Quitting and coming back?

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vitamorior

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So I really couldn't find the right place to ask this, if you know please do tell.

So the situation is this:
You're a trauma surgeon working at some city hospital for around 10 years now, and lets say you're at the ripe age of 40ish and you and all your old army buddies are planning to do the Appalachian trail you have all planned for your entire life. The trail takes 6 months to complete and obviously you can't take 6 months off. What are the options?

With that comes a second question, how possible is it to resign at the hospital and go find a job at a different one or even reapply to the same one after 6 months?
Any others options?

Side note: I'm not a trauma surgeon nor am I near the age of 40, just a young combat medic in the army looking into future ideas.

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We're EM docs, not trauma surgeons. That said, it's all contingent on the group with which you work.

Wanderlust somewhat tends to wane as one ages. Retire, and you can do the App Trail to your heart's content.
 
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So I really couldn't find the right place to ask this, if you know please do tell.

So the situation is this:
You're a trauma surgeon working at some city hospital for around 10 years now, and lets say you're at the ripe age of 40ish and you and all your old army buddies are planning to do the Appalachian trail you have all planned for your entire life. The trail takes 6 months to complete and obviously you can't take 6 months off. What are the options?

With that comes a second question, how possible is it to resign at the hospital and go find a job at a different one or even reapply to the same one after 6 months?
Any others options?

Side note: I'm not a trauma surgeon nor am I near the age of 40, just a young combat medic in the army looking into future ideas.

@Winged Scapula is a surgeon and moderator who can likely offer better information than I can.

First, congrats on becoming a combat medic, and it's wonderful that you're planning for your future. This forum is for emergency medicine, a distinct medical specialty from trauma surgery (although we certainly work together frequently in some settings).

To my limited knowledge what you're descibing is likely more possible for a trauma surgeon than most other surgical fields which are more attached to a given patient population. If it was a priority it would likely limit the types of jobs and contracts you could take. Depending on the setting the job might or might not be there when you got back, but frankly if you complete surgical training you will never be out of the job.

What's more likely to be the issue is how imprortant it is to you to spend six months with people you felt a connection to in your early 20s vs career and family priorities you build over the course of decades. If it is still a priority though, it's probably possible.
 
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We're EM docs, not trauma surgeons. That said, it's all contingent on the group with which you work.

Wanderlust somewhat tends to wane as one ages. Retire, and you can do the App Trail to your heart's content.
Yeah, not sure why he would ask here instead of the surgery forum.

As you note, its all contingent on the employment situation. I don't know any surgical groups that would be willing to take on a young employee/partner and give the 6 months off right out of the gate; after all, some costs are fixed and if you don't work, you aren't bringing in the income for those costs. But as noted above, if you are truly a hospital employed trauma surgeon who doesn't have to rely on marketing your practice or retaining patients, then its more doable.

Also, you must account for all time away from education and work on credentialing and licensing applications. Not that it should prevent you from traveling and the like, just a PITA to beware of.

I agree with Apollyon; you can take a few months off after retirement, but not likely in the first 5 years of your career.
 
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6 months is tough in medicine. As an EP you could probably do a couple weeks at a time on the Appalachian trail, 2-3 times a year until you finish it relatively easily. But to do it all at once...probably have to quit. But if you were doing locums or some other sort of independent contractor work, it could be done. Just don't expect someone to hold your spot at a given hospital for you to go hiking. That probably applies to trauma surgery too.

You sure medicine is for you?
 
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6 months is tough in medicine. As an EP you could probably do a couple weeks at a time on the Appalachian trail, 2-3 times a year until you finish it relatively easily. But to do it all at once...probably have to quit. But if you were doing locums or some other sort of independent contractor work, it could be done. Just don't expect someone to hold your spot at a given hospital for you to go hiking. That probably applies to trauma surgery too.

You sure medicine is for you?

I agree with you but if you really worked at the same hospital for ten years I'm sure you could probably get six month "sabbatical" if you just said you needed "personal time off". Ten years might earn you that if you are otherwise well liked.
 
I agree with you but if you really worked at the same hospital for ten years I'm sure you could probably get six month "sabbatical" if you just said you needed "personal time off". Ten years might earn you that if you are otherwise well liked.
No. Full stop. You clearly haven't been in practice for 10 years.

Disagree with me, fine. However, try this at 10 years. When they literally laugh in your face, just come back and give me my props.
 
At CEP you can take a several month sabbatical after 10 years.
 
No. Full stop. You clearly haven't been in practice for 10 years.

Disagree with me, fine. However, try this at 10 years. When they literally laugh in your face, just come back and give me my props.

Bolded part is very true.

In any case, I never planned on doing this to begin with. I was just speculating to answer the OP's question.

I think it would depend on your hospital and situation. I also worked for CEP as the above user did, and it is possible there. I also feel that it might be possible at my current hospital too, since it was offered to someone who instead decided to quit. Of course, they offered it to him when he said that he needed to quit to take some months off to do some personal things. They tried to retain him by giving him a six month sabbatical, but he ended up refusing.

Ten years is a long time. And if you work in a hospital that has a hard time recruiting due to its location, I feel that you have a lot more power to do such a thing, than at a place where they can easily replace you. Even if you (Apollyon) have worked ten years at a certain hospital in a certain city, keep in mind the situation may be vastly different in a different state, rural vs urban/suburban setting, etc.

I agree with you that there are many hospitals where it would not be possible, but I am not discounting the possibility that it might be possible in some hospitals and situations. Might. Possibly. Not sure. Could be. In some conceivable scenario.

Having said all that, the OP's post is ridiculous and this is a useless discussion.
 
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We have an ER doc in my group taking a 1 yr sabbatical. His job is waiting for him when he gets back. Taking time off is definitely possible with the right group.
 
I agree with you but if you really worked at the same hospital for ten years I'm sure you could probably get six month "sabbatical" if you just said you needed "personal time off". Ten years might earn you that if you are otherwise well liked.

Not in my group. 6 months is a long time. And we may be one of the most flexible groups I know of.
 
Well thank you everyone for the replies and for moving this thread to the right place. The occupation title was just hypothetical nothing more, I realize each field is different as well as who employs you.
With that it does seem like a sabbatical is possible with enough leeway.
To ease all the harshness going on, it was just a hypothetical question, maybe I will do it after retirement, maybe I won't even retire, lots of time to think on it all.
 
A sabbatical isn't likely in the real world. Maybe if you're tenured faculty in an academic setting. That said, 6 months is a ridiculous amount of time off and may not be realistic for many different reasons.
 
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A sabbatical isn't likely in the real world. Maybe if you're tenured faculty in an academic setting. That said, 6 months is a ridiculous amount of time off and may not be realistic for many different reasons.

I can't think of many careers (outside of medicine) in general that allow this much continuous time off, unless you were to go between jobs. For medicine, it would be near impossible.
 
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So any thoughts of finding a new job afterwards, my impression is work is always out there for medicine. Again all hypothetical, not looking for a lecture on the morals.
Is it doable?
 
So any thoughts of finding a new job afterwards, my impression is work is always out there for medicine. Again all hypothetical, not looking for a lecture on the morals.
Is it doable?
Doable?

Yes. but will you will soon find that every time you leave a job you have to be re-credentialed and perhaps even relicensed if you go to a different state. These are things that can take months to accomplish and the more jobs you have had, the longer it takes. There's a reason why people rarely leave job so frequently. It's not like somebody just calls up your former boss and asked if you were a candidate to be rehired.

finally, I'm not sure where you felt like you were getting lectured about morals. I think most of us were just trying to make you see that your plan is not realistic.
 
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Doable?

Yes. but will you will soon find that every time you leave a job you have to be re-credentialed and perhaps even relicensed if you go to a different state. These are things that can take months to accomplish and the more jobs you have the longer it takes. There's a reason why people rarely leave job so frequently. It's not like somebody just calls up your former boss and asked if you were a candidate to be rehired.

finally, I'm not sure where you felt like you were getting lectured about morals. I think most of us were just trying to make you see that your plan is not realistic.

Understood, thank you.
 
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So any thoughts of finding a new job afterwards, my impression is work is always out there for medicine. Again all hypothetical, not looking for a lecture on the morals.
Is it doable?
I think you are hinting at the time that it would actually be feasible to do this. If you are in a position where you are looking to take a different job, start dates are often very flexible. As WS says it can take several months to get licensing and credentialing alone at your new place. So if, ten years in, you were planning on changing jobs, that would be a good time to consider doing something like this. You obviously won't be getting paid, but it makes sense and should be easily doable.

I will say that it is a huuuuge pain in the ass to do all your credentialing, licensing, moving, etc remotely without the ability to be there in person occasionally but it is doable and I could even see it theoretically being doable from the AT. but I would be prepared for it to be more like an 8-9 month time off if you are planning on spending 6 months of it hiking.
 
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I think it is really a lot less dependent on how long you have been there and a lot more dependent on how replaceable you are. No one is going to like you to take 6 months off, but if it took them 5 years to recruit someone like you, you might be able to pull this off even in your first few years working there.
 
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I can't speak to the medicine aspect of the question, but maybe can offer perspective on the hiking side:

It depends on what kind of hike you want to do (do you want to party the whole way or make miles?), but 6 months is probably more time than you need. If you start out in good shape, light pack, no pre-existing MSK problems, finishing in 100 days is not unreasonable, 110-120 days would be comfortable.

If you time it right, you could easily fit a thru hike in during your application year - apply, go on interviews, get accepted somewhere in the spring, start hiking April 1st, finish in 4 months on August 1st, have a few weeks to move and get your living situation sorted out before classes start.

You also may find that you don't enjoy thru hiking as much as you thought you would... IME, the majority of successful thru hikers are either people who 1) are just too stubborn/proud to quit or 2) don't really have passion/direction/purpose in their lives, and are drawn to the trail because it gives those things to them at least temporarily. At least for me personally, I think hiking 500-mile/1-month sections would be ideal. That gives you enough time to feel like a thru hiker, and by the time it starts to turn into a grind you're almost done.
 
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From a medicine side of things, anything with referrals or continuity will be hard. Things amenable to shift work, locums, etc will be easier. I don't see why you couldn't take 6 months off in between jobs, assuming your specialty is in demand in your location. I would imagine there could be logistical nightmares (esp if you have family, kids and moving is hard).
 
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So I really couldn't find the right place to ask this, if you know please do tell.

So the situation is this:
You're a trauma surgeon working at some city hospital for around 10 years now, and lets say you're at the ripe age of 40ish and you and all your old army buddies are planning to do the Appalachian trail you have all planned for your entire life. The trail takes 6 months to complete and obviously you can't take 6 months off. What are the options?

With that comes a second question, how possible is it to resign at the hospital and go find a job at a different one or even reapply to the same one after 6 months?
Any others options?

Side note: I'm not a trauma surgeon nor am I near the age of 40, just a young combat medic in the army looking into future ideas.


Trauma surgeon here, academic to boot.

One of our partners who has been in practice for roughly 10 years just got the urge to join the military (not uncommon, lots of reservists and the like who are trauma docs here at home). When he got his papers to go to East Africa, he just took a leave of absence. His job was secured and we all recognized the importance of what he was doing, so we each got an extra shift or two each month. He's been there roughly 10 months, safe and sound, and should be coming home soon.
Similarly, another partner of ours who is a bit more senior takes 4-5 months off at a time as her husband is retired and she wants to spend more time with him now rather than later. She's sharp and still skilled so the time off doesn't seem to affect her much.
It's possible to take time off, depending on your motivation and the willingness of your institution/partners to support you
 
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Trauma surgeon here, academic to boot.

One of our partners who has been in practice for roughly 10 years just got the urge to join the military (not uncommon, lots of reservists and the like who are trauma docs here at home). When he got his papers to go to East Africa, he just took a leave of absence. His job was secured and we all recognized the importance of what he was doing, so we each got an extra shift or two each month. He's been there roughly 10 months, safe and sound, and should be coming home soon.
Similarly, another partner of ours who is a bit more senior takes 4-5 months off at a time as her husband is retired and she wants to spend more time with him now rather than later. She's sharp and still skilled so the time off doesn't seem to affect her much.
It's possible to take time off, depending on your motivation and the willingness of your institution/partners to support you

The military example is very different.

The older surgeon with a retired spouse is more similar to the OP. Even then, you'd have to be there for a long time to earn that flexibility, and the institution would have to have resources to accommodate.
 
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