“The same way that you cannot run a project from the road, it’s also pretty hard to run a household from remote, and that puts a burden on your spouse,” he says. “That leaky faucet that might have been a small fix-it project? Now my wife has to find a plumber to come fix it. Do-it-yourself home improvement projects? Fuhgeddaboudit.”
Dr. Kerley nearly missed the birth of his first grandchild the first week he had agreed to work in Alaska. However, his state license to practice was delayed, so he was there for the important event. “After that, I realized that I did need to be more intentional about dates and scheduling,” he says. “Since then, the scheduling has become more rhythmic.”
Good Career Move?
Super-commuting adds to the bank account, widens travel experiences, and sharpens clinical skills. But does it work for career advancement? Dotson believes that working with various types of teams in different settings helps hospitalists mature quickly.
Venturato thinks that accepting long-distance assignments will become even more necessary for career-building. “There’s still the aggravation of flying,” he admits. “But the jobs you get, the opportunities that you have, make it all worthwhile. If you limit yourself to not going to these interesting projects, you’re limiting your career.”
Dotson seconds that notion. “If people are willing to do the traveling, and they are good people, there are lots of opportunities for them,” he says.
Listen to Pisarski
The Life of an HM Traveler
From her ranch in North Platte, Neb., Susan Schuckert, MD, is almost equidistant between her two hospitalist jobs. One week a month, she drives 4 1/2 hours to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where she works for IMI Hospitalists. She bunks with friends, whom she’s known since she completed medical training there. Just recently, she began a locum tenens assignment in Scottsbluff, Neb.—a 3 1/2-hour drive to the opposite side of the state.
Dr. Schuckert is building a private practice in North Platte with a partner. She began working as a hospitalist to keep her skills current, and says she is realizing a professional net gain. Being a hospitalist, she says, “is fun. I enjoy getting to know the nurses, seeing different ways of doing things, and the variety.”
Other physicians in town have called the medical center when I’m on as a hospitalist, so it makes it possible for me to make sure that their patients get what they need.
—Susan Schuckert, MD, North Platte, Neb.
In addition to the stimulation and camaraderie of a large medical center, Dr. Schuckert has found that her patients back home in North Platte embrace the fact that she moonlights at Nebraska Medical Center. “If I have to send patients to Omaha, I personally know who I’m sending them to,” she says. “It also makes referrals smoother. Other physicians in town have called the medical center when I’m on as a hospitalist, so it makes it possible for me to make sure that their patients get what they need.”
There are times, of course, when she misses being at home. She recently was working in Omaha and missed the birth of a new colt. Not to worry: Her husband, who is “very supportive” of her super-commuting, texted her photos of little Rudy every day. So for the moment, the mixture of a home practice and working as a traveling hospitalist is a good one.
And the long drives? With a hands-free phone and books on CD, “It’s no big deal,” she says.
Gretchen Henkel is a freelance writer in Southern California.
References
- Pisarski, AE. Commuting in America III: The Third National Reporter on Commuting Patterns and Trends. 2006: Transportation Research Board of the National Academies; Washington, D.C.
- Sandow E. Till work do us part: The social fallacy of long-distance commuting [dissertation]. Available at: http://umu.diva-portal.org. Accessed June 22, 2011.