A doctor's working hours? ?

Question

i know that if you work in a hospital as a doctor, you have to work long hours each day, like 8am-10pm, sometimes at least. but doctors who are general practitioners doing family practice, since it's like opening their own business, can they choose the amount of work they do? or do they still must work maybe 50 hours per week? thanks.

Answer 1

Medical school graduates, called "residents," are still in training.  They are employed by hospitals, and they work LONG hours.  Eighty hours a week is normal.

Once you finish your residency and go into private practice, you either join an established practice and work the hours they set for you, or you start your own practice and determine your own hours.  Remember that if you have patients in the hospital, you have to go to the hospital at least once a day to check on their progress.  Your office hours can be whatever you set, but that doesn't mean those are the only hours you'll work.  Emergencies crop up daily, patients get sick and need to be worked into your already-full schedule, someone who had a 2:00 appointment walks in the door at 4:45.  Family practitioners don't work Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.  Most of them start with hospital rounds at 6:30 or 7:00 am, are in the office from 8 until 5, may finish their last patient anywhere from 5 to 7.  And might still need to go back to the hospital.  And some practices (bless them!) still have Saturday hours, so you may not have patients one afternoon a week in exchange for being in the office on Saturday.

It isn't an easy life and the hours are long.  There's no question of that.  But if medicine is what you love, then do it.  If you don't love it enough to give your patients the hours they need, go be a banker.  They work 8:30 to 5, Monday through Friday, with all major holidays off.

Answer 2

A doctor with a private practice can work whatever hours they want. It depends on how much business they have and how much money they want to make.  

Answer 3

If you want to be a doctor, you should do it for the right reasons, not for the hours because any doctors hours pretty much suck.  Do it for the care of people.

Answer 4

Family physicians in the past routinely had both office and hospital practice. The US seems to be in a shift towards the British system, with hospitalizations being referred to hospitalists, but even still, with office-only practices, many still work 50 hours a week and more. Overhead expenses tend to run $100k +, and that income has to be made before the doctor gets a red cent to keep for himself, so there's an incentive to work that long.