Life after residency as a head and neck surgeon

[Birdnals]

MS3 here and zeroing in more and more on ENT. I've always heard offhand comments about head and surgery being extremely demanding and fairly lifestyle unfriendly. That said, I'm still extremely interested in it and am curious about life after residency.

I was a peds hospital for my ENT rotation, so since then, I've spent some time shadowing a head and neck group to get some additional non-peds exposure. The hours they put in seem to run against what I've previously heard, so I'm interested to see if what they do is typical. They typically have 1 administrative day a week, 2 7-7 OR days, and 1.5 - 2 days of clinic a week. It's not that I'm afraid of putting in the hours, but I'd like to at least have some clue of what could lie ahead. I'd hate to have a sample size of 1 and then get out there someday to find out what I saw previously was a total outlier. Maybe this is typical for their type of practice model? How about for attendings at larger academic centers? I'd love any other additional input about the life and work of a head and neck surgeon after residency. Thanks!

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[OtoHNS]

MS3 here and zeroing in more and more on ENT. I've always heard offhand comments about head and surgery being extremely demanding and fairly lifestyle unfriendly. That said, I'm still extremely interested in it and am curious about life after residency.

I was a peds hospital for my ENT rotation, so since then, I've spent some time shadowing a head and neck group to get some additional non-peds exposure. The hours they put in seem to run against what I've previously heard, so I'm interested to see if what they do is typical. They typically have 1 administrative day a week, 2 7-7 OR days, and 1.5 - 2 days of clinic a week. It's not that I'm afraid of putting in the hours, but I'd like to at least have some clue of what could lie ahead. I'd hate to have a sample size of 1 and then get out there someday to find out what I saw previously was a total outlier. Maybe this is typical for their type of practice model? How about for attendings at larger academic centers? I'd love any other additional input about the life and work of a head and neck surgeon after residency. Thanks!

H+N rotations can be pretty brutal when you're a resident, but the schedule you describe sounds typical for most H+N attendings in academia. In contrast to other areas of ENT, H+N attendings will have the longest surgeries and the most inpatients (as well as the most patients who end up dying). In addition, H+N clinic is full of extremely complex new patient visits and difficult conversations with new and existing pts. All this certainly takes an emotional toll over time (though on the other hand the success stories are extremely rewarding). At the attending level, the total hours worked are probably marginally more than other ENTs. A lot of the grunt work and overnight issues can be handled by residents, and for anything else you'll share call with your partners for overnight trips to the OR or other issues that require an attending's presence.

 

[Birdnals]

H+N rotations can be pretty brutal when you're a resident, but the schedule you describe sounds typical for most H+N attendings in academia. In contrast to other areas of ENT, H+N attendings will have the longest surgeries and the most inpatients (as well as the most patients who end up dying). In addition, H+N clinic is full of extremely complex new patient visits and difficult conversations with new and existing pts. All this certainly takes an emotional toll over time (though on the other hand the success stories are extremely rewarding). At the attending level, the total hours worked are probably marginally more than other ENTs. A lot of the grunt work and overnight issues can be handled by residents, and for anything else you'll share call with your partners for overnight trips to the OR or other issues that require an attending's presence.

Awesome, thorough response. I'm sure there's some variability from institution to institution, but I'm happy to hear that what I saw wasn't something totally out of the ordinary. Brutal residency hours and longer cases even as an attending is something I expect, and knowing that going in helps me mentally prepare to some degree.

I appreciate your time!