Moonlighting during residency and as attending...

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salsasunrise123

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I was wondering if people could share personal experiences with moonlighting in residency and as attending in EM. Is there time for it during residency? If so, what is compensation like? Also, as an attending, what is comp like? I would very much like to supplement my normal job with a side job to help with loans, etc. I want to know how reasonable it is to make 50k/year from moonlighting? Thanks.

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50 K is a lot of moonlighting. You would burn yourself out. I have known a few residents to do it though.

I work an extra 1-4 ****s a month (depending on what I feel like) at a local urgent care. I get $80/hr, the job is really really easy, and it adds an additional 15K in my bank account.

It's not the total money though,it's nice to always have another $800 paycheck coming in.

The thing is though, residency is hard, and all the shifts I moonlight, I am giving up what would have been time off. That is very valuable too.

EM is one of the best to moonlight, because you often have days off during the week. Also, EM and FM are the most in demand for moonlighting, because both fields regularly handle a wide range of complaints.
 
Most places won't let you moonlight until second year (you likely won't feel comfortable until mid pgy 2 anyway). I worked at a lazy freestanding at 120/hr and would see 3-5 patients on avg in a 12 hr period. I usually got 5 hrs of sleep and did residency stuff during down times as well. You won't be able to do a lot of shifts frequently due to ICU months. Supplementing your income between 40-60k is pretty easy though. You will make more if you find a busy shop or a critical access hospital that pays more but I didn't want to add more stress to residency or commute a lot.

One of my coresidents moonlit like crazy and made a little over 100k extra per year. He was also breaking hours violations and having to hide it from the PD.

Don't be that guy.




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Most places won't let you moonlight until second year (you likely won't feel comfortable until mid pgy 2 anyway). I worked at a lazy freestanding at 120/hr and would see 3-5 patients on avg in a 12 hr period. I usually got 5 hrs of sleep and did residency stuff during down times as well. You won't be able to do a lot of shifts frequently due to ICU months. Supplementing your income between 40-60k is pretty easy though. You will make more if you find a busy shop or a critical access hospital that pays more but I didn't want to add more stress to residency or commute a lot.

One of my coresidents moonlit like crazy and made a little over 100k extra per year. He was also breaking hours violations and having to hide it from the PD.

Don't be that guy.




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Watch the critical access hospitals -- been in one that didn't have bougees or cric kits in the crash cart; I was in the ER doing an admit when EMS brought one in they had been coding for 5 minutes -- then proceeded to stand around and BS with the nurses for a minute or so before getting the patient transferred from the guerney so the PGY2 moonlighting ER resident could do his thing --- had to instruct the staff on how to do proper compressions -- it was a mess ---
 
50 K is a lot of moonlighting. You would burn yourself out.

Depends where you work. I've pull down 5K a month moonlighting most months. I'm at a program with relatively light hours when you're in the department and relatively high pay for moonlighting.
 
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Depends where you work. I've pull down 5K a month moonlighting most months. I'm at a program with relatively light hours when you're in the department and relatively high pay for moonlighting.

We had several residents making 6 figures moonlighting at my program. It's not that hard when they pay $4k for a 24hr shift where you get to sleep a few hours. Definitely didn't burn any of us out.
 
When i was a resident 15 yrs ago someone was making 100k+. I am sure you could make 200k+ doing the hours she did.

Doing 50K extra as an attending would be 1 more shift a month. No biggie.
 
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I did 10 total moonlighting shifts as a resident, all in my last 6 months, in a town 1 hour away, always double coverage. The extra money was nice, but not critical to my financial success. The experience was okay, but not critical. I do remember feeling pretty uncomfortable, at least initially. In retrospect, much of that was the fact that I was in a new hospital with new systems and consultants, not because I was "on my own."

I always had mixed feelings about moonlighting as a resident. I mean, we say that an EM residency is so important and then we proceed to work without completing one.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that residency is a very important time for professional development. Don't blow it. There will be plenty of time to make gobs of money later. A little bit of moonlighting like I did is probably fine. But if you're making $100K extra a year, or moonlighting as a PGY-2, I think you're probably doing residency the wrong way.

This advice assumes you're doing "standard moonlighting" like I was- busy shifts in a real ED. If you're doing something else- 24 hours seeing 2 patients, flying around in a chopper, sleeping etc then that might work out better.
 
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I was pulling in an extra ~15k/month my third year of residency working in less than 10,000 volume small ERs.

I think moonlighting is great both for financial as well as clinical development reasons. I may have overdid it numbers wise, but in the end I have zero regrets and am glad I did.
 
When I was in residency 15+ yrs ago, I essentially slept for pay. 50/hr seeing about 6 pts in a 24 hr period. Not bad for income 15 yrs ago. I could find places that would pay me 200+/hr as a resident right now. Do an extra 30 hrs a month and you are pulling in a nice 6k a month.
 
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I did 10 total moonlighting shifts as a resident, all in my last 6 months, in a town 1 hour away, always double coverage. The extra money was nice, but not critical to my financial success. The experience was okay, but not critical. I do remember feeling pretty uncomfortable, at least initially. In retrospect, much of that was the fact that I was in a new hospital with new systems and consultants, not because I was "on my own."

I always had mixed feelings about moonlighting as a resident. I mean, we say that an EM residency is so important and then we proceed to work without completing one.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that residency is a very important time for professional development. Don't blow it. There will be plenty of time to make gobs of money later. A little bit of moonlighting like I did is probably fine. But if you're making $100K extra a year, or moonlighting as a PGY-2, I think you're probably doing residency the wrong way.

This advice assumes you're doing "standard moonlighting" like I was- busy shifts in a real ED. If you're doing something else- 24 hours seeing 2 patients, flying around in a chopper, sleeping etc then that might work out better.

I think that is really a function of compensation. I know places that will pay well over 200/hr to residents willing to moonlight. It's busy, but not unsure. Usually 1.8-2pph with moderate acuity, good backup. If you pull 2-3 12 hour shift/mo, you'll hit 100k without too much difficulty. I don't think 2-3 extra shifts is that much (again, my program works relatively low hours compared to the national mean).
 
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