Younger generation of doctors has more debt, shorter hours and better work/life balance

Dr. Lawrence Robinson is vice dean for clinical affairs and graduate medical education at the UW School of Medicine, in Seattle.

It?s not just another speech about walking uphill to school ? both ways ? in the snow: New doctors do have it different from their older colleagues.

And they want different things, too.

Physicians just graduating from medical school or embarking on their residencies will have shorter hours, bigger debt and more work/life balance than doctors who finished school in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

?The only limit (in those days) was you could only work 168 hours per week, because that was all the hours there are in a week,? said Dr. Lawrence Robinson, vice dean for clinical affairs and graduate medical education at the UW School of Medicine. ?There was no limit ? in some cases people would work over 100 hours a week.?

New doctors have the stress of major loans, but they have more leverage for things like time off and regular hours because there is a smaller supply of doctors relative to demand, he said.

?The average medical student in the United States graduates with $150,000 worth of debt,? Robinson said. ?So they are worried about paying this all back by the end of their residency and when they go into practice.?

Medical schools and residencies aren?t producing enough physicians to meet the need, and with health insurance reform, more people will have access to care, further increasing the demand.

?The need for physicians is going up significantly in this country and in our region,? he said. ?The gap between how many physicians we think we?ll need and the number we think will really be available is widening over time.?

The changes started in the early 2000s, when new regulations placed a limit of 80 hours a week on residents' work schedules.

Valerie Bauman covers health care, nonprofits and the marijuana industry for the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_26/~3/HQjpbhp3NSc/younger-generation-of-doctors-has-more.html

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