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How many hours a week do surgeons work?

I want to become a neurosurgeon, so approximately how many hours would I be working a day? #doctor #medicine #surgery

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Daniela’s Answer

Hello!


Neurosurgery is a particularly challenging surgical specialty. Our understanding of the brain and central nervous system is constantly changing and you’ll need to keep up to date with the very latest developments and research.


Your working day is going to be long – with early starts and late finishes all part of the job. Although surgery is your main responsibility, you will also be evaluating patients in outpatients’ clinics and emergency departments and attending ward rounds.


Even as a consultant you will have a high level of on call duties during evenings, nights and weekends. That’s the nature of neurosurgery – about half your work could be dealing with emergencies. You may perform several procedures a day – which can range from the straightforward to long and highly complex and long operations. Elective surgeries are sometimes cancelled due to emergencies so you’ll need to be very flexible.


Neurosurgeons work closely with other colleagues as part of a team and other hospital departments will also call upon your expertise.


Monitoring patients post-operatively is very important as complications can occur. For example following brain surgery patients may occasionally suffer blood clots or bleeding in the brain, seizures, stroke, coma or brain swelling.


You’ll also be dealing with your patients’ families to provide guidance and reassurance before and after surgery. This can at times be very emotionally demanding, particularly when things don’t go as planned.


Added to all this is your share of administrative work – including:


writing letters to GPs and patients
other paperwork
attending departmental and multidisciplinary meetings
undertaking research.
Neurosurgeons are usually based in large regional centres usually attached to teaching hospitals. Most of these are in or near major cities. There are 34 neurosurgical units in the UK.


The EU Working Time Directive limits the working week to 48 hours. It is also possible to work part-time once you are consultant, or to train on a less than full-time basis (conditions apply).


Source: https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/surgery/neurosurgery/working-life


Best!
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Rachel’s Answer

The hours that surgeons work are highly variable. During training, they work 80 hours a week as residents. After graduation, they have the ability to make their own schedule and determine how many hours a week they want to work. Surgeons do take a significant amount of call that requires them to be available for emergencies on nights and weekends.
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Richard’s Answer

80-100 in residency
40-60 in practice.

During medical school and residency, you won’t be in control of your own schedule which makes leisure time difficult to obtain. However, after training, you can be in more control and can choose what practice to join based on your needs. You can work less and have more spare time at the cost of making less money and possibly consulting on less interesting cases.
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