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It’s at this time of the year that being a hospitalist is sweetest. No need to plan months in advance for one vacation during the summer months. With block schedules, there is plenty of time off to take multiple vacations or ‘staycations’, which are sometimes just as nice.
Prior to becoming a hospitalist, I was a primary care physician, seeing patients both in the office and the hospital. That grew very wearisome. It seemed like I never, ever, finished my work. Each new day met me with a stack of lab reports to follow up on and a list of callbacks to ensure my patients’ outstanding tests and procedures did not fall through the cracks. After 8 years of trying to "‘do it all," I leapt at the opportunity to practice purely inpatient medicine.
As an office-based doctor, the stress never ended. It seemed like I could never take enough vacations to reach a steady state of calm. Even when I wanted time off, a lot of planning went into taking even a simple trip home for a few days. As a rule, vacation time had to be requested several months in advance to insure you got your request in before too many others requested ‘your’ time off. If your request came too late, it was back to the drawing board to completely revamp your vacation plans, and often your family’s as well. And that irresistible deal on airline tickets would just have to go to some other lucky soul.
Juggling school schedules, a spouse’s schedule, and my own to try to find the perfect time that everyone can get away could turn what should be an exciting adventure into a veritable nightmare. Scheduled meetings, recitals, and ballgames added yet another layer of complexity onto already difficult task.
But then, I became a hospitalist.
There were no longer one or two possible vacation weeks each summer -- there were many! Four days here, six days there, vacation scheduling became easy and surprisingly pleasant. The cloud had lifted, and she sun came shining through. It was no longer a tedious chore to plan special time to spend with the family, it was an exciting pre-adventure that would set the stage for a much needed respite from the adrenaline-filled days of life on the wards.
Dr. A. Maria Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care. She wrote her first patient-empowerment book while still in medical school and later authored, "Your Family Medical Record: An Interactive Guide to Health and Self-Empowerment."
It’s at this time of the year that being a hospitalist is sweetest. No need to plan months in advance for one vacation during the summer months. With block schedules, there is plenty of time off to take multiple vacations or ‘staycations’, which are sometimes just as nice.
Prior to becoming a hospitalist, I was a primary care physician, seeing patients both in the office and the hospital. That grew very wearisome. It seemed like I never, ever, finished my work. Each new day met me with a stack of lab reports to follow up on and a list of callbacks to ensure my patients’ outstanding tests and procedures did not fall through the cracks. After 8 years of trying to "‘do it all," I leapt at the opportunity to practice purely inpatient medicine.
As an office-based doctor, the stress never ended. It seemed like I could never take enough vacations to reach a steady state of calm. Even when I wanted time off, a lot of planning went into taking even a simple trip home for a few days. As a rule, vacation time had to be requested several months in advance to insure you got your request in before too many others requested ‘your’ time off. If your request came too late, it was back to the drawing board to completely revamp your vacation plans, and often your family’s as well. And that irresistible deal on airline tickets would just have to go to some other lucky soul.
Juggling school schedules, a spouse’s schedule, and my own to try to find the perfect time that everyone can get away could turn what should be an exciting adventure into a veritable nightmare. Scheduled meetings, recitals, and ballgames added yet another layer of complexity onto already difficult task.
But then, I became a hospitalist.
There were no longer one or two possible vacation weeks each summer -- there were many! Four days here, six days there, vacation scheduling became easy and surprisingly pleasant. The cloud had lifted, and she sun came shining through. It was no longer a tedious chore to plan special time to spend with the family, it was an exciting pre-adventure that would set the stage for a much needed respite from the adrenaline-filled days of life on the wards.
Dr. A. Maria Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care. She wrote her first patient-empowerment book while still in medical school and later authored, "Your Family Medical Record: An Interactive Guide to Health and Self-Empowerment."
It’s at this time of the year that being a hospitalist is sweetest. No need to plan months in advance for one vacation during the summer months. With block schedules, there is plenty of time off to take multiple vacations or ‘staycations’, which are sometimes just as nice.
Prior to becoming a hospitalist, I was a primary care physician, seeing patients both in the office and the hospital. That grew very wearisome. It seemed like I never, ever, finished my work. Each new day met me with a stack of lab reports to follow up on and a list of callbacks to ensure my patients’ outstanding tests and procedures did not fall through the cracks. After 8 years of trying to "‘do it all," I leapt at the opportunity to practice purely inpatient medicine.
As an office-based doctor, the stress never ended. It seemed like I could never take enough vacations to reach a steady state of calm. Even when I wanted time off, a lot of planning went into taking even a simple trip home for a few days. As a rule, vacation time had to be requested several months in advance to insure you got your request in before too many others requested ‘your’ time off. If your request came too late, it was back to the drawing board to completely revamp your vacation plans, and often your family’s as well. And that irresistible deal on airline tickets would just have to go to some other lucky soul.
Juggling school schedules, a spouse’s schedule, and my own to try to find the perfect time that everyone can get away could turn what should be an exciting adventure into a veritable nightmare. Scheduled meetings, recitals, and ballgames added yet another layer of complexity onto already difficult task.
But then, I became a hospitalist.
There were no longer one or two possible vacation weeks each summer -- there were many! Four days here, six days there, vacation scheduling became easy and surprisingly pleasant. The cloud had lifted, and she sun came shining through. It was no longer a tedious chore to plan special time to spend with the family, it was an exciting pre-adventure that would set the stage for a much needed respite from the adrenaline-filled days of life on the wards.
Dr. A. Maria Hester is a hospitalist with Baltimore Washington Medical Center who has a passion for empowering patients to partner in their health care. She wrote her first patient-empowerment book while still in medical school and later authored, "Your Family Medical Record: An Interactive Guide to Health and Self-Empowerment."