Ortho lifestyle after residency

[Momentai]

Hey all, I'm a current M3 and have narrowed down my specialty choice to three fields, with ortho being one of them. I feel I have good enough stats (260+ step 1, AOA, honors in all clinical rotations so far, engineering background) to be a competitive applicant for ortho, but my question is more about lifestyle.

Raising a family at an early age is something very important to me, as well as having time to enjoy my hobbies (they that kept me sane while i was busting my butt in med school), but the vibe I've been getting is that ortho is a specialty where long hours are the norm. However, I also understand that life post-residency is what you make of it. So for you private practice fellas / attendings, is it possible to work a 40-50 hr week + occasional call, and take in 200-250k after taxes in order to raise your family comfortably?

As a medical specialty, I am happiest and most engaged with ortho and I love the OR. Just having a hard time balancing what i want in my late 20s vs what i will want in my late 30s.

Any input appreciated!

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[scottie7397]

One of the biggest misconceptions that students and residents have is that they will be working less once they enter private practice. That is simply not the case if you want to have a decent practice. I am 16 years out of my Residency and Fellowship and will tell you I work harder now and since graduating than I did during my training except perhaps for periods during my ortho trauma rotations. The money is better obviously but the time away from family is the same or more.

 

[kdburton]

One of the biggest misconceptions that students and residents have is that they will be working less once they enter private practice. That is simply not the case if you want to have a decent practice. I am 16 years out of my Residency and Fellowship and will tell you I work harder now and since graduating than I did during my training except perhaps for periods during my ortho trauma rotations. The money is better obviously but the time away from family is the same or more.

What do you subspecialize in? Do you still take trauma call? How big of a practice are you in? How many hours do you work on average including any administrative work?

 

[scottie7397]

What do you subspecialize in? Do you still take trauma call? How big of a practice are you in? How many hours do you work on average including any administrative work?

Ortho Spine....100%. Only spine trauma...pretty light thanks to airbags. I am with a total of eight ortho docs and one of two spine surgeons. We have physician extenders to handle majority of paperwork...overall I work about 50 hours per week and am well compensated and I love what I do. Hope that helps.

 

[Eggsettera]

One of the biggest misconceptions that students and residents have is that they will be working less once they enter private practice. That is simply not the case if you want to have a decent practice. I am 16 years out of my Residency and Fellowship and will tell you I work harder now and since graduating than I did during my training except perhaps for periods during my ortho trauma rotations. The money is better obviously but the time away from family is the same or more.

Ortho Spine....100%. Only spine trauma...pretty light thanks to airbags. I am with a total of eight ortho docs and one of two spine surgeons. We have physician extenders to handle majority of paperwork...overall I work about 50 hours per week and am well compensated and I love what I do. Hope that helps.

I am confused.

 

[non trad dad]

Ortho Spine....100%. Only spine trauma...pretty light thanks to airbags. I am with a total of eight ortho docs and one of two spine surgeons. We have physician extenders to handle majority of paperwork...overall I work about 50 hours per week and am well compensated and I love what I do. Hope that helps.

Confused as well. Which is it? Harder than residency? or 50 hrs a week, light call, and banking serious spine coin?

 

[Mr. Freeze]

We have physician extenders to handle majority of paperwork

Me three.

Particularly because this would have been in comparison to pre-duty hour change.

 

[scottie7397]

I leave the house about 7 a.m. each morning and get home on average around 6 p.m. I am on Spine call every third but I am not counting that to my work hours. I have every third weekend rounding on my patients and my partner's patients. So the actual 50 hours is truly 50 hours of pure work with little to no breaks.
My VA, Naval, Kaisar and some of my University rotations were less of a demand on my time than my current practice...My trauma rotation was much harder. After my second year in Residency all call was from home so my lifestyle after the second year of Residency mirrors my current lifestyle minus the wife and kids.

 

[IheartCaffeine]

I leave the house about 7 a.m. each morning and get home on average around 6 p.m. I am on Spine call every third but I am not counting that to my work hours. I have every third weekend rounding on my patients and my partner's patients. So the actual 50 hours is truly 50 hours of pure work with little to no breaks.
My VA, Naval, Kaisar and some of my University rotations were less of a demand on my time than my current practice...My trauma rotation was much harder. After my second year in Residency all call was from home so my lifestyle after the second year of Residency mirrors my current lifestyle minus the wife and kids.

Thanks for your input Scottie. It's nice to have attending input on these forums. That being said, I hope you won't mind if I ask you to elaborate somewhat further on your post. Your job really does seem like a sweet deal. If you round every third weekend, does that mean you are completely off for 2 out of 3? How often do you have to come in to the hospital for your spine call? How often do you get paged.

 

[scottie7397]

Actually every third is a lot. I do rounds on my patients and my partner's patients when on call and any consults that are required. The other two weekends are of course all mine. Our answering service is pretty good on weeding out the non-emergent problems so generally I don't get a lot of calls and perhaps once every 3-5 months I have to come in for a true emergency. Most spine is elective. Cauda equina syndrome is pretty unusual as are fractures that require immediate fixation.

 

[JieLi]

There must be variability, but in general what is the lifestyle of a hand surgeon like in comparison to general orthopedics? More family-friendly or just as intense?

 

[Darkshooter326]

This is interesting as everyone says they expect things to be easier once entering private practice. It's easy for me to say now I will work less hours in the future and make less (but comfortable) bank. But when I'm in practice won't the allure of more money (and work hours) be too much to handle?

 

[DHT]

There must be variability, but in general what is the lifestyle of a hand surgeon like in comparison to general orthopedics? More family-friendly or just as intense?

Unfortunately just like everything else, extremely variable. I've seen hand surgeons work their asses off and I've seen others have excellent life styles.

Hand surgery offers many outpatient procedures (less rounding) that can be done in a surgery center ($cha-ching$). However hand call can be brutal depending on where you are and there tends to be fewer hand surgeons to spread the call around. I do feel like most of the hand surgeons I have met are as busy as they want to be, which is the ultimate goal of a practice anyway. But everyone has their own goals/work ethic and I think you can find your niche in hand.

 

[JieLi]

Whats Ortho lifestyle like compared to Urology or ENT? Same or worse in general?

 

[GAdoc]

Whats Ortho lifestyle like compared to Urology or ENT? Same or worse in general?

I'm just an ortho intern, so what do I know other than my limited experience following private orthopods around the last couple of years? But, in my opinion, orthopods, ENTs, and urologists all have a big luxury that contributes to the perception of their "good" lifestyle: relatively few legitimate emergencies that can't wait until morning

What makes general surgery, cardiothoracic, neurosurgery, etc so grueling is the possibility of a trauma that could come in at any second. These are the docs that end up living life by their pagers.

Don't get me wrong - any doc from any surgical specialty has the ability to stay as busy as he/she wants - but for ortho, ent, etc the individual surgeon has more control over how busy they become; they have the ability to better customize their practice to their desired lifestyle. You may hear otherwise from them, but in the end no one holds a gun to their head and forces them to see more patients or add on more non-emergent cases.

As of now, these surgical sub-specialties enjoy higher reimbursement than many general surgery procedures. Thus, orthopods, ENTs, and urologists can continue to make the same (or often more) as general surgeons without having to operate all night when on call.

I admit, much of this is a generalization from my limited experience, but its true of the surgeons in my area

 

[FunnyCurrent]

I'm just an ortho intern, so what do I know other than my limited experience following private orthopods around the last couple of years? But, in my opinion, orthopods, ENTs, and urologists all have a big luxury that contributes to the perception of their "good" lifestyle: relatively few legitimate emergencies that can't wait until morning

What makes general surgery, cardiothoracic, neurosurgery, etc so grueling is the possibility of a trauma that could come in at any second. These are the docs that end up living life by their pagers.

Don't get me wrong - any doc from any surgical specialty has the ability to stay as busy as he/she wants - but for ortho, ent, etc the individual surgeon has more control over how busy they become; they have the ability to better customize their practice to their desired lifestyle. You may hear otherwise from them, but in the end no one holds a gun to their head and forces them to see more patients or add on more non-emergent cases.

As of now, these surgical sub-specialties enjoy higher reimbursement than many general surgery procedures. Thus, orthopods, ENTs, and urologists can continue to make the same (or often more) as general surgeons without having to operate all night when on call.

I admit, much of this is a generalization from my limited experience, but its true of the surgeons in my area

It amazes me how everyone has a different opinion about lifestyle in Uro, Ortho, ENT, etc (I was reading on the orthogate forum awhile ago). Maybe it depends on the individual surgeon's perception of what is considered grueling. I guess we'll never know unless we enter the field ourselves lol.