Specialty Without Being "On Call"?

[Liquidice07]

Well, I am fairly new at the "MD" Profession but getting interested.
Are there any specialty's where you are not "on call"? Basically, I don't want to be at an important family event and have to leave due to work.
I know emergency medicine but I was wondering if there are any others.


Thanks for your help.

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[Poliscidoc]

Well, I am fairly new at the "MD" Profession but getting interested.
Are there any specialty's where you are not "on call"? Basically, I don't want to be at an important family event and have to leave due to work.
I know emergency medicine but I was wondering if there are any others.


Thanks for your help.

I am pretty sure EM has on call hours.

Dermatology normally isnt a emergency on call issue

 

[anfleisch]

Many specialties can be had without lots of on call hours if you are willing to give up money for others to take call. Partners in big practices will often trade perks and bucks for on call hours, so you can probably give up a chunk of cash for no call. Obviously, this does not hold true for many surgical specialties like CT since the entire job is basically being on call.

 

[Asyouwereatrio]

I am pretty sure EM has on call hours.

Dermatology normally isnt a emergency on call issue

EM, depending on your hospital, may not have calls. My cousin doesn't have an on-call period. He works his ****s during the week and he's good to go!

I have a cousin in internal medicine who is no longer on call, because he works at a private clinic that hires hospitalists, so he doesn't have to worry about doing rounds at hospitals and taking care of hospitalized patients. From what I gathered in my conversation with him, it all depends on how your "contract" within your "group/employer" happens to pan out--if y'all want to spend money to hire others so you don't need to handle the patients, then it works out in your favour, as in you don't need to be on-call.

 

[Longshanks]

You're going to have to sacrifice time away from family for any profession, but especially with the long hours that deal with medicine. Whether you're on call or not you'll have to make certain sacrifices. You may not have a rosey 8-4 everyday.

 

[morning]

Shift work: EM, hospitalists, intensivists.

Urology, PM&R, dermatology, diagnostic radiology, radiation oncology, ophthalmology, pathology, plastic surgery, and psychiatry have few emergencies that will require you to be called in.

There are some lifestyle specialties that have low call, but are fellowships after a really grueling residency. Like endocrinology, rheumatology, maternal-fetal medicine, and reproductive endocrinology.

 

[OtoHNS]

Most specialties you can work as hard or as little as you want once you are through residency. Things like EM, hospitalists, intensivist, etc are shift work so there is no call. However, you will almost certainly have to work overnight shifts and odd hours.

As far as taking call during "important family events," you can just not take call at those times (assuming you have someone else you share call with).

 

[tweek125]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgupJ2WN0Zw

STAT!!!

 

[EMS5]

Pathology...just stick 'em in the fridge, its not like they're gonna get any more dead

 

[sustentacular]

Pathology...just stick 'em in the fridge, its not like they're gonna get any more dead

They still have call.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

Well, I am fairly new at the "MD" Profession but getting interested.
Are there any specialty's where you are not "on call"? Basically, I don't want to be at an important family event and have to leave due to work.
I know emergency medicine but I was wondering if there are any others.

I work in an "on call" intensive field and have for decades. Roughly speaking I am on call about 50-60 nights/year and have been for over 20 years as an attending. I have rarely missed an important family event or had to leave one due to work. How is this done? Simple, about 1/2 the time I take call I take in-house call. So, I don't schedule in-house call for when there is an important family event. I have many partners I share call with, if something comes up, we switch. It happens every month. No big deal.

When I take "home" call, it is usually a situation in which getting called in is unlikely. If this has to be scheduled for a night with a family event (this happens sometimes), I get someone else to be my backup for "coming in" while I take routine calls that can be handled on the phone.

Now then, in fairness, once about 10 years ago I did get called in during one of my kid's school events. She survived intact.

Do what you want in medicine based on your interest. On-call isn't that big a deal if you work with colleagues who can help you and if you have a reasonably understanding family.

None of this applies to pediatric surgeons who will never see their kid's events.

just kidding....

 

[painmd87]

Add'l note on the "it's all about your contract" comment:

The sleep clinic where I work (private practice, non-hospital affiliated), where I work has two MDs, a PA and an NP. The MD owner takes all the call. The other 3 contracts dictate that they will not take call, unless the medical director is in an airplane (she does take call on vacation), severely ill, or otherwise incapacitated.

I imagine there are other specialties where you can negotiate your call responsibilities, albeit at a reduced salary most likely.

 

[nycfuture2013]

None of this applies to pediatric surgeons who will never see their kid's events.

just kidding....

I have a good friend whose father is a pediatric surgeon. She literally sees him for about 8 hours a week (and this isn't 8 hours of quality time- just when he's home and everyone's awake.)

Awful, but a worthwhile field.

 

[morning]

I work in an "on call" intensive field and have for decades. Roughly speaking I am on call about 50-60 nights/year and have been for over 20 years as an attending. I have rarely missed an important family event or had to leave one due to work. How is this done? Simple, about 1/2 the time I take call I take in-house call. So, I don't schedule in-house call for when there is an important family event. I have many partners I share call with, if something comes up, we switch. It happens every month. No big deal.

When I take "home" call, it is usually a situation in which getting called in is unlikely. If this has to be scheduled for a night with a family event (this happens sometimes), I get someone else to be my backup for "coming in" while I take routine calls that can be handled on the phone.

Now then, in fairness, once about 10 years ago I did get called in during one of my kid's school events. She survived intact.

Do what you want in medicine based on your interest. On-call isn't that big a deal if you work with colleagues who can help you and if you have a reasonably understanding family.

None of this applies to pediatric surgeons who will never see their kid's events.

just kidding....

Your posts are always so informative

Are some neonatologists on shift work?

 

[oldbearprofessor]

Your posts are always so informative

Are some neonatologists on shift work?

Gracias!

Lots of neos doing shift work since attandings are in-house 24/7 at many NICUs and almost all of the biggest ones. However, some continuity is good for patient care in an ICU setting, so there are a lot of adapted schedules that are a bit like "night float" for residents. That is, one neo will round every day for a week or two but not take night call during that time. Each night/weekend would be covered by someone else in a shift work system. There are opportunities to do most any kind of schedule, but most will want to have some continuity so they are doing daily rounds part of the time.

Some folks will spend some years only covering nights/weekends via shift work setups while they have young kids, etc.