Ask an Intensivist

[PeteAtoms]

Are you forced to take your work home with you? I mean in two ways:

1) You actually bring work-work home (papers, charts, etc)
2) The emotional baggage involved with this kind of career.

I can't imagine point 1 being the case without point 2 also being the case.

Do you manage to leave the gloom of work behind when you go home? Family and friends must be a key element to help with this, but I can't imagine this being a total solution.

How long do people in your line of work typically stick around? How common is it for people to be burnt out and move into a less stressful position? I guess I'm wondering what the "lifespan" is for this kind of employee in your experience (I can't think of the better term than "lifespan").

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Are you forced to take your work home with you? I mean in two ways:

1) You actually bring work-work home (papers, charts, etc)
2) The emotional baggage involved with this kind of career.

I used to get bent out of shape when incidents happened, but now I just take it as a normal day, and move on. It doesn't even phase me anymore. I regard it more as comedy. The only memories that stick out are those where salvageable patients died, usually because some other physician before me messed up, and I was not able to fix it.

You cannot bring charts home. That's illegal.

How long do people in your line of work typically stick around? How common is it for people to be burnt out and move into a less stressful position? I guess I'm wondering what the "lifespan" is for this kind of employee in your experience (I can't think of the better term than "lifespan").

Intensivists last well into retirement. It is not a stressful career if you know what to expect, and know what you're doing. What you may be confusing is emergency physicians, in the ER. They typically have high burn-out rates. Rarely have I seen one over the age of 50.