my ideal lifestyle

[Vitaliano333]

I'm a pgy-1 at a hospital in NYC. While it's been a great experience thus far and I'm learning a great deal, it's very hard for me to come to terms with the idea of seeing my family and friends in Italy only for a few weeks a year. Ideally. in the future I would love to spend six months here and 6 months overseas. I've talked to ER docs who've told me that it would be fairly easy for them to set up such a lifestyle. So my question is: does anyone know if that would be at all possible for IM or an IM subspecialty? I've heard that docs working in the units and hospitalists work shifts. Would it be at all feasable for these folks to take 2 or 3 months off per year? Has anyone heard of private practices anywhere allowing this much vacation time? Any suggestions or anecdotes, anyone? Thanks

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[Silvertip]

Locum tenens???

 

[ny skindoc]

If you joined a group practice in internal medicine or a subspecialty you could negotiate this arrangement in your employment contract.your salary could be adjusted for the time you were away.Most practices would not go for this deal as they would be stuck with your patients and call while you were away.but its possible if they were in a physician shortage area and had a hard time finding help they would agree to it.It is unlikely they would make you a partner in the practice as you would not be able to truly be involved in the day to day management/planning of the practice.the locum tenens is a good idea,but eventually you might want a more stable practice arrangement with retirement and other long term benefits.I wish I could spend six months a year in Italy! It sound great.

 

[ckent]

Physicians that work for academic centers frequently have those hours/vacation times that you are looking for. Most attendings are only attendings for a few months at a time. The same goes for many hospitalists positions. If you find a large enough group to join, it shouldn't be a problem. The current trend is for groups to become larger and larger too.

 

[Voxel]

I don't think IM lends itself to the kind of time off you are looking for.

You could probably do locums work in urgent care walk in clinics. But you would probably not make too much money only working 6 months of the year. You may want to look at other specialties ER and Radiology (locums or night hawk services while living in Italy) come to mind. I'm sure there are others.