Is there a doctor or surgeon that works no nights or no weekends? Some medical students apparently are planning on it.
I heard in the halls the other day about a premedical college student shadowing at the hospital. He was speaking with some nurses about his plans. They asked him what he wanted to do. And he replied that he wanted to be a general surgeon so he didn't have to "take call or work any nights." If there are any general surgeons out there, can someone build a general surgery practice and referral base without taking call or working nights?
Perhaps someday all doctors will work in a shift based system where the day ends when the banks close and someone else picks up. I know hospitalist medicine in most in-house 24 hour coverage models work on a shift model. Emergency medicine is often shift based. And some programs even have nocturnists (only work nights). That's your no nights, no call model. Even outpatient physicians and many medical specialties arrange their schedules to work shifts.
In fact, many surgical groups also split coverage with shift based call. It looks like the days of being the patient's doctor at all times is done. Not only for outpatient family medicine docs and internists who use hospitalists, but also medical and surgical subspecialists who use shift based coverage models to limit their weekly work hour experience.
Who knows, Obama may someday decree that nobody can get sick after hours and if they do, they will have to pay a special fine sick tax to cover the additional expense of their night time care.
Perhaps a nocturnist tax is in order so the new crop of medical students can work no nights and no call when they enter the real world.
medical student nowadays dont want to work at night, the fact that you seem surprised, surprises me. every one want to sleep at night.
ReplyDeleteIf one thought there was a physician shortage now, just wait until the current generation of medical students graduates. Nobody wants to work nights, nobody wants to be on call on nights, and nobody wants to commit the same amount of time they did in medical school to their job.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see if the physician shortage estimates factor in that my classmates and I don't care to work 80 hour weeks like the current/retiring generation of physicians. Especially in primary care. Some of these PCP's work 60+ hrs a week, not including call. They get woke up in the middle of the night, deal with tons of paperwork, complex cases, and have to ask permission (from insurance/medicare) to treat patients. For all their trouble, the don't even get the reward of spending time with their patients.
Nevermind that you went to 11+ years of post-high school education. Match Family Medicine, work 80 hrs a week, begin paying off your $250K in student loans, and maybe, just maybe, you'll end up earning a little more than a UAW forklift operator. The ironic part is, when he complains about a pay cut, someone might actually pay attention to him. After all, they all just might strike and stop working. And that would just be catastrophic!
What is wrong with this country?!
\\End Rant\\
Back on point, I don't know what that kid was talking about. General Surgery has gotten easier to get into for the specific reason that nobody wants to take call and work a ton.
ReplyDeletePre-meds like that have a tendency not to become "post-meds" ever. I have a great many classmates who are interested in fields with long hours and tough lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm interested in general surgery, and I'm not ecstatic about the idea of nights and being on call, but I certainly expect to do plenty of it.
Well, this has been going on all over the professional world starting with the "me" generation. Sombody decided to cave to their demands for what reason I don't know. Nobody pays dues these days. Everybody is creating their own job description. As a second career nursing student, I am tempted to myself or be left behind. In my first degree/career, I paid my dues as a newbie. This time around I might put the pedal to the metal in order to become expert at what I do once again... (before I get too old).
ReplyDelete-Second career nursing student
On call and night/weekend work is the bane of many. Karma would be for this guy to flunk out and end up as a network administrator, pager and all.
ReplyDeleteI don't mine the 80+ hr weeks, as longs as I's gets my moneys by Friday.... Its not too outrageous of a request, to get paid for every minute of my work, just like the guys down at Jiffy Lube.
ReplyDeleteI got stuff to buy, man, someones gotta bring this economy out of the toilet...
Back to work,
Frank