Taking 3-6 months off as an attending possible?

[sliceofbread136]

Lately I’ve gotten super into early retirement and the FIRE movement, but in the back of my head I’m pretty sure I’d be bored and miss medicine after 3-6 months... however I am very chronically tired at this point. Even getting 7-10 days off doesn’t make a dent. I’d love to actually get that 3-6 months off but it doesn’t seem like that is doable for a physician.

anyone have any experiences with prolonged time off?

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[IMGASMD]

Chronically tired as a medical student? Wait until you’re a resident.

There are Locum short term jobs. But they have their own problems. I will stop here.

Think long and hard what you want for a speciality......

 

[sliceofbread136]

Chronically tired as a medical student? Wait until you’re a resident.

There are Locum short term jobs. But they have their own problems. I will stop here.

Think long and hard what you want for a speciality......

Im close to done with peds residency, going into sleep/pulm.

my initial thought was to grind hard to a mil net worth and then transition to part time... but I’m thinking maybe find a way to take extended breaks every few years. It would be nice to get atleast 3 months after fellowship. (I will have one week off between residency and fellowship lul)

 

[gyngyn]

Retiring early is for folks who don't like their work.
Rx: like your work.

 

[thumbz]

Locums x 6 mo then 6 mo off = $150k a year (assuming you're IM hospitalist). You can do it if you want to.

Do what gyngyn suggested instead. Find a job you love. They exist.

Edit: just read the peds part. Turn the $150k into $80k as a peds hospitalist (do they exist?). No idea what peds sleep/pulm would make or what the locums opportunities would look like. Regardless, considering the average US income is around $35k a year you could take 6 months off, still tackle your loans and live an "average" life

 

[sliceofbread136]

Locums x 6 mo then 6 mo off = $150k a year (assuming you're IM hospitalist). You can do it if you want to.

Do what gyngyn suggested instead. Find a job you love. They exist.

Edit: just read the peds part. Turn the $150k into $80k as a peds hospitalist (do they exist?). No idea what peds sleep/pulm would make or what the locums opportunities would look like. Regardless, considering the average US income is around $35k a year you could take 6 months off, still tackle your loans and live an "average" life

peds hospitalist has a fellowship now bwahaha. Even I have too much pride to blatantly be taken advantage of like that.

Ill need to look at locums in sleep/pulm or maybe do some part time for awhile a recharge...

 

[sliceofbread136]

Retiring early is for folks who don't like their work.
Rx: like your work.

I don’t mind my work in theory... it’s just long/hard and I’m not a natural hard worker. Honestly I probably shouldn’t have done medicine but it’s alittle late for that

 

[dpmd]

Will probably be much easier to work part time that to find a job that lets you be gone for 3 to 6 months at a time.

 

[libertyyne]

peds hospitalist has a fellowship now bwahaha. Even I have too much pride to blatantly be taken advantage of like that.

Ill need to look at locums in sleep/pulm or maybe do some part time for awhile a recharge...

what a bunch of malarkey.

 

[IMGASMD]

Im close to done with peds residency, going into sleep/pulm.

my initial thought was to grind hard to a mil net worth and then transition to part time... but I’m thinking maybe find a way to take extended breaks every few years. It would be nice to get atleast 3 months after fellowship. (I will have one week off between residency and fellowship lul)

Thanks for that clarification. Since it’s posted in medical student forum, I just assumed. My bad.

But as others have said, find a job you like.... sleep sounds lower stress, maybe let you read studies remotely?

If peds plum cannot be a hospitalist, then there is something really really wrong with peds board.

Good luck.

 

[SteyrFWB]

Talk to a psychiatrist, take minidose 20mg ketamine qHS. Will greatly improve your outlook .

 

[NickNaylor]

The easiest thing would probably be to take some time off before your first attending gig if you have the financial means to do so. Taking 3-6 months off can be challenging once you have patients as you will have to find coverage during that period of time, and depending on your work situation and specialty your employer may not be on board with that long of a break.

I took a month off after residency before starting my job, but a couple of my colleagues took 3-4 months before starting.

 

[GoSpursGo]

peds hospitalist has a fellowship now bwahaha.

FWIW, my general sense is that the fellowship is only going to be requisite at large acadermic tertiary medical centers. There'll be plenty of rural places that will likely still operate with locums general pediatricians. There just aren't enough fellowship-trained folks out there willing to travel to staff all those places.

Not sure how a fellowship in pulm/sleep fits with that kind of outlook, but I agree that your best chance to get that kind of chunk of time off is to do it right at the end of your training before you start your first attending job.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

So wait, you're still a resident and are worried about being chronically tired?

Show of hands among the attendings: who here wasn't chronically tired as a resident?

 

[jdh71]

So wait, you're still a resident and are worried about being chronically tired?

Show of hands among the attendings: who here wasn't chronically tired as a resident?

I'm still chronically tired often

 

[dpmd]

So wait, you're still a resident and are worried about being chronically tired?

Show of hands among the attendings: who here wasn't chronically tired as a resident?

I have taken extended time off work and still felt tired. I work part time and sleep 9 hours a night or more and still wake up tired more often than not. The only time I felt lots of energy was when I was taking cytomel after my thyroidectomy at higher than normal doses. Despite my undetectable tsh on levothyroxine I never feel particularly hyperthyroid (but I am not willing to take the extra risks fron overdosing on t3 long term just to feel energetic). I think maybe we have skewed expectations on what is normal energy versus low energy/fatigue/tiredness versus and want to feel the high energy euphoric feeling (like after a good workout or good sex or whatever) permanently

 

[Cath Up]

I have taken extended time off work and still felt tired. I work part time and sleep 9 hours a night or more and still wake up tired more often than not. The only time I felt lots of energy was when I was taking cytomel after my thyroidectomy at higher than normal doses. Despite my undetectable tsh on levothyroxine I never feel particularly hyperthyroid (but I am not willing to take the extra risks fron overdosing on t3 long term just to feel energetic). I think maybe we have skewed expectations on what is normal energy versus low energy/fatigue/tiredness versus and want to feel the high energy euphoric feeling (like after a good workout or good sex or whatever) permanently

I'm not sure what else you would expect, as a sloth.

 

[NITRAS]

@dpmd Get a sleep study. . . . . .

Routine exercise, eat healthy, lose weight, and work on your depression. If that doesn't fix severe fatigue. . . . pan scan for malignancy.

In all seriousness, I really mess up my sleep with screens and caffeine if I'm not careful.

 

[NITRAS]

In regards to the OP, why would you go to med school, residency, and then fellowship to get a job to work basically half the year? Most MDs won't do it because they are literally not making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year you don't work your full potential. I know plenty of people that take a month off. . . but they usually make it up the rest of the year. I actually work 21.6 weeks this coming year. I'll probably moonlight another 3-4 weeks.

 

[dpmd]

@dpmd Get a sleep study. . . . . .

Routine exercise, eat healthy, lose weight, and work on your depression. If that doesn't fix severe fatigue. . . . pan scan for malignancy.

In all seriousness, I really mess up my sleep with screens and caffeine if I'm not careful.

Eh, it isn't severe and I am terrible at being regular with exercise which is probably a huge part of it. Caffeine (and subsequent withdrawal because I get dependent very quickly) is another problem, but since I take call 6 times a month and sleep is ****ty those nights almost always I find it hard to stay away. But it isn't like I am falling asleep during the day or that I can't do stuff, I am just not bouncing out of bed eager to do a bunch of stuff. I think expecting that daily is unreasonable and what I call tired is probably closer to a normal baseline. Maybe. Or maybe I have some kind of sleep disorder that my husband hasn't noticed.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

I'm still chronically tired often

And that could be a problem (or could be a result of your chosen field). My point is that even us slacker FPs were always tired in residency. That's just par for the course.

 

[jdh71]

And that could be a problem (or could be a result of your chosen field). My point is that even us slacker FPs were always tired in residency. That's just par for the course.

It is. Nights. And 12 hour shifts. But it’s the only way to do this.

you can’t be bartender and not serve drinks . . .

 

[icuanesthesiology]

I remember a day. It was about 12 years ago. I wasn’t tired that day. It was awesome.
I feel your pain, you will still be chronically tired as an attending, but for for some reason it’s better. Hang in there.

 

[Mass Effect]

You can take a few months off after fellowship. Many people do. You can also take time off between jobs. As someone else said, locums is good too. You can work for 3 months, take 3 months off. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[Piskaupf]

Chronically tired as a medical student? Wait until you’re a resident.

There are Locum short term jobs. But they have their own problems. I will stop here.

Think long and hard what you want for a speciality......

What downsides are there to locums if you negotiate the terms directly with the hospital instead of going through an agency

 

[y123]

Depends on your specialty.
If you are working part time as a primary care doctor, it is really doable. I know people who did that. Mostly new moms.
If you are a newly minted subspecialist building your own practice, it will be very difficult.
Just saw that you are a peds sub specialist. The only job available post-residency is probably academic? Not sure how flexible academic positions are.
You can always work as a general pediatrician though.