Specialties with the best lifestyle/better hours?

[Punchap]

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Hello,
In learning more about medical specialties, I am curious to find out which offer regular/shorter hours in order to maintain a lifestyle that is conducive to family. Does anyone here recommend certain specialties (aside from dermatology) that would allow me to juggle both?

Caveat: I am very passionate about medicine and would not consider another career; only, it is very important for me to have a fulfilling life outside of medicine. So, please...no rude comments about my wanting to take the easy road.

Thanks.

 

[Ausmil]

I am totally with you. I am married and have one baby boy. I am really looking for a specialty that will be condusive to a family life. I have also heard that the ER or family practice are excellent. I have worked with both of those physicians and the fam. Prac doctor worked a regular 40 hr week. Same with the ER, just more randon shifts. I hope more people respond. Thanks

 

[71263]

Pretty much anything but surgery or any subsurgical specialties.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello,
In learning more about medical specialties, I am curious to find out which offer regular/shorter hours in order to maintain a lifestyle that is conducive to family. Does anyone here recommend certain specialties (aside from dermatology) that would allow me to juggle both?

Caveat: I am very passionate about medicine and would not consider another career; only, it is very important for me to have a fulfilling life outside of medicine. So, please...no rude comments about my wanting to take the easy road.

Thanks.

I suspect in a number of specialties you can get likely find some form of reduced hours at a significantly reduced salary. But bear in mind that lifestyle does not start until after residency in any field of medicine. Thus you have 4 years of med school and 3 years or more of residency with rough hours before you can start juggling.

 

[sscooterguy]

The FIELDS with the best hours in my opinion and experience:

By FAR dermatology, even docs on call go home early during the day and most call is done at home. Probably followed by pathology. Path can be busy though, depending on how busy the practice you join is though. I think general pediatrics and family practice follow that. ER is nice/bad because of the shift work. My girlfriend is matching into it because she likes the shift work, and can work 3 or 4 days out of the week and make a decent amount of money. She can also decide to only work 1 or 2 shifts if she later wants to go part time. Radiology can be nice, but again, this definately depends upon the instution and the practice. Some work at home or in an office at home, others go in, others work their butts off. Ophthalmology has pretty good hours.

In general, as you specialize in these fields, you get busier. These fields listed above probably have the most POTENTIAL of good hours, and of course it depends on how much money you wanna make, how big your practice is, big the city or how far from the city you are, etc.

sscooterguy

 

[tupac_don]

Pretty much anything but surgery or any subsurgical specialties.

Well urology, and ophtalmology are pretty conducive to normal lifestyle. Even ENT once you are an attending.

 

[Eyesore]

Ophthalmology all the way!! 👍 👍

 

[txguy]

So basically the R.O.A.D. to success will be the most conducive to "good" hours... (Rads, Ophtho, Anesthesia, Derm).....some ppl add an E onto the end for ENT 😀

-tx

 

[DeigoT]

Urology? It depends on the facility and the practice arrangements. Many urologist perform surgeries and some can have horrible hours (my former boss quit her job for that reason...surgeries started at 7am, and many times she would in the OR until late at nights).

 

[noncestvrai]

You can't possibly put most surg specialties in the "lifestyle" category (except ophtho and ENT maybe?) because of the hours (very early morning, long days). In addition, how good is your lifestyle if you don't like the field you're in? My take on this matter is "do what you like first, then worry about the lifestyle".

noncestvrai

 

[rpkall]

No one ever mentions Psych when talking about "lifestyle" specialties. But as far as the money/hours worked, it's one of the better paying fields out there.

I know some Child/Adolescent psychiatrists around here (northeast) make around 200k, and they *actually* do work around 45 hrs/week. Some specialties are very high paying, but very labor-intensive too. Psych is more amenable to private practice, too--there's very little you need in the way of equipment, staff, office space, etc, to set up a practice.

Just sayin'. 👍

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

No one ever mentions Psych when talking about "lifestyle" specialties. But as far as the money/hours worked, it's one of the better paying fields out there.

I know some Child/Adolescent psychiatrists around here (northeast) make around 200k, and they *actually* do work around 45 hrs/week. Some specialties are very high paying, but very labor-intensive too. Psych is more amenable to private practice, too--there's very little you need in the way of equipment, staff, office space, etc, to set up a practice.

Just sayin'. 👍

One of the psychiatrists at my school charges $300/hour. Crazyness

 

[emack]

I suspect in a number of specialties you can get likely find some form of reduced hours at a significantly reduced salary. But bear in mind that lifestyle does not start until after residency in any field of medicine. Thus you have 4 years of med school and 3 years or more of residency with rough hours before you can start juggling.

Precisely. But I'd just like to point out that even a part-time doc still earns a crapload of money by most (non-sdn) standards. There are lots of specialties where people seem to work their butts off... but to some extent they have structured their lives & their practices that way by choice (usually in a never-ending quest for money and/or prestige).

My mom always likes to joke about the "part-time" female doc (who works 3.5 days/week and spends the rest of her waking life raising a family & running a household) and the "full-time" male doc (who shows up 5 days/week but takes 2-hour lunches every day with his buddies, and of course Friday afternoons are reserved for golf). That's how things work in her department.

 

[Long Dong]

So basically the R.O.A.D. to success will be the most conducive to "good" hours... (Rads, Ophtho, Anesthesia, Derm).....some ppl add an E onto the end for ENT 😀

-tx

Dont forget the RO=radiation oncology in the R.O.A.D. to success.

 

[tcar18]

Dont forget the RO=radiation oncology in the R.O.A.D. to success.

How come no one is mentioning surgical crit. care or CT surgery? I have always heard their lives are filled with sleeping in, going to bed early and golf at least 2 times per week.... three in the summer months.

 

[tcar18]

Dont forget the RO=radiation oncology in the R.O.A.D. to success.

How come no one is mentioning surgical crit. care or CT surgery? I have always heard their lives are filled with sleeping in, going to bed early and golf at least 2 times per week.... three in the summer months.

Rads... I mean talk about tough... call from HOME you have to drag your ass downstairs to look at the view box in your home office... now that is grueling

 

[fun8stuff]

How come no one is mentioning surgical crit. care or CT surgery? I have always heard their lives are filled with sleeping in, going to bed early and golf at least 2 times per week.... three in the summer months.

Rads... I mean talk about tough... call from HOME you have to drag your ass downstairs to look at the view box in your home office... now that is grueling

CT=cardiothoracic? man, i heard there is less and less work for them to do nowadays because of the advancement in non-invasive procedures... but i hadn't heard they had good hours... quite the opposite, actually. i thought they worked their butts off.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

So basically the R.O.A.D. to success will be the most conducive to "good" hours... (Rads, Ophtho, Anesthesia, Derm).....some ppl add an E onto the end for ENT 😀

-tx

Actually, I was taught to go UP-ROAD by a urologist: Urology, Pathology, Radiology, Opthomology, Anesthesiology, Dermatology. That's taking into account hours, pay, etc. I can see ENT being in there, and maybe EM, if you're down with the odd hours.

 

[Law2Doc]

Actually, I was taught to go UP-ROAD by a urologist: Urology, Pathology, Radiology, Opthomology, Anesthesiology, Dermatology. That's taking into account hours, pay, etc. I can see ENT being in there, and maybe EM, if you're down with the odd hours.

With all these letters, sounds like it's time for a new mnemonic...

 

[tupac_don]

Urology? It depends on the facility and the practice arrangements. Many urologist perform surgeries and some can have horrible hours (my former boss quit her job for that reason...surgeries started at 7am, and many times she would in the OR until late at nights).

True if you are just starting practice and you wanna build it up, or if you do lot of surgeries. But you also have urologists with predominantly outpatient clinic and have surgeries scheduled one day a week. Its fairly conducive to lifestyle if you look for it.

 

[tupac_don]

How come no one is mentioning surgical crit. care or CT surgery? I have always heard their lives are filled with sleeping in, going to bed early and golf at least 2 times per week.... three in the summer months.

Rads... I mean talk about tough... call from HOME you have to drag your ass downstairs to look at the view box in your home office... now that is grueling

Yea CT"s golf, b/c they don't have any business left so they do a surgery a week Come on man, they work real hard, and now interventional radiologists are taking all their business. I dont' know who you heard this from, but ones Ive seen they look dog tired and work pretty crazy hours like 80-90 hrs / week.

 

[tupac_don]

So basically the R.O.A.D. to success will be the most conducive to "good" hours... (Rads, Ophtho, Anesthesia, Derm).....some ppl add an E onto the end for ENT 😀

-tx

Why isn't anyone mentioning family practice, I mean they can have pretty chill time 9-5 earn decent salary 150+ depending on their practice and have plenty of time for other things. That's really good specialty if you are looking for eazy street. The only thing is most discount it b/c many doctors shun upon it as too eazy or lame. But remember they can cater their practice how they want to. Hey you can do Botox the whole time, I also knew of one guy who moonlighted in ER for extra cash and another who did anesthesia for a plastic surgeon, which are nice ways to supplement your income. Plus the FP in rural areas pretty much get to do whatever they want, over there, you are a surgeon/OB GYN/peds/ENT you name it.

Plus a lot of little procedures that other specialties do, like biopsies, vasectomies, colonoscopies, laser therapy hair removal can all be done by FP. You can have a pretty fruitful practice if you know what ouare doing.

 

[BooMed]

Do any of you know anything about sports medicine? I just heard of it and it sounds really interesting. I don't want to do surgery, but supposedly there is a non-surgery type of this doctor. 😕

 

[emack]

Yeah... family practice doesn't have a great reputation around here, but clearly it's where a lot of people end up. Personally, it's not for me (I'm more of a "know a lot about a little" instead of "a little about a lot" kind of person). But all you gunners better start singing the praises of FP so as to thin out the ranks of your competition for all those U.P.R.O.A.D.O.M.G.L.O.L.W.T.F. preferred specialties, eh?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Do any of you know anything about sports medicine? I just heard of it and it sounds really interesting. I don't want to do surgery, but supposedly there is a non-surgery type of this doctor. 😕

You could go via PM&R if you didn't want to be a surgeon.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

With all these letters, sounds like it's time for a new mnemonic...

Law2Doc, I forget if you're just starting med school or applying, but if it's the former, shame on you! and if it's the latter, you'd better get ready for mnemonic overload. 6 letters is nothing! Even as an EMT-B I have to remember 9-10 letter mnemonics, if not worse. Stupid AEIOU-TIPS...

 

[Bernardo_11]

U.P.R.O.A.D.O.M.G.L.O.L.W.T.F. preferred specialties

👍 👍

 

[bugmenot]

if you are a surgical specialist (breast, colorectal) in group, hours are good

 

[Bernito]

So what about the best balance between hours/lifestyle and career-long stimulation? (I have heard that people in EM burn out, for example).