Internal Med Hours

[Steve-0]

In my first few months of med school I gave grown to like internal med. In some preliminary research on the feild I have noticed that it is not uncommon to work ~60 hours/week in the fields that seem most interesting to me (general IM and heme). I expect to have some long hours as a doc but feel that 60/week could burn you out pretty quick. My question is whether it is actually possible to tailor your hours roughly the way you want them (at the expense of earnings of course) as so many seem to say it is. I'm sure it's not a possibility in residency but what about afterwards? I could see how it could be possible in a family med practice with a private setting and all but what about the hospital setting you have in internal? Is there still that flexibilty?

[cheech10]

GIM has a lot of practice variablitiy:

 

Jack of all trades/traditional practice - round on inpatients in early AM, then go to own clinic most of the day, return to inpatients at end of day, few call shifts per month

Primarily outpatient - all day in clinic, few call shifts per month, hospitalist coverage of inpatients

Hospitalist - similar to academic CTU, usually in a group setting with rotating call

 

Each of these can be very different, and hours worked per week can vary. Some hospitals tend to be lighter than others as well. Call shifts can often be given away to recent grads doing locums. Basically, there is the opportunity in GIM to make of it what you want.

 

Heme is a bit different: there are very few community hematologists. Non-malignant heme is mainly dealt with by the internists, and malignant heme or more specialized diseases are referred on to tertiary care centres, usually academic. Most of the work is outpatient. Call tends to be light, covered by residents/fellows. Hours worked depends on how busy the clinics and academic pursuits are.