How much REALLY is 60 hours per week?

[starstarie]

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A lot of the specialties I'm looking into seem to average about 50-60 hours/wk after residency.

Can someone who has done this give me a better sense of what this really entails. I've been having some trouble actually grasping how much time that really is- as more than just a number.

Is this really sustainable for the rest of your life?

I seemed to think 60 hrs was not that much, but my adviser seemed to think otherwise, so I wanted to get some other opinions.

Is 52 vs. 58 hours a huge difference?

How much does having an extra week of vacation affect things?

 

[masaraksh]

What specialties are you thinking about? It matters - 40hrs in ER is a lot more work than 40hrs 9-5 mon-fri family med.

 

[WedgeDawg]

It's 10 hours/day if you're working 6 days/week or 12 hours/day if you're working 5 days/week.

In the first scenario, that's 7 am to 5 pm. In the second scenario, that's 7 am to 7 pm.

As an aside though, isn't 50-60 hours on the lower (lower-middle) side of number of hours physicians work (obviously specialty dependent). My extremely uninformed impression is that 50-60 is a little low for IM and anesthesiology and probably most specialties, a little high for PM&R/Psych, and very low for anything in surgery.

Take anything I say in this post with an enormous grain of salt.

 

[bashwell]

A lot of the specialties I'm looking into seem to average about 50-60 hours/wk after residency.

Can someone who has done this give me a better sense of what this really entails. I've been having some trouble actually grasping how much time that really is- as more than just a number.

Is this really sustainable for the rest of your life?

I seemed to think 60 hrs was not that much, but my adviser seemed to think otherwise, so I wanted to get some other opinions.

Is 52 vs. 58 hours a huge difference?

How much does having an extra week of vacation affect things?

Just my opinion:

1) If your numbers are from FREIDA, that's not always the most reliable source. And different programs in the same specialty can sometimes differ by quite a lot.

2) It's not just strictly about quantity of hours, it's also about the quality of those hours. 40 hrs per week in the ED while doing rotating shifts overnight and on weekends and holidays, etc., are a lot different than regular and controlled 50-60 hrs per week doing mostly outpatient clinic.

3) Same thing goes for call. Not all call is created equal. For example, in-house call is very different than mostly taking call from home, answering questions and concerns over the phone, coming in only once in a while, etc.

4) A lot of this depends on you as an individual. How old you are, your personality, your health, etc. People who are healthy, sporty and athletic, for example, tend to be able to handle the hours a lot better, at least in my view.