lifestyle in neuro

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emidesu

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I've just been accepted to med school and am interested in neuro. I'm wondering about lifestyle issues in neuro residencies, especially how spouses are affected. Any input is appreciated...

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emidesu said:
I've just been accepted to med school and am interested in neuro. I'm wondering about lifestyle issues in neuro residencies, especially how spouses are affected. Any input is appreciated...


in any speciality the residency is going to be taxing and time consuming but the time after practicing in neuro can be 9-5 if you want or even less and still do well financailly. I have a family friend who works 10-3 m-f and makes in the 200,000s
 
fj25 said:
in any speciality the residency is going to be taxing and time consuming but the time after practicing in neuro can be 9-5 if you want or even less and still do well financailly. I have a family friend who works 10-3 m-f and makes in the 200,000s


he must be a dentist
 
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ON a more serious note, neuro is like any other specialty, you can pick and choose what you want to do in your practice, so you can work little, or work a lot, and of course, the more you work the more money you make. So its all up to you when you open your practice.

But allow me to explain some aspect of neurology since you are about to experience medicine for the first time.


First year of residency is either an internal medicine year or transitional year, so it how grueling that year is depends on the institution that you go to. At my hospital, it depends on the rotation. For example, I had to take call when I did surgery, internal medicine, CCU etc. but I certainly was not scheduled for as much call time as say the traditional surgery or medicine resident.


AFter that, in neurology residency you see few patient but work long hours simply because as a neurolgy consultant, you are expected to perform a very detailed neurologic exam. By the time you interview a patient, examine them, and then preceptor the case with your staff, well, this might take some time. So your days a neuro resident are about 12 hour days, can be 14 if you get slammed, but average 12.

Now for neuro call, its the same story, while on call you may get few calls as you might say on a medicine or surgery service, to process each patient takes time. On surgery or medicine you get called all night long for things like, "So and so is constipated, so and so's BP dropped, etc." As a neuro resident, you get called to the ER a lot to examine patients, but again, by the time you do this and talk things over with your attending, it could take a lot of time.

Now after residency, as an attending, you could literally work in office only, you'd have to either hire a partner that does hospital consults only (which some like this and is slowly becoming a specialty) or hire a PA or CRNP to do all of your floor consults and then brief you later (have seen this work out for some too).

You can choose what you want to do in your office. Not all neurologist are well trained in NCV/EMG and will consult other fellowship trained neurologist / physiatrist to do these test for them. Some don't do LP's they send their patients to a pain management anesthesiologist to do this stuff.

So to answer your question, in residency, of course, you will see and do all, its part of your education, so you will be busy. As an attending at a private practice, it depends. Sorry that's the best answer, it depends. But it is possible to have a nice lifestyle as an attending in a private practice.
 
fj25 said:
in any speciality the residency is going to be taxing and time consuming but the time after practicing in neuro can be 9-5 if you want or even less and still do well financailly. I have a family friend who works 10-3 m-f and makes in the 200,000s


Do you know what aspects of neuro you family friend focuses on during his/her practice? Sleep tests, pain management, strokes...?
Also, where is the neurologist located. In NYC where 200,000 isn't really very much, or in Kansas where 200,000 is like being a millionaire?
 
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