Doctors Should Work Normal Hours

My little girl has expressed interest in becoming a doctor and/or a Power Ranger. Prayerfully, she'll definitively decide to become a doctor. My disinterested* teen son, who was fairly recently invited to join a prestigious STEM program at East High School in Memphis, was placed in a health science vo tech program at his current school due to his strength in math and science...

*My son is not too thrilled with the idea of spending eight years in college. He is rather interested in a bachelors degree in Computer Science.

I have personally fiddled with the idea of becoming a doctor myself. I recalled, however, how I, for several years, worked as much as a doctor (for a four-year period, I actually worked two full-time jobs - second shift and overnight - and averaged about ten hours overtime at each job, which meant that I was working on average about 40 hours more per week than the average doctor juxtapose attending college)...

I essentially did not have a life, even when I'd gotten down to the one job where I was still working considerable overtime whenever co-workers called off and/or whenever I was required to stay over as an acting lead when employees from the shift succeeding my own decided to call off work, if I could not secure coverage.

The more I thought about how I'd lacked a quality of life spending most of my waking hours working so much, the more I steered away, though never completely discarding the idea of becoming a doctor or licensed holistic practitioner, and/or medical researcher/writer.

...When you think of it, there is no earthly reason why any doctor shouldn’t be able to work a normal 40 hours per week, like any other professional. Doctors enjoy comfortable salaries that actually avail them the privilege of not having to work extensive hours to make ends meet. Moreover, they have relief with whom they should equally divide a 24-hour day if they work in a hospital...

Those with private practices can too work normal hours and allow nurse practitioners who they might have on staff to resume the duties of medical provider once they have put in their daily time. If a doctor works overtime and/or on-call, it should be because they want to, not because it is required.

Doctors, like everyone else, should have a work-life balance. They, like everyone else, need proper rest for optimal health and professional performance. In acquiring it, they set the good examples that they preach.