The Surgeon's Lifestyle

What is the problem with a surgeon's lifestyle? The most obvious issue is that as a surgeon you are basically on call 24 hours / day unless you have partners and you share the call responsibilities. Usually the call schedule in groups like these are something like every 3 - 4 days the surgeon is on call and the other days are covered by the other surgeons in the group. These call days can be and often are hellish. Basically the surgeon ends up working 24 hours on those days because he/she will invariably get calls several times through the evening. 

The other issue is that the regular work days are fairly long and dictated by surgeries that always run longer than planned. You can't say, well it is 5:00 pm so I am going home when you are in the middle of a surgery. The average work week for surgeons runs between 60 hours to 80 hours depending on the type of practice. It is generally accepted in the field of surgery that work has to be the number 1 priority in a surgeon's life, not family, not hobbies and not religious commitments. Not all surgeons are this extreme but even the more mild surgeons are definitely more tied to their work than say a teacher, salesman or an engineer.

In all fields of medicine many hours are often required but for some reason surgery is notorious for the long hours and lifetime commitment. This is one of the major drawbacks to being a surgeon. These are some of the things I have to take into account as I try to decide what area of medicine I want to go into.