Lifestyle specialties

[Groy]

In the words of the great Todd Rundgren "I DON'T WANT TO WORK."

Neuro resident here. Thinking about my future as I slug through my (mostly inpatient) rotations. I'm beginning to realize that I'm pretty allergic to this whole working long hours thing. I used to think I wanted a career busy with research and teaching, maybe doing vascular or something like that. Not so much anymore. I realize how much getting off at 4pm is good for my mental health. I have tons of hobbies and love spending time with beautiful family (don't get me wrong, I'm very dedicated to my career, but I don't feel the undying need to be buried under a headstone that says here lies a world famous neurologist. If I can have a small rewarding career, make some money, and spend time with my family, all while helping a few people feel better, I'll have lived a rich life. I'm leaning toward the idea of outpatient with minimal to no hospital call. Perhaps private practice to get away from the whole academic style as well.

For context: I pretty much love all of neurology and am not super picky about specialty. It's all pretty interesting and I don't find very much of it to be "boring" per se. Even chronic pain and headache, some problems that people find to be boring, I find to be great! My spouse is also a physician, working outpatient in a different discipline, so we'll be pretty well-settled financially, not super worried about the money. My wellness is far more important.

My question is, what careers in Neurology lend themselves to strictly outpatient without call? I know most of these details are probably job-specific and the whole call thing would have to be negotiated, but have any of you been able to work out this sort of schedule? The ones I'm particularly interested in are headache, movement, or maybe sports neuro? Ideally I'd love to work 9-5ish maybe 4-5 days per week. Would one have to work part-time to achieve this kind of schedule? I've looked into this question on this site and others, as well as asked several attendings, and alot of info I've gotten has been mixed.

So to sum it up, my question is, and I'll try not to sound too vain: "What neuro specialty will allow me to work as little as possible?"

Man that sounded much nicer in my head...

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[Postictal Raiden]

HA, MS, NM, cognitive, movement, or even good old general outpatient neuro

 

[deathmerchant]

In the words of the great Todd Rundgren "I DON'T WANT TO WORK."

Neuro resident here. Thinking about my future as I slug through my (mostly inpatient) rotations. I'm beginning to realize that I'm pretty allergic to this whole working long hours thing. I used to think I wanted a career busy with research and teaching, maybe doing vascular or something like that. Not so much anymore. I realize how much getting off at 4pm is good for my mental health. I have tons of hobbies and love spending time with beautiful family (don't get me wrong, I'm very dedicated to my career, but I don't feel the undying need to be buried under a headstone that says here lies a world famous neurologist. If I can have a small rewarding career, make some money, and spend time with my family, all while helping a few people feel better, I'll have lived a rich life. I'm leaning toward the idea of outpatient with minimal to no hospital call. Perhaps private practice to get away from the whole academic style as well.

For context: I pretty much love all of neurology and am not super picky about specialty. It's all pretty interesting and I don't find very much of it to be "boring" per se. Even chronic pain and headache, some problems that people find to be boring, I find to be great! My spouse is also a physician, working outpatient in a different discipline, so we'll be pretty well-settled financially, not super worried about the money. My wellness is far more important.

My question is, what careers in Neurology lend themselves to strictly outpatient without call? I know most of these details are probably job-specific and the whole call thing would have to be negotiated, but have any of you been able to work out this sort of schedule? The ones I'm particularly interested in are headache, movement, or maybe sports neuro? Ideally I'd love to work 9-5ish maybe 4-5 days per week. Would one have to work part-time to achieve this kind of schedule? I've looked into this question on this site and others, as well as asked several attendings, and alot of info I've gotten has been mixed.

So to sum it up, my question is, and I'll try not to sound too vain: "What neuro specialty will allow me to work as little as possible?"

Man that sounded much nicer in my head...

Actually many academic positions have less work overall (other than may be NICU or Stroke). In private practice or community work, you get paid just for seeing patients. You have to earn your keep. You have to see 15-20 patients/day 4- 4.5 days a week to make around 300.

In many academic positions, you could easily get a 3-3.5 day work week (10-12 patients/day) with 1- 2 admin days with 1 week of light inpatient call (non stroke) once every 6-8 weeks to make 220-250k. Might have to do few days of didactics or grand rounds once a year.

Most outpatient sub-specialities are similar tbh in that regard.

 

[xenotype]

In the words of the great Todd Rundgren "I DON'T WANT TO WORK."

Neuro resident here. Thinking about my future as I slug through my (mostly inpatient) rotations. I'm beginning to realize that I'm pretty allergic to this whole working long hours thing. I used to think I wanted a career busy with research and teaching, maybe doing vascular or something like that. Not so much anymore. I realize how much getting off at 4pm is good for my mental health. I have tons of hobbies and love spending time with beautiful family (don't get me wrong, I'm very dedicated to my career, but I don't feel the undying need to be buried under a headstone that says here lies a world famous neurologist. If I can have a small rewarding career, make some money, and spend time with my family, all while helping a few people feel better, I'll have lived a rich life. I'm leaning toward the idea of outpatient with minimal to no hospital call. Perhaps private practice to get away from the whole academic style as well.

For context: I pretty much love all of neurology and am not super picky about specialty. It's all pretty interesting and I don't find very much of it to be "boring" per se. Even chronic pain and headache, some problems that people find to be boring, I find to be great! My spouse is also a physician, working outpatient in a different discipline, so we'll be pretty well-settled financially, not super worried about the money. My wellness is far more important.

My question is, what careers in Neurology lend themselves to strictly outpatient without call? I know most of these details are probably job-specific and the whole call thing would have to be negotiated, but have any of you been able to work out this sort of schedule? The ones I'm particularly interested in are headache, movement, or maybe sports neuro? Ideally I'd love to work 9-5ish maybe 4-5 days per week. Would one have to work part-time to achieve this kind of schedule? I've looked into this question on this site and others, as well as asked several attendings, and alot of info I've gotten has been mixed.

So to sum it up, my question is, and I'll try not to sound too vain: "What neuro specialty will allow me to work as little as possible?"

Man that sounded much nicer in my head...

Options are many:
1. neurohospitalist week on week off (and some M-F gigs). Some very chill NH jobs exist where you will only be rounding 4-6 hours a day. Not common, but they exist.
2. VA- usual caveats but nice bennies, 26 holidays off a year, out by 5pm at the latest
3. Part time tele jobs exist- they expect nights but the overall # days/hours and pay are very fair. You can make more $ than academics working 10 12hr days a month.
4. Outpatient 4 to 4.5 day per week jobs 15-20ppd no call no weekends are plentiful. EMG experience is most often what you'll see desired but movement, epilepsy, MS, headache all options.

In many academic positions, you could easily get a 3-3.5 day work week (10-12 patients/day) with 1- 2 admin days with 1 week of light inpatient call (non stroke) once every 6-8 weeks to make 220-250k. Might have to do few days of didactics or grand rounds once a year.

5. Yep, exactly typical for academic jobs especially at non-name brand places. 210-240 is the usual salary I've seen regionally. More time per patient, but patients will be more complex on average than the community in clinic (but you'll have the time).
6. Locums gigs 6 months or less out of the year are possible- neurochica has a great setup as an example

There's much more beyond what I listed like working for pharma/insurance but I personally like clinical neurology way to much to do that.

#1 goal- try to figure out what neurology patients you like seeing and just do that. Inpatient coverage as an attending can be nice lifestyle wise- especially the off time, but you need to decide if that off time needs to be weekends, etc.