Work One Week Per Month?

[theBruceWayne]

What kind of jobs are there in the medical field where one would work intensely for say one-two weeks and receive the rest of the month off? (besides ED) I'm asking this because one of my relatives is an Emergency Doctor and apparently only works around 1-2 weeks out of the month, and then operates his own business in his free mean time. However he said this isn't the case for all EDs. Also stating the fact that Emergency Doctors have extremely high burn out rates.

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[TheWeeIceMan]

Hospitalist. They also suffer from high burn out rates, though.

You could also job share in a number of different specialties.

 

[gettheleadout]

I remember several years ago, TheProwler (is he gone?) mentioned on here that he had been notified of a job offer for a trauma surgeon position somewhere. The position paid $450k a year and if I recall correctly consisted of seven 24-hour shifts per month. Technically only a "week" of work, but I'm not sure you'd want to be doing much else in between shifts.

 

[theBruceWayne]

thanks guys!

 

[Lya]

Hospitalist. They also suffer from high burn out rates, though.

You could also job share in a number of different specialties.

It might be an odd question, but why do hospitalists tend to have high burn out rates? Just curious.

 

[LizzyM]

It might be an odd question, but why do hospitalists tend to have high burn out rates? Just curious.

They meet pepole for the first time when they are sick enough to be in the hospital. They have no prior relationship and they have difficult news to deliver in many cases. Every day they are up against people who want everything done for a person for whom there is nothing to be done to change the patient's fate... that the person will not be discharged alive, They are caring for young people, people their own age, who are really sick and going to die, they care for very old people who are unable to communicate clearly. While the possible range of disorders is wide, there is a similarity to many of them: MI, end stage failure of the kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, community acquired pnumonia and influenza. There is a lot of turn-over of patients such that when you come back after a week off, it is an entirely new group of very sick people you'll care for over the next week with new ones arriving daily.

 

[Mad Jack]

Locum work sort of meets your requirements. Assignments are typically 12-16 weeks, during which you'd work full time. Just pick up one assignment a year that pays as much money as possible, work your butt off, then take the rest of the year off.

 

[Law2Doc]

They meet pepole for the first time when they are sick enough to be in the hospital. They have no prior relationship and they have difficult news to deliver in many cases. Every day they are up against people who want everything done for a person for whom there is nothing to be done to change the patient's fate... that the person will not be discharged alive, They are caring for young people, people their own age, who are really sick and going to die, they care for very old people who are unable to communicate clearly. While the possible range of disorders is wide, there is a similarity to many of them: MI, end stage failure of the kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, community acquired pnumonia and influenza. There is a lot of turn-over of patients such that when you come back after a week off, it is an entirely new group of very sick people you'll care for over the next week with new ones arriving daily.

From what I've seen, they also take a lot of abuse from the other doctors (even residents) in the hospital because, given the shift work nature of their practice, they too often don't know enough about their patients hospital course. Talking to a Consult team when you don't know your patient inside and out can be an ordeal. So they are dealing with the sickest patients in the hospital, don't know these patients that well having just come on service, and are expected to jump in each shift and deal with emotional family members and impatient consulting teams. It like a bad day during intern year, every day.