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Emma
Student
Elk River, Minnesota
3
Questions
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How flexible are the hours for an anesthesiologist?
#freetime #ihavealifeotherthanwork #anesthesiologist #healthcare
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5 answers
Dr suhail ahmed
Medical officer
1
Answer
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Dr suhail’s Answer
Flexibility is not a thing we are looking for in our medical field you must be ready to work for the patient go a mile extra to take care for the patient. There are working hours and shifts allotted to anaesthetist but his main role during an OT is to make sure there is a good sedation and patient is out of sedation as well in a specified time. Sometimes there are challenges you have to intubate. Your best friend should be the surgeon that will make your work go smoothly and in coordination which is very much required. you have a role and lot of responsibility as a anaesthetist as you are the person who decides that the person would undergo a surgery or not. You could refuse a case on the pre anaesthetic check up . And believe me there would be many a times challenges to decide whether the patient can be handled . I will end with this“ anaesthetist is someone who plays with the brain at different levels ”
Hi Dr. Ahmed! Wow, this is really interesting and I did not know that anesthesiologists had the power to refuse / allow surgeries to be performed. Could you clarify your first sentence about flexibility and talk a bit about your work-life balance? I think this Student is concerned about being able to focus on things outside of work, like family or hobbies.
Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
I clarify that any doctor would work on shifts but as a anesthesiologist you have to be in operation theatre most of the times . You can take care of the things post duty but on duty it is difficult to manage personal lives as you will be in an operation theatre .
Dr suhail ahmed
I see! Thanks so much for the extra info, Dr. Ahmed!
Alexandra Carpenter, Admin
Scott R. Evans
Healthcare Consultant
2
Answers
Palatine, Illinois
Updated
Scott R.’s Answer
Hi!
Apologies for the very late response (just set up my account!), but I used to manage a team of 20+ Anesthesiologists and made their schedules so I feel I have a very unique perspective on this question.
There are a lot of ways schedules for Anesthesiologists are set up, but they are all generally based on some sort of shift count methodology per month. In our hospital, they needed to meet a certain number of "points" per month where each shift type was worth a different amount of points depending on how desirable that shift type was. A day shift could be worth 1 "point" while a weekend shift may be worth 2.5 because no one wants to work that shift. This incentivizes people to take those types of shifts so they have more time off. A full-time anesthesiologist on my team had to generate ~18 points per month and when making the schedule, the burden of nights and weekends was shared across the team equally so no single person got stuck with all the undesirable shifts or holidays, etc. To add to this, the week day day shifts have a rotating roster where some people would stay later (~5pm-7pm) than others to accommodate late or unexpected surgeries. This is another thing that was closely tracked so no one person was always staying later than the others.
As far as flexibility in the hours, you are often at the mercy of what comes through the doors. We started at 7am every weekday and had a rotating roster so some people would be getting off work at 1PM and it would cascade as ORs closed. So whenever the next OR closed the next person on the roster was relieved and could go home. On the flip side, it wasn't uncommon for people to have to stay late to accommodate an unexpected emergency surgery that the night team didn't have the staff for and then have to be back in the OR at 7am the next morning. The shifts are definitely rigorous at times, but I felt that given the flexibility with time off it gave people enough time to recharge their batteries and live their lives without burning out.
Hope that helps give some additional insight and happy to keep the conversation going.
Apologies for the very late response (just set up my account!), but I used to manage a team of 20+ Anesthesiologists and made their schedules so I feel I have a very unique perspective on this question.
There are a lot of ways schedules for Anesthesiologists are set up, but they are all generally based on some sort of shift count methodology per month. In our hospital, they needed to meet a certain number of "points" per month where each shift type was worth a different amount of points depending on how desirable that shift type was. A day shift could be worth 1 "point" while a weekend shift may be worth 2.5 because no one wants to work that shift. This incentivizes people to take those types of shifts so they have more time off. A full-time anesthesiologist on my team had to generate ~18 points per month and when making the schedule, the burden of nights and weekends was shared across the team equally so no single person got stuck with all the undesirable shifts or holidays, etc. To add to this, the week day day shifts have a rotating roster where some people would stay later (~5pm-7pm) than others to accommodate late or unexpected surgeries. This is another thing that was closely tracked so no one person was always staying later than the others.
As far as flexibility in the hours, you are often at the mercy of what comes through the doors. We started at 7am every weekday and had a rotating roster so some people would be getting off work at 1PM and it would cascade as ORs closed. So whenever the next OR closed the next person on the roster was relieved and could go home. On the flip side, it wasn't uncommon for people to have to stay late to accommodate an unexpected emergency surgery that the night team didn't have the staff for and then have to be back in the OR at 7am the next morning. The shifts are definitely rigorous at times, but I felt that given the flexibility with time off it gave people enough time to recharge their batteries and live their lives without burning out.
Hope that helps give some additional insight and happy to keep the conversation going.
Mercedes Schultz
Ob/Gyn physician
2
Answers
Richmond, Texas
Updated
Mercedes’s Answer
Hi, medicine now is definitely different than it was in the past, I would say that some of my Obgyn colleagues have a traditional schedule. The traditional schedule means you work most of the days in the office seeing patients with 1/2 a day or a full day dedicated to doing surgeries in the hospital and taking call at night for the hospital during the week and weekends (once a week and 1 weekend per month). I didn’t like the traditional schedule although I did do it for over 10 years. Ob/Gyn is a demanding field but it is possible to find a good work life balance nowadays. You can be part of a larger group and cover less weekends or days during the week. You can also be a hospitalist or laborists. They are usually contracted by a hospital or group and you have to work a certain number of shifts per month. You could work as little as 5-24 hour shifts per month and you are paid per hour. My particular job is a little unique in that I work 7 days on, 7 days off. When I’m working, I work days and nights for 7 days and then im off for 7 days. When I am there I am in clinic for 4 days, have 1 day of surgery and then cover the hospital during the weekend. I do full scope Ob and Gyn. I take call from home and not from the hospital. That is not a very common schedule and it took me a while to find it but it’s doable. My closest Obgyn friend is a hospitalist and she works a certain number of shifts per month but does have a lot of time off. When she is working she has to stay in the hospital for 24 hours at a time. I work in a rural area so it’s not very busy. I love my work schedule. With telehealth now, many physicians can work from home and not go into traditional offices especially if you are in a primary care field like internal medicine or family practice. Thanks for your question!
Mercedes Schultz
Ob/Gyn physician
2
Answers
Richmond, Texas
Updated
Mercedes’s Answer
Hi, medicine now is definitely different than it was in the past, I would say that some of my Obgyn colleagues have a traditional schedule. The traditional schedule means you work most of the days in the office seeing patients with 1/2 a day or a full day dedicated to doing surgeries in the hospital and taking call at night for the hospital during the week and weekends (once a week and 1 weekend per month). I didn’t like the traditional schedule although I did do it for over 10 years. Ob/Gyn is a demanding field but it is possible to find a good work life balance nowadays. You can be part of a larger group and cover less weekends or days during the week. You can also be a hospitalist or laborists. They are usually contracted by a hospital or group and you have to work a certain number of shifts per month. You could work as little as 5-24 hour shifts per month and you are paid per hour. My particular job is a little unique in that I work 7 days on, 7 days off. When I’m working, I work days and nights for 7 days and then im off for 7 days. When I am there I am in clinic for 4 days, have 1 day of surgery and then cover the hospital during the weekend. I do full scope Ob and Gyn. I take call from home and not from the hospital. That is not a very common schedule and it took me a while to find it but it’s doable. My closest Obgyn friend is a hospitalist and she works a certain number of shifts per month but does have a lot of time off. When she is working she has to stay in the hospital for 24 hours at a time. I work in a rural area so it’s not very busy. I love my work schedule. With telehealth now, many physicians can work from home and not go into traditional offices especially if you are in a primary care field like internal medicine or family practice. Thanks for your question!
Mercedes Schultz
Ob/Gyn physician
3
Answers
Richmond, Texas
Updated
Mercedes’s Answer
Anesthesiologists hours are very flexible. You can choose to work as much or as little as you want. I am not an Anesthesiologist but have a few colleagues that are and, as an Obgyn, I work directly with Anesthesiologists when doing surgery or when I have patients in labor that need an Epidural. I think the most important thing in choosing a field is to make sure you love it because work won’t feel like a job. Hope that answers your question!
Thank you, Mercedes!
Emma
Hi Mercedes! Thanks for this answer — I never really considered that OBGYNs also work with anesthesiologists (which seems sorta ‘duh’ to me now you mentioned Epidurals, haha!) Based on what you know from your colleagues, to what extent are the hours flexible? I assume that “as little as you want” must have a floor in order to receive benefits, be full-time, etc. Also, do your colleagues in OBGYN seem to have a good work-life balance?
Alexandra Carpenter, Admin