how many hours per month do you work?
Started by Welker
30/wk. Cutting back to 15/wk soon.
160-180/mo
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Is this your personal happy place? Or are you paying down debt aggressively / realized you really like shiny things?
My scheduled monthly on-shift hours is 96. 12 eights.
D
deleted77919
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16/wk
plus locums when I feel like it
130 +/- 10 hours per month.
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96 hours clinically per month
I am usually scheduled for ~125-140 hrs a month. If I have 120-130 hrs in a month I pick up a few "last minute" shifts at a rural outlying ER for bonus pay. I prefer to work more than 120/mo but I'd rather pick and choose the additional shifts rather than have the scheduler lock me in at 150/mo.
For the students (since this thread was started by a student): in my experience the entire process of med school, residency, and attendinghood was less stressful than everyone made it out to be. I don't dread going to work (sometimes even get excited..) and pulling a shift at my primary job is usually not more "stressful" than working a double waiting tables at my college job it just pays 20x more. I am not a work-a-holic however and definitely prefer to be off enjoying the outdoors, hobbies, etc, but there is something satisfying about becoming competent in one's profession and enjoying the little stuff like cardioverting unstable v-tach, getting that perfect reduction, admitting someone with a negative workup on a hunch and reading their cath report the next day showing a 95% LAD, etc. The key is to find a job with good nurses/staff, reliable partners, a reasonable patient population, and an understanding medical director.
For the students (since this thread was started by a student): in my experience the entire process of med school, residency, and attendinghood was less stressful than everyone made it out to be. I don't dread going to work (sometimes even get excited..) and pulling a shift at my primary job is usually not more "stressful" than working a double waiting tables at my college job it just pays 20x more. I am not a work-a-holic however and definitely prefer to be off enjoying the outdoors, hobbies, etc, but there is something satisfying about becoming competent in one's profession and enjoying the little stuff like cardioverting unstable v-tach, getting that perfect reduction, admitting someone with a negative workup on a hunch and reading their cath report the next day showing a 95% LAD, etc. The key is to find a job with good nurses/staff, reliable partners, a reasonable patient population, and an understanding medical director.
Worked 175 in Oct due to being short docs, typically do around 12 or 13 shifts/month either 10s or 12s. So avg around 140 hrs per month. Would never do >140 over the long term.
Both. I have most of my debt paid down but have other expenses and am trying to save for retirement, etc... Honestly, I'm just fine with 160-180h/mo. I used to work 140 and I felt like I always had too much free time and got bored. I optimize my schedule quite a bit and don't work more than 3-4d in row, make time for exercise and personal life, etc.. It doesn't feel too bad. Who knows, maybe I don't know what I'm missing.
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Contracted to a base of 138 clinical hours per month.
Define hours worked.
Scheduled or actually working time.
Some jobs require staying late for clean up or charting every shift.
This makes a big difference.
I work about 160 per my choice.
Extremely rare for me to have to stay late.
Scheduled or actually working time.
Some jobs require staying late for clean up or charting every shift.
This makes a big difference.
I work about 160 per my choice.
Extremely rare for me to have to stay late.
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140 +\- 10-15
About 6 months ago cut my main shop down to 10 10s. I do pick up one or two more at a different place for a change of pace, but I'm recovering from burnout (so bad, I was seriously contemplating leaving medicine.) Ditching administrative duties helped a lot; cutting hours back did too.
110-120 seems to be my sweet spot, because I've worked 160-170 and was miserable.
110-120 seems to be my sweet spot, because I've worked 160-170 and was miserable.
I paid off the loans long ago. I also keep my required bills very low. For example, I'm basically done with my 15 year mortgage 6 years into it. We don't do "payments." But yea, we can travel the world, save tons for retirement, and live in a mansion with those hours. It helps if you're not dumb with money. You don't even have to be smart with it. Just not dumb.
I do academics so my numbers will be a little bit different than some of the above posters.
Clinical shifts at home institution: 20 hours/week
Non-clinical (education, administration, research, scholarly activities, etc.) duties: 20-30 hours/week
Moonlighting clinical shifts in the community: 8-10 hours/week
Clinical shifts at home institution: 20 hours/week
Non-clinical (education, administration, research, scholarly activities, etc.) duties: 20-30 hours/week
Moonlighting clinical shifts in the community: 8-10 hours/week
Do you even lift bro? Hit the gym
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14 shifts with 8s on weekdays and 10s on weekends with a group culture of leaving on time. Comes out to ~120/mo clinical time.
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What do you say to those that say your money is better used invested than paying down a low interest mortgage?
I personally am like you-on track to finish my ~850k mortgage in 10 years instead of 15 because theres something that feels great about having no debt especially if medicine changes drastically. I personally think a 30 year mortgage at our salary levels is crazy but others tell me I'm being dumb.
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I say, "I invested $400K this year, how much did you invest?" Paying down the mortgage is in addition to that. Same thing I tell people who are just starting out. Live like a resident so you can pay off your student loans and max out your retirement accounts.
Seriously though, the math is correct. If you borrow at 2% and invest at 8%, you'll come out ahead. The problem is most people borrow at 2% and spend, not invest.
Nice savings. I hope to someday get there (and assume you are counting dividends and other revenue streams etc because that would be pretty damn hard on a clinical income alone no matter how well you are doing and frugal you are).
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I just threw the figure out there (haven't calculated out what I'm actually going to save this year) but you see the point. If you're saving "enough" the mortgage is trivial. Here's another approach:
Say, "It seemed silly to keep my $200K mortgage when I have a net worth of $5M." That'll shut em up too. Or maybe
Say, "I can afford the luxury of paying off my mortgage. Haven't you heard? The paid-off home mortgage has replaced the BMW as the status symbol of choice."
How many clinical shifts do you do a month at the home institution? How many hours are they ?
Thanks!
How many patients per 24 hour shift? How many hours of sleep do you manage to get?
What's the ERs patients per year?
I ask out of curiosity since I've done 24s in the recent past but I felt the patient volume was too high to sustain it.
D
deleted547339
No way. I have a few beefs with some pieces of his investing advice:
1) He says use a commissioned salesman as an advisor
2) He says you can use past performance to predict future performance
3) He says you can expect 10-12% returns
4) He says you can spend 8% of your stash each year in retirement
5) He says you should use a 100% stock portfolio
6) He says actively managed funds can reliably beat an index fund
That's all wrong. But I still think he's doing a huge service to the world. Most people can't even get to where they're starting investing. They're way better off following Dave's plan than whatever they were doing before. He's right that normal, even among docs, is a consumer debt, car debt, student loans, and a big fat mortgage. Hard to build wealth with all those payments. Hard to live the life you want without wealth.
What do you mean by optimizing schedule? Like you work less nights/weekends? Bunch together your shifts?
Last quarter we averaged 27 pts/24 hrs. It's a little over 10k a year. Sleep varies but it's really rare not to get any. Probably can count on 3-4 hrs most nights.
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Are you DO or ACGME? ACGME is limited to 60 clinical and 72 total for the week. That is, on EM months, you shouldn't be over 260, including 5 hrs per week of conference.
Otherwise, tell everyone where you are, to avoid it!
I do our schedule so it makes it easier, but in general... I don't put people on more than 3 shifts in a row (unless they ask). I block their nights to one part of the month, no 24h turn arounds, circadian patterns where consecutive shifts are at the same time or later in the day, 2 min days off after nights, 4 min weekend off shifts a mon (Sat/Sun), the shift times are balanced among all docs when averaged over 3 months, etc.. Our shifts are primarily 10h and 9h shifts. So, with the tweaking... 18 doesn't really feel like 18 to me. The only time I really feel it is when I schedule myself a week off and am consequently working several shifts in a row.
Is that ED or off service? 4 week block or full month? I was near that or more on trauma and ICU, but never touched those numbers as an EM intern in the department. And my program is known as a fairly heavy hour, resident run program.
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Probably off service.
I hit 276 last month on trauma.
I hit 276 last month on trauma.
Contracted for 14x 10 hours monthly but do about 180-200. Recent grad trying to pay off bills and save $$$ to play catch up. I did about 120-140 hours first 5 month and had too much free time so I think sweet spot is 150hours monthly until I am in "all bills paid and hit my nest egg" mode
That's what makes residency brutal...Conference, didactics, QI projects, and all the other nitty gritty.
And that one dick attending who makes me order CT PE on every patient with dyspnea that has ever existed. "I've seen 6 negative dimer PE patients". STFU!
Exact same boat. So excited!
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