Are there any specialties with good lifestyles (for attendings) at top academic institutions?

[potatoTime]

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[Pinocytosis]

I'm not sure about other fields, but I will add radiology. A lot of research-oriented programs give residents "academic days". Some are more generous than others, but there is an institution in mind that gives a resident 0.5 days per week (or 1 full day every other week) to devote solely to doing scholarly things (education/reading, research, etc.).

Even if residents are not granted this, pursuing research starting your R2 year (PGY-3) becomes very feasible given the usually regimented schedule.

 

[Pinocytosis]

Wow that's really interesting, thanks. I should have also clarified in my question that I'm looking for fields where I could work that many hours as an attending/prof, not residency, but I still appreciate the info.

It is (somewhat) similar for attendings too. Admittedly, I am not too sure, but I would imagine a lot of research-oriented places would do the same for their attendings. My home program, for instance, gives radiation oncologists 1-2 days per week for academic days. What you are "allowed" to do is vague, so a lot of attendings spend this time to catch up on notes, work on their research (clinical and/or bench), or etc.

 

[aldol16]

Anesthesia. Emergency medicine. The latter tends to work in shifts and when you're out, you're out so you have time to do stuff. I know people who do weeks where they're on a whole lot and then weeks where they're just off so they can pursue other stuff. Hospitalist jobs can also be like that where you have multi-week blocks where you're just on and then you're off for some time.

 

[guytakingboards]

I think you could potentially get the particular attending lifestyle in any number of academic programs in several different specialties.

CAVEAT: your advisor likely came to that particular workload after decades of work where they:
-worked more than 60 hours a week
-worked weekends (whether in person or just returning all correspondences)
-spent a lot of effort building up their research efforts

Point being, it's #careergoals but don't expect that workload right out of training or likely anytime very early in your academic career.

 

[operaman]

That time balance doesn’t seem that far outside the norm. Most of my attendings in both residency and fellowship have had a similar kind of split. 4 days of clinical work and 0.5-1 day of admin/research time is pretty standard from what I’ve seen. People with grant funding or working to get it may have more of a 50:50 split.

There are definitely some jobs out there where their expectations don’t seem to align with reality. I’ve seen some where the combination of expected clinical growth in addition to the research expectations aren’t doable without significant at home time. I just elect not to take those jobs. Other people avoid them too. If you see a great position at a top program that’s sat open for a long time, this is probably what’s happening.

 

[flapjack3d]

PMR. Best lifestyle in academics I’ve seen. That’s a big reason why I’m going into this field