other length at any other time just means that I still don't see them AND I leave with a desire to do more hours and a sense that I got underpaid for 'a day of work'. Boredom hasnt come into play as much as I feel like I should be doing more and haven't burned through my batteries in 8-10 hours of well adjusted patients. My associate director (who came from a place like my last one) just said to me this morning that the best part about this job is that we can do it with our eyes closed or while simultaneously doing a crossword puzzle.

Guess I'm not closing in on retirement/burnout yet.

 

[RustedFox]

Dude you're happy? Still doing EM or something else now? I'm honestly bored. The shifts just feel like they drag.

Im doing 8-9 "twelves" a month while putting cherries atop my OtherGig sundae.

 

[GatorCHOMPions]

I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

I stepped away for a year for fellowship after several years of attendinghood and resumed doing like 2-3 12's per month. There were no issues coming back after a year off. I've been doing that for about 3 years now.

I'm probably average in efficiency now, faster than the burned out Boomers and green new grads, slower than the prime of career docs. One thing that worries me is procedural competency. That's somewhat mitigated by working at a busy shop with a lot of coverage. I wouldn't like to work single coverage anymore.

 

[bravotwozero]

I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

Boredom has NEVER been the problem for me. YouTube and books will fix that any day of the week. I’ll gladly take a boring shift.

 

[xaelia]

Boredom has NEVER been the problem for me. YouTube and books will fix that any day of the week. I’ll gladly take a boring shift.

This is why I have always loved my academic hospital settings – especially where I'm at in NZ where the trainees are all at least PGY-3 and fairly competent, let alone the various PGY-6+s who still remember everything I've since forgot. Always interesting folks from around the world to chat with.

 

[watermanMD]

This is why I have always loved my academic hospital settings – especially where I'm at in NZ where the trainees are all at least PGY-3 and fairly competent, let alone the various PGY-6+s who still remember everything I've since forgot. Always interesting folks from around the world to chat with.

Y’all hiring?

 

[xaelia]

Not Christchurch, specifically, but there are always openings across the diverse array of hospitals in New Zealand.

 

[Groove]

I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

One thing that helped me was transitioning to a WOW and spending more time in the room talking with patients while I place orders, chart and as much as I hate saying it....faking it until you make it. I started asking them more personal questions and just trying to learn more about them and found that not only did it help me remember the case but it made the cases way more interesting. Nowadays, I'm certainly burned out on the specialty but on the days that I work I wouldn't say that I'm bored at all...probably curious, exasperated or humored more than anything. Exceptions being overnight shifts. I'm in a foul mood during all of those.

 

[thegenius]

I don't like working as much anymore. I work less hours but find myself constantly bored at work. You guys deal with this? Every shift (even busy ones) feel like they are freaking dragging. How long could I step away from EM before I become unemployable? Is there a limit? How little shifts could I do to remain employable. Personally, I am fulfilled and happy but work just seems boring.

I was just thinking this the other day. Specifically, I find it harder and harder to actually help people. I get so tired saying things like "Your finger laceration just needs a bandaid." And any of the other 58 things I say that should be kind of obvious to most people.

Another way to put it, I have to sift through an increasing number of patients to feel like I'm actually making a difference. NNH (number needed to help) is ~40.

 

[thegenius]

One thing that helped me was transitioning to a WOW and spending more time in the room talking with patients while I place orders, chart and as much as I hate saying it....faking it until you make it. I started asking them more personal questions and just trying to learn more about them and found that not only did it help me remember the case but it made the cases way more interesting. Nowadays, I'm certainly burned out on the specialty but on the days that I work I wouldn't say that I'm bored at all...probably curious, exasperated or humored more than anything. Exceptions being overnight shifts. I'm in a foul mood during all of those.

I have done this as well...as I get better at my job I ask less and less "medical questions" and more questions about their life, trying to get to know them, their family, their life, make it more personal. I joke with patients. I try to be honest with them, but try not to make them feel bad. I'll tell them in a nice way that their medical problem is minor, and I'm happy to give them advice; or they have a serious medical problem and never in a million years would I recommend discharge; and everything in between.

It just gets so tiresome trying to help people who, for one reason or another, don't need an ER physician. They either need other doctors, social worker, therapists, etc.