Attendings... were you absolutely smoked after residency?

[acidbase1]

The flogging has finally caught up to me. It freaks me out bc I'm about to graduate and have zero energy. Between working my ass off as a resident, research, studying for boards, and moonlighting to pay off the mountain of debt I have little in the tank left.

Now, I am trying to get motivated to hit the ground running as an attending and it's a little intimidating to say the least.

You guys catch your second wind after you transition to attendinghood?

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[anbuitachi]

uh its probably all about expectations vs reality. if you have zero energy, perhaps considering dropping research and moonlighting? i think it is what you make of it. sure the required hours for an attending is a bit less than residents and there is a bit of flexibility since you try to look for the job you want, but if you are going into it expecting to do 40 hrs of research a week on top of working full time in the ORs and moonlighting every night you'll probably be as tired..

 

[aneftp]

Take at least 2 weeks off after residency. No need to rush back to make the big bucks.

It's a long race in ur career.

 

[sleepallday]

I work around the same if not more now as an attending then I did as a resident. Of course, there's not much studying anymore.

...and i get paid a little better too so that helps

 

[Psai]

I work around the same if not more now as an attending then I did as a resident. Of course, there's not much studying anymore.

...and i get paid a little better too so that helps

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[Hoya11]

The flogging has finally caught up to me. It freaks me out bc I'm about to graduate and have zero energy. Between working my ass off as a resident, research, studying for boards, and moonlighting to pay off the mountain of debt I have little in the tank left.

Now, I am trying to get motivated to hit the ground running as an attending and it's a little intimidating to say the least.

You guys catch your second wind after you transition to attendinghood?

I remember being absolutely exhausted and fed up on my last day, probably the stress of moving and everything... as an attending I had to turn the intensity DOWN significantly...

You go from sitting the stool in major academic setting (lots of zebras and crazy stuff) to bread and butter and most likely supervising in the community (plenty of time for coffee/errands on the computer)... I realize now that looking back when I started I was way too intense and came off like kind of a hard-ass...

 

[Man o War]

Yep. I really wanted to do a cardiac fellowship but didn't because I was so fried. The fellowships weren't as good back then either, much more informal and less echo. Did it to myself by moonlighting during residency, that was stupid in hindsight.
Went back and did the fellowship 10 years later which was very disruptive but I got so much more out of it than I would've back then.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

You go from sitting the stool in major academic setting (lots of zebras and crazy stuff) to bread and butter and most likely supervising in the community (plenty of time for coffee/errands on the computer)... I realize now that looking back when I started I was way too intense and came off like kind of a hard-ass...

I work in a community hospital with plenty of "bread and butter" cases - except the patients are sick and complicated. I don't have a lot of time for coffee and computer stuff.

 

[Noyac]

I just finished a mountainbike race with a bunch of my partners and two of us were hanging out just shooting the **** when we started talking about our residency experience. He went to Stanford and I went to UNM. We both had very similar experiences and remembered our residency time fondly.

So to answer your question OP, no. I was not absolutely smoked. Sure, I had days were I couldn't wait for the day to end but I don't recall ever feeling completely over it.

But for me, things were a bit different. I didn't go straight into med school and then residency. I was on an athletic scholarship and I was accustomed to working my ass off. I don't mean to say that others are not ready to work hard but for me this was an advantage. Everyone is different.

 

[Noyac]

Stop moonlighting.

 

[pjl]

Taking a month off will never be easier to schedule than between jobs. Highly recommend it. Restored my mental balance and helped with relationships.


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[nimbus]

I didn't do any research or moonlight and only studied at work so I wasn't burnt out.

 

[Timeoutofmind]

Stop moonlighting.

Yup.

Terrible choice. Esp if u r feeling this way.

U will make big bucks for many years if u make it through in one piece. Don't kill yourself over nickels and dimes right now.

 

[Dam272]

On an average how many weeks of vacation do we get at an academic location? vs pp? per year

 

[pjl]

I get 10 baseline, and can buy or sell from there. I have done both, this year will be at 11, next year ~16 or equivalent is my plan. You just make a chunk less if you work less at my group.

If I work less than 26 weeks, I stop getting full time benefits, and stop being a partner.

6 seems standard for AMCs, 6-18 is seen commonly in PP.



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[psychbender]

Most of the academic practices I spoke to last year were offering 4 weeks vacation and 2 weeks CME. Some also had arrangements where if you took extra calls, weekends, holidays, subspecialty call, etc, you could be compensated with extra time off.

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[Dam272]

Most of the academic practices I spoke to last year were offering 4 weeks vacation and 2 weeks CME. Some also had arrangements where if you took extra calls, weekends, holidays, subspecialty call, etc, you could be compensated with extra time off.

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Just 4 weeks sounds awfully less. In academic places is it possible to request more weeks off at the time of IV with reduced annual remuneration?

 

[Dam272]

I get 10 baseline, and can buy or sell from there. I have done both, this year will be at 11, next year ~16 or equivalent is my plan. You just make a chunk less if you work less at my group.

If I work less than 26 weeks, I stop getting full time benefits, and stop being a partner.

6 seems standard for AMCs, 6-18 is seen commonly in PP.



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So why would one choose academic over PP?

 

[deleted59964]

Attendings... were you absolutely smoked after residency?

nope i was ... smokin!

 

[epidural man]

The flogging has finally caught up to me. It freaks me out bc I'm about to graduate and have zero energy. Between working my ass off as a resident, research, studying for boards, and moonlighting to pay off the mountain of debt I have little in the tank left.

Now, I am trying to get motivated to hit the ground running as an attending and it's a little intimidating to say the least.

You guys catch your second wind after you transition to attendinghood?

OH my gosh -

Don't worry at all! You will do just fine.

When I started my fellowship (Pain), about 2 months in - I one day all-of-a-sudden thought to myself. "Holy crap! I am not so tired during the day anymore. I have much more energy!"

It is hard to realize this, but staying up every 4th to 5th night all night long for 3 years getting little to no sleep does a HUGE number on your fatigue. As a fellow and attending, I slept every night, slept every weekend and went to bed at a reasonable hour. It makes so much of a difference. Its incredible really...the toll missing sleep does.

 

[AdmiralChz]

The flogging has finally caught up to me. It freaks me out bc I'm about to graduate and have zero energy. Between working my ass off as a resident, research, studying for boards, and moonlighting to pay off the mountain of debt I have little in the tank left.

Now, I am trying to get motivated to hit the ground running as an attending and it's a little intimidating to say the least.

You guys catch your second wind after you transition to attendinghood?

I totally feel you! I'm 39 days from being done with residency and am totally over all the internal BS at the hospital. Tired of being a total b**ch for the hospital and getting flogged on the weekends in the name of keeping the operating rooms running. Subjectively I think I'm handling it somewhat better than some of my peers who have become downright nasty and angry in casual conversation - they are simply burned out. I don't really complain too much because I look over at my colleagues on the surgical side and they get absolutely annihilated on a regular basis with longer training programs. They feel the pressure to keep things moving even more than we do.

I'm excited and nervous for fellowship as I'm moving cities with a new family, have to learn a new hospital and system. But ready for the challenge and new knowledge it will bring. I start right away, but plan to take 6-8 weeks of vacation afterwards to move and reset before starting my big job. Will take the wife somewhere nice for 10 days. I encourage all graduates to do this, especially if you have families - no doubt it's been a sacrifice at least in terms of time for you so take some time and show they how important they are in your life.

 

[G-Man82]

I'm in academics. In addition to vacation and CME, we also have admin/non-clinical time and post-call time. For instance, I get 21 vacation days, 5 CME days. I also get 40 admin days, and 30 post-call days based on my icu schedule. Weekends are automatically off on either side of a 5-day block. That's nearly 20 weeks where I'm technically not in the OR. Post-call time is mine while I'm expected to use my admin time somewhat productively.

Academics not sounding as bad now, is it?


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[acidbase1]

I totally feel you! I'm 39 days from being done with residency and am totally over all the internal BS at the hospital. Tired of being a total b**ch for the hospital and getting flogged on the weekends in the name of keeping the operating rooms running. Subjectively I think I'm handling it somewhat better than some of my peers who have become downright nasty and angry in casual conversation - they are simply burned out. I don't really complain too much because I look over at my colleagues on the surgical side and they get absolutely annihilated on a regular basis with longer training programs. They feel the pressure to keep things moving even more than we do.

I'm excited and nervous for fellowship as I'm moving cities with a new family, have to learn a new hospital and system. But ready for the challenge and new knowledge it will bring. I start right away, but plan to take 6-8 weeks of vacation afterwards to move and reset before starting my big job. Will take the wife somewhere nice for 10 days. I encourage all graduates to do this, especially if you have families - no doubt it's been a sacrifice at least in terms of time for you so take some time and show they how important they are in your life.

Thank goodness someone else feels my pain ha ha I was worried there for a second.

I'm taking a little time off before starting, but most of it will be spent cramming for boards unfortunately then my start date is the following week. I'll have to take a vacation down the road I guess

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

PS... how much were you guys making moonlighting and was the extra $$$ worth it?