Can a doctor work 40-50 hours per week due to medical reasons?

Anthony16

Hi there,
I had been studying dentistry but had to leave due to medical reasons(an eye condition).The profs advised that the eye focus required in dent would be too much for my eyes in the long run.May i ask,if i managed to get into medicine through a medical degree and got a job here or in the uk could i work less hours if i have a medical cert explaining my problem?Is it possible to be a doctor with a disability?I dont think id be able for 80 hours a week,though i dont know if my problem will improve.
thanks for your help

Ihaveanopinion

Working as a doctor with a disability is not a problem - you just have to pick your posts a little more carefully. I know of a number of doctors various disabilities who are quite successful. Not all training posts are the same and the training is different depending on what area decide to go into.

Besides - according to the EWTD, you're not meant to work more than 48hours anyway!

Rodin

DO you think you could put in a cannula, take bloods, put in a urinary catheter or do an ABG with your vision?

Anthony16

Rodin wrote: »

DO you think you could put in a cannula, take bloods, put in a urinary catheter or do an ABG with your vision?

Well,i have 20/20 vision so thats not the problem.Its the sustained period of eye strain such as reading,watching tv,computer etc for long periods thats the issue.Working and interacting with people in a hospital setting would prob be best as opposed to gp work(lots of forms,computer all day etc).
Would i be discriminated against if mentioned in interview?

Rodin

Anthony16 wrote: »

Well,i have 20/20 vision so thats not the problem.Its the sustained period of eye strain such as reading,watching tv,computer etc for long periods thats the issue.Working and interacting with people in a hospital setting would prob be best as opposed to gp work(lots of forms,computer all day etc).
Would i be discriminated against if mentioned in interview?

Everyone's eyes get tired after a day of concentrating.
What's the disability if I may ask?

jmn89

Funny, from what relatively little I've seen there's *much* more paperwork in hospital medicine than in GP! I'm a final year student now and we're being told constantly that internship is largely about paperwork and that things don't change much after that.

Rodin

Intern year is mostly a 'go-fer' role

opinion guy

Short answer is yes.
Long answer is maybe.

Firstly - in theory docs should only be working 48hours anyhow. This doesn't happen.
Secondly - yes you can work limited hours in a week if you have a good enough reason. Phillipe Contepomi for example did a 2 year internship workign part time each year (as far as I know). After that you can choose low hour options, you can choose to locum and dictate your own hours, you can choose to go abroad to UK, NZ or Aus where they have strict limits on hours anyhow. You can even choose the US where they have more strict hour limits than here in some places thou by no means all places.

But the question is really should you ? Do you really want to do med ? I remember your earlier posts about dentistry and your eye problem. Ok if you do med you will have to do tonnes of reading during college. Can you do that much reading ? Past that - I wonder do you really want medicine , or do you just have 500million points you feel you need to 'spend' on something like medicine or dentistry. Just cause you have so many point does not mean you have to do the highest point courses.

I guess the question here really is not can you do medicine - instead it is - do you actually want to do medicine ?

Anthony16

Rodin wrote: »

Everyone's eyes get tired after a day of concentrating.
What's the disability if I may ask?

Severe Ocular rosacea/mgd/blepharitis

Rodin

Anthony16 wrote: »

Severe Ocular rosacea/mgd/blepharitis

And why does that get worse the more you work?

Anthony16

This is a very good post.
I probably dont have a vocation for it but i am just trying to investigate other career options like pharmacy,physio,med etc.
I know getting through college will be tough but there are tools out there which will read the info to u so thats someting im going to invest in.
Thanks for your advice

opinion guy wrote: »

Short answer is yes.
Long answer is maybe.

Firstly - in theory docs should only be working 48hours anyhow. This doesn't happen.
Secondly - yes you can work limited hours in a week if you have a good enough reason. Phillipe Contepomi for example did a 2 year internship workign part time each year (as far as I know). After that you can choose low hour options, you can choose to locum and dictate your own hours, you can choose to go abroad to UK, NZ or Aus where they have strict limits on hours anyhow. You can even choose the US where they have more strict hour limits than here in some places thou by no means all places.

But the question is really should you ? Do you really want to do med ? I remember your earlier posts about dentistry and your eye problem. Ok if you do med you will have to do tonnes of reading during college. Can you do that much reading ? Past that - I wonder do you really want medicine , or do you just have 500million points you feel you need to 'spend' on something like medicine or dentistry. Just cause you have so many point does not mean you have to do the highest point courses.

I guess the question here really is not can you do medicine - instead it is - do you actually want to do medicine ?

opinion guy

Anthony16 wrote: »

I know getting through college will be tough but there are tools out there which will read the info to u so thats someting im going to invest in.

A very good point I had not thought of that at all. Of course everything is available in podcast version etc these days.

Good luck whatever you decide!

Anthony16

Rodin wrote: »

And why does that get worse the more you work?

With blepharitis,the eyelids are chronically inflamed.This in turn causes the oil glands in my eyes to become clogged.As a result there is no oil to stabilise my tears and so,they dont lubricate the eye as they evaporate very quickly.
When you blink,oil is released from these glands.By reading,computer work,tv (concentrating in general)ones blink rate is reduced from 21 blinks per minute to 7. For a person with normal eyes this is no problem but for someone with unhealthy eyes like mine this is a big problem.
Also,i have the added problem of ocular rosacea.

Rodin

I don't think your colleagues would be too happy if you weren't doing the same hours as them because of blepharitis

What treatments have you used/do you use?

In fact, on call, there'd be very little paper work, computer time, so you could 'recover'.
And as an intern, you never spend loing doing intense concentraion on one thing. It's more running from one place to another juggling many things at speed

Anthony16

Rodin wrote: »

I don't think your colleagues would be too happy if you weren't doing the same hours as them because of blepharitis

What treatments have you used/do you use?

In fact, on call, there'd be very little paper work, computer time, so you could 'recover'.
And as an intern, you never spend loing doing intense concentraion on one thing. It's more running from one place to another juggling many things at speed

This would be ideal.
I have tried most things but will continue to try and one day find relief.
May i ask what the tasks are when on call?Iv done a first aid course and the CPR part def took my mind off my eyes.
Thanks