What Specialities Have the Best Work Hours?

[jjeangi]

Work hours are a big thing for me. I'm not at all lazy but I really want to be a good father and really be there for my kids and be very involved in their lives when I grow up. I know that less hours = less salary, but I wouldn't really care. I'd still be well to do.

So to make a long story short, what specialties would best fit my needs?

P.S. I'm not interested in psychiatry, family medicine, or pathology.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Chloroform4Life]

Dude. you want to do ER. Work 40-50 hours a week and get paid 200k a year. Not bad at all.

 

[loveoforganic]

EM, derm, physiatry, radiology

sometimes plastics and other private practice dominated fields.

 

[Ischemic]

Radiology
Opthamology
Anesthesiology
Dermatology

also known as ROAD specialties. Very highly competitive to get because of exactly what you're saying (good lifestyle, usually 9-5) AND you still get paid bank.

You can also do ER like someone said. It's mostly shift work so you get a decent amount of time off.

 

[chrslbrt]

Medicine's the wrong field to be in if work hours is a major factor to you.

 

[panvard92]

isn't neuro kinda lax too?

 

[docB]

A few things about EM:

-It is shift work so when you're on you're on and when you're off you're off. No call or pagers (for the most part).

-The raw number of hours is lighter than other specialties. The majority of EPs work between 130 and 170 hours per month. But those are hard hours. There's usually very little down time and often finding time to eat or go to the bathroom is difficult.

-The shiftwork aspect is both good and bad for home/family life. It's good in that you usually have some flexibility. I can get a string of days off in a row or days in the middle of a weak easily if I know about it far enough in advance. The bad side is that most EPs have a pretty chaotic schedule. I work random shifts. 2 days then 3 nights, 2 days off, then 3 evenings for example. That wears on you, keeps you tired and makes any kind of home routine tough. I will never be able to be home for dinner every night or even most nights.

So go into EM if you like EM. The people who have gone EM just for the lifestyle tend to get burnt and disappointed.

 

[Narmerguy]

A few things about EM:

-It is shift work so when you're on you're on and when you're off you're off. No call or pagers (for the most part).

-The raw number of hours is lighter than other specialties. The majority of EPs work between 130 and 170 hours per month. But those are hard hours. There's usually very little down time and often finding time to eat or go to the bathroom is difficult.

-The shiftwork aspect is both good and bad for home/family life. It's good in that you usually have some flexibility. I can get a string of days off in a row or days in the middle of a weak easily if I know about it far enough in advance. The bad side is that most EPs have a pretty chaotic schedule. I work random shifts. 2 days then 3 nights, 2 days off, then 3 evenings for example. That wears on you, keeps you tired and makes any kind of home routine tough. I will never be able to be home for dinner every night or even most nights.

So go into EM if you like EM. The people who have gone EM just for the lifestyle tend to get burnt and disappointed.

This. People often neglect to account for the manner in which these low hours are delivered.

 

[GoodmanBrown]

Work hours are a big thing for me. I'm not at all lazy but I really want to be a good father and really be there for my kids and be very involved in their lives when I grow up. I know that less hours = less salary, but I wouldn't really care. I'd still be well to do.

So to make a long story short, what specialties would best fit my needs?

P.S. I'm not interested in psychiatry, family medicine, or pathology.

You kind of eliminate the specialties that have the most flexible hours. In psych, there are lots of state jobs with almost straight 9-5 hours.

FM, you can work solo or in a group and essentially set your own hours. Path and rads both have more flexibility as you're interchangable with other docs.

My best suggestion is anesthesiology. They're often called a "lifestyle" specialty in that they earn good money while not working ridiculous hours. I think this is a little bit of an overstatement. If you want to make partner, you certainly are not putting in a 35-40 hour workweek. Expect 45 hours on non-call weeks and 55-60 on call weeks.