Career

It's been hard to not to be a total vegetable in the evenings. In the last week, I think I've wasted at least one night just surfing youtube. I blame my friends who post video links on their facebook pages, so there.

Three days a week, I work a full day, by the end of which I am really tired. I think it's more the drive than the actual work, although talking to people all day is draining too. I've decided that it's ok not to be productive at night, at least on those days. Yup, not going to feel too guilty about it for now.

On monday, I got invited to be one of the speakers at a lunch time session to medical students on balancing career and motherhood. Yes, children affect fathers in medicine too, but let's face it, the burden for the most part falls on the mom. Until the organizer reminded me, I had forgotten that we had a similar talk by a couple of female physicians when I was in school, and the take home message then was: you cannot do it without a live in nanny! There were 7 female doctors on the panel this year and it was nice to see that there are so many different ways of making a family work. Other than the 2 residents, the other 5 physicans all worked part time. No body by the way was a surgeon, and the one person who was, switched into a less demanding specialty once she decided to have kids.

I often think about whether society is getting a bum deal allowing so many females into medical school. The return for the amount of time and money invested in us seems to give a low productivity yield. Half of all medical students these days are female. There is no quota on gender, and I believe everyone gets in on their own merits. However, there's no denying that there's a definite trend for females to work part time. In addition, we take multiple maternity leaves.

Of course the same is true for all work forces, but because medical school is so heavily subsidized by the government, clinical placements so expensive, I do sometimes feel a little guilty. Many articles have been written on this topic, the only argument I've heard in support of females in medicine is that we are more empathetic, and because we are more "balanced," we are happier at work and thus deliver better care. Not sure I am sold.

At any rate, I am thankful to have it all: God, an amazing family, and a flexible career. And on most days, time and energy to enjoy it all.