Life of a Doc Post Residency?

[google_singh]

Well I understand life in US residency is tough? But how is life of a doctor post residency.I know doc have good pays but what about work hours? how much does an Internal Medicine Doc work per day? Is life after residency as hectic as in Residency

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[Sivastraba]

Well I understand life in US residency is tough? But how is life of a doctor post residency.I know doc have good pays but what about work hours? how much does an Internal Medicine Doc work per day? Is life after residency as hectic as in Residency

Depends how many hours you work. If you have huge loans, be prepared to be a miserable slave with the long hour schedules. Also, it depends what specialty your talking about. As a General IM physician, be prepared to get called at any time of the day for any emergency that may show up with any of your patients.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Ditto to the above message. Depends on the specialty, your practice location and environment.

A good friend of mine, a new attending works MORE hours than he did as a resident and regularly works 35+ hour shifts (he takes in house call as a Trauma Surgeons)...no going home early if you have cases booked for the next day.

However, I have seen other private practice and even university based physicians work less hours than in residency...depends on multiple factors. As a breast surgery fellow and attending in the next 2 years, I expect to work substantially less hours than I am now.

 

[Bernardo_11]

I did a year of practice on Guam right after residency. The nature of the work is extremely different. As far as raw hours on the job and in the hospital, it was a lot less. But the degree of responsibility was much more. It's different when it's your name listed under that "blue" admitting card. At first that was scary, but eventually becomes rather empowering. You'll see that most of the work you do are bread and butter cases, and all those repetitive admissions you were able to do in your sleep during residency will come naturally to you. The best thing of it all, there are a lot fewer to do. And you get paid like 2-3x's as much a you did in residency for it. Hang in there son... there is a light!

Nardo
DB peds fellow

 

[lateness]

depends on what type of residency and if you are doing a fellowship or not. if you are not, and you are the private practice type(, FM, Im, peds, derm,
then you are going to have a decent work schedule. but it still depends on how and what type of place you will work for and patient load etc. etc. but some people work very little, less than residency, some work as much. but you will make at leat 3 times u did in residecy one of the positives

in short the answer is it depends on alot of variabitlities and factors

life is short

 

[google_singh]

I am asking in context of internal medicine.

 

[curious1]

Go to a real hospital and talk to the IM docs. You may find one that is happy. But mostly, their lives suck. They are paid crap. You can work 40hrs/week with no call if you want but then you pull down 80k/year (barely twice what you make in residency). If you are in a specialty that the hospital cares about (which means, the hospital needs you to run smoothly and make money) like anesthesia, path, rads, or em, then you will make bank and have a nice life. If you are in the other specialties then your life will suck.

P.S. Medicare cuts of 10% over the next 2 years will hit IM especially hard (a super % of their patients are >60 i.e. medicare).

 

[RastaMan]

Actually you can work as a hospitalist and work like 14 shifts a month...thats like half the month off. With an average salary of about ~180,000, the pay is below the average physician salary, but since you don't have your own panel of patients, you truly are off for 2 weeks a month.
General outpatient IM really depends on the specific practice, in terms of both money and lifestyle. The average income is about ~150,000 but in a large practice, call can be fairly minimal. Also, the nature of call isn't always all that strenous with the advent of hospitalists to take care of inpatient issues.
In terms of the subspecialties, your lifestyle depends on the field. In general, fields like cardiology will require hours similar to that of a fellow, although not always. The reimbursement is terrific though. Other fields like endocrine and rheumatology make for a more 9-5 kind of lifestyle with very limited call. These specialists also make a lot less though (<200,000 typically). Critical care is a subspecialty that allows for shift work too (typically 2 weeks a month for like ~200,000).
As an IM applicant, I actually haven't met a generalist or specialist who regrets their career choice, although I'm sure theyr'e out there, as is true in other fields as well. In most cases, your lifestyle will be a lot more controllable than as a resident, and certainly more so than your general surgery colleagues.
That being said, most of the surgeons I've met would rather give up their left nipple than do IM and most IM folks can't stand the work that radiologists do even if it means longer hours and lower reimbursement...so do what you enjoy.

 

[Solideliquid]

Psych = Good lifestyle, and good money.

 

[sistermike]

Here at the county hospital in Las Vegas, NV, there are "Primary Clinics" and "Quick Cares" all around the city that is owned by the county hospital. All those clinics employ physicians who work 8-5 everyday, and their average pay ranges from $69 - $90 per hour DOE. I would assume other larger cities have similar ideas. As far as I know, both FP and IM docs can work in these locations. For the most part, almost all hospitals have on-site walk-in clinics, or similar facilities. Those docs usually work 40-50 hours a week and make enough money to live comfortably. But of course, a lot of those facilities are beginning to hire NP's and PA's because they are cheaper but yet are able to effectively perform the duties.

So like everyone else was saying, it depends on many factors and on where you want to practice, and to what extent.

 

[u_r_my_serenity]

There are many private internists who make 200-300k per year, and their salary is underestimated in most physician salary comparisons. Academic hospitalists make considerably less (usually 120-150k), but there are perks to working for a hospital that you don't deal with in the private sector (don't have to learn ICD codes, don't have to chase insurance companies, better job security, opportunities to teach, etc).

The bottom line is that life after residency will be good if you get trained well during residency. In internal medicine you will have many opportunities to do a fellowship later on also.