Yet you are open-minded about sensible change now. For example, many say you’re open to emerging practice models, like cash-only or retainer-based practices, if it made economic sense.
Yet fewer than one in four said they’d be willing or able to trade a percentage of income for a commensurate amount of additional personal time.
Psychiatrist Lesley Schroeder of Sacramento, Calif., is part of that minority. She works part time in a private practice where she doesn’t take insurance, and instead accepts fees for consultations. That choice may have cost her income but earned her peace of mind, and she’s glad she made it. “I found a niche and a balance,” she says. “I purposely chose early on not to … work like a nut.”
Home for dinner … sometimes
Ah, that elusive work-life balance: such a challenge for all Americans to achieve, and perhaps more so for physicians. A solid 66 percent of you tell us you don’t have as much time for your personal life as you think you should. Surprised? Neither were we.
Only 44 percent said they spend more than 10 waking hours with family and loved ones during the work week, and a surprising 23 percent see them for fewer than six hours during the work week. Total. Enter the mountains of paperwork and constant call.
Still, nearly three out of four physicians are getting home for dinner at least a few nights a week — about a third just about every night. Only 10 percent “hardly ever” do.
Sudja Purohit, an internist in Rochester, Mich., chose her specialty knowing she wouldn’t have to be on call 24-7 and potentially miss spending time with her two children. In fact, she managed to still be a hands on mom to her son and daughter, who are now grown. Every day, she packed their lunch bags, and she made sure to attend every music recital and sports event, she says. “If you want to do something, you can always find time,” she says, adding that she even cooked dinners — from scratch! — a couple times a week.
For many, nabbing that family time is a matter of juggling hours a bit. Montgomery, who is based in Orangeburg, S.C., may work 60 hours a week, but he’s awake early to cook breakfast for his 4-year-old daughter each morning before heading to the office, and does his best to be home before she’s in bed. Some nights, he goes back to the office after tucking his two small children in bed. “I do family time when they are awake, and then go back and do paperwork and dictation,” he says.
What about the ever-elusive “me time” say, for exercise? Physicians overwhelmingly say they know they should “maintain an appearance of physical health” as a professional responsibility, yet many struggle to squeeze in the time to work out. A third of you said you don’t get much physical activity at all, and another 30 percent exercise three days a week, about the minimum required for health maintenance, according to most experts. Many physicians say they squeeze in the physical exercise when they can — often in the wee hours. Obstetrician Julie Snow in Evanston, Ill., is an Iron Man triathlete — oh, and also a mother to two small children — so she’s up “really early in the morning” to train. Rodriquez is also out of the house most days by 5:30 a.m. for a gym session.
In other ways, you seem to be doing a pretty good job taking care of yourselves, given your reputation for neglecting your own bodies. Most respondents (64 percent) have a regular primary-care physician and get regular checkups. And most of you report feeling pretty good, if not a bit stressed and tired. All of this isn’t to say the picture is all “Leave It to Beaver.” In fact, there were quite a few less-enthused answers in our survey. Here’s one example of a response to a question about what you’d like to say to the general public about the life and work of a modern physician: “We work hard all the time. We’re under a great deal of stress, emotionally, physically, financially. We don’t make money the way you perceive. All of our work gets discounted and physicians are often the last to get paid by their patients after the cable bill. There is a general lack of respect for our knowledge, for the time we put into our education. Things need to change.”
