Rural Doc talks about the physical toll her body takes from being a hospitalist:
Over the last few years I have come to realize that the physical toll of doctoring will eventually limit my participation in clinical medicine. I just can’t believe I’ll be able to do long stretches of hospitalist shifts in ten years, and I’m almost certain I won’t want to be catching babies if it means the general stiffening up of my cervical spine the day after a particularly grueling second stage.
I primarily work in an office during the day, so I can’t speak to the rigor of doing 12-hour hospitalist shifts.
However, as most programs are similar to an inpatient rotation during residency, I can see how that can get old real fast. Will the hospitalist boom lead to faster physician burnout?
How are other shift-based doctors, emergency physicians for instance, faring as far as the physical toll of the job?
Related posts:
- Should you choose internal medicine or family practice?
- Work-life balance
- The micromanaging attending
- Hospitalists assimilate inpatient medicine, is resistance futile?
- Are hospitalists financially viable?
- Should hospitalists control hospital beds?
- Hospitalist layoffs
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