Specialties And Vacation Time

[Let'sGo1990]

I like to travel for extended periods of time, and I'd like to do so while I'm young. I'm wondering which specialties are flexible enough to allow you to take 2-3 months in a row off a time (post residency).

 

Thanks.

[Edict]

I like to travel for extended periods of time, and I'd like to do so while I'm young. I'm wondering which specialties are flexible enough to allow you to take 2-3 months in a row off a time (post residency).

 

Thanks.

 

Family Medicine or Psych I believe. In general if you aren't interested in pursuing an academic career you should be fine with a lot of specialties, it'll probably be much easier in specialties that are hiring, it lets you dictate your own hours more.

 

I'm not too sure on these but perhaps Peds, Gen IM, some IM subspecialties that are mostly clinic focused (Endocrine, Rheum, Allergy and Immunology), Physiatry, Public Health, Derm etc. 

 

I would avoid anything surgical just because the job market is intense, you will probably be in residency into your early 30s and it won't be easy to find a job where they will let you take time off if they can easily find someone else who is willing to work full time.

[Bambi]

I wouldn't have a clue, but you certainly would not want to have an office and staff where you will have continuously running expenses and responsibilities while you are on a walkabout somewhere. It is far more efficent and practical to take many 1 or 2 week vacations throughout the year while your cashflow continues and there is no dislocation to your patients. The so-called extra cost of travel would be offset by having a financially sound and sustainable practice. I know specialists in different fields who regularly take off a week every 6 weeks or so to go golfing, on a crusie, skiing, etc and they get the best of both worlds.

[ralk]

EM, Rads, maybe Path.

 

As Bambi says, anything with an office and staff - really anything with regular clinics - isn't really an option because you need to be present often enough to see your patients. Going away for more than 2 weeks in a row likely means getting coverage which could be difficult to obtain and/or extremely expensive, not to mention being extremely troublesome for your patients. The three specialties I listed have zero continuity of care and have enough people working at a single center that there's plenty of cross-coverage. They'd be the best bets to having longer vacations, though you might need to establish yourself a bit before jetting off for extended periods of time.

 

Edict makes a good point that specialties with difficult job markets aren't going to give you much flexibility post-residency - you might get time off, I just wouldn't call it vacation. In that sense, Rads and Path, with their tightening job markets, might not be the best option, though EM is still reasonably open. Yet, the specialties listed by Edict - which do have good job markets - might not be the best options in the long run because of the reasons Bambi mentioned. Where they might fit is if you're only interested in long blocks of travel when starting out. Especially in FM, some new grads do serial locums when starting out, taking the time off between locums to travel. It's a bit of a hectic lifestyle, but if you're not interested in settling down in one spot, it's a good option. In the longer run, you might have to give up the chaos of always finding a new job for the stability of something more permanent, but I guess that's kind of what growing up is about

[Let'sGo1990]

Thanks everyone. Makes sense. I'm weighing my academic/medical interests up against my lifestyle interests at this point.

 

What about anasthesia? 

[GrouchoMarx]

path is becoming more and more controlled by hospital admin. as salaried employees, vacation time must be approved by administrators which really limits freedom. some places on the east coast are offering four weeks a year, which is well below what is possible in all other specialties. think of it as being still in residency.

[Edict]

EM, Rads, maybe Path.

 

As Bambi says, anything with an office and staff - really anything with regular clinics - isn't really an option because you need to be present often enough to see your patients. Going away for more than 2 weeks in a row likely means getting coverage which could be difficult to obtain and/or extremely expensive, not to mention being extremely troublesome for your patients. The three specialties I listed have zero continuity of care and have enough people working at a single center that there's plenty of cross-coverage. They'd be the best bets to having longer vacations, though you might need to establish yourself a bit before jetting off for extended periods of time.

 

Edict makes a good point that specialties with difficult job markets aren't going to give you much flexibility post-residency - you might get time off, I just wouldn't call it vacation. In that sense, Rads and Path, with their tightening job markets, might not be the best option, though EM is still reasonably open. Yet, the specialties listed by Edict - which do have good job markets - might not be the best options in the long run because of the reasons Bambi mentioned. Where they might fit is if you're only interested in long blocks of travel when starting out. Especially in FM, some new grads do serial locums when starting out, taking the time off between locums to travel. It's a bit of a hectic lifestyle, but if you're not interested in settling down in one spot, it's a good option. In the longer run, you might have to give up the chaos of always finding a new job for the stability of something more permanent, but I guess that's kind of what growing up is about

 

This guy knows more than me. 

[ralk]

Thanks everyone. Makes sense. I'm weighing my academic/medical interests up against my lifestyle interests at this point.

 

What about anasthesia? 

 

I'm not super familiar with anesthesia, so I can't say for sure, but I can see that working for some practice set-ups. The job market is not necessarily the greatest at the moment though (not terrible, just not great), so that might work against you.

 

path is becoming more and more controlled by hospital admin. as salaried employees, vacation time must be approved by administrators which really limits freedom. some places on the east coast are offering four weeks a year, which is well below what is possible in all other specialties. think of it as being still in residency.

 

Yeah, I've heard that's becoming more the case. Path is like a more typical hospital job. I'd hope that'd lead to more vacation time eventually (I worked with plenty of hospital employees who had 6+ weeks vacation after decades on the job), but yeah, even if that was the case, it's tough to get extended time off as a hospital employee.

 

This guy knows more than me. 

 

Ha, definitely not the case! Just had an FM resident explain their post-residency approach to me with the whole locum thing

[mononoke]

Thanks everyone. Makes sense. I'm weighing my academic/medical interests up against my lifestyle interests at this point.

 

What about anasthesia? 

With anesthesia, it's like family with the locuming, you can pick up a few locums and travel in between. Plus you work with a team of anesthesiologists so you can get someone to cover you which gives a bit of flexibility

[A-Stark]

You can do locums with most specialties such that you can essentially set your own schedule. If you want any kind of permanent job, though, you will be part of a call group and taking off more than 6-8 weeks (which is a very good amount of vacation and would not be atypical for physicians) is not really feasible. It would depend on the size of the group. 

[W0lfgang]

rads, especially if you can do teleradiology.

[rmorelan]

rads, especially if you can do teleradiology.

Sure or just go locum mode for a few years with gaps between the locums. The locums alone let you bounce around and see more things

[Let'sGo1990]

rads, especially if you can do teleradiology.

 

Sure or just go locum mode for a few years with gaps between the locums. The locums alone let you bounce around and see more things

 

This is interesting. So you could live overseas and work for a Canadian centre?

 

Could you elaborate?

[rmorelan]

This is interesting. So you could live overseas and work for a Canadian centre?

 

Could you elaborate?

 

no for may places like in ontario - in order to protect our turf we have rules that block out of province people (physically that is out of province) from billing for studies done in the province. Now that doesn't apply in many other areas (like the US for instance) and many of us are duel licensed for both countries.

 

However many people do radiology locums (classic would be to allow someone else a long vacation or parental leave etc). So you can do things like work at place A for six months, and then start another locum 2 months after the first locuum ended at place B.

 

As I as trying to say ha the locums themselves can be a part of the travel - 6 months in TO, then 2 month off say in Europe, followed by 6 months in vancouver then some more time off then off to Montreal for 4 months...........etc, etc. Can do the same thing in the US - and bounce around. I have friends that have done that for a bit - you can travel for A LONG time on just 6 months of radiology work and locums are out there.

 

In some ways that is tempting for a person a bit like a normad (in many ways I kind of am - not particularly attached to "things" so I have a small enough foot print that moving is pretty easy - considering how much I have moved around in my past I think is a habit I have learned). You can really hit the highlights of each place you move to.

 

"Save tonight and fight the break of dawn

Come tomorrow - tomorrow I'll be gone"

[F508]

does anyone know how feasible 6-8 weeks of vacation would be in neonatology and otolaryngology?