I am in the process of trying to decide if I am serious enough to go to medical school. I have a wife, 2 kids (1,6)and a good job. The job is good from a salary perspective, but will never be satisifing. I (and my wife) are weighing the pros and cons. Would I still be able to spend time with my family while in medical school. Is it like a 40hour per week job… 50, 70, 80. In residency, will I earn a salary good enough to start back supporting my family?
I am 33 and have never been happy with my career. I am very serious about exploring medicine as a more meaningful profession. I am just unsure of the amount of sacrifice I am willing to accept.
Terry,
There are a lot of people here in the same position that you are in right now, so take heart that it is possible without sacrificing your family.
As I am in Australia I can’t offer too much specific advice, there are others here in a much better position to do that. But let me say this, being a full time student will be similar to being in a full time job. Sure, medicine is demainding, and there will be times when you need to put in a lot of effortm for exams and assignements etc. But overall you will be able to spend time with your family.
As I understand it is a common thing to get loans for you living expenses while studying. That puts you in a much better position than I will be in. I will need to also work as much as I can to help pay a mortgage and put food on the table.
Yes, in residency you will be earning an income. It isn’t a fortune, but it is a decent wage comapred with society. And it does increase once you complete your training.
Good luck.
Craig
Terry, wow, a comprehensive answer to this question would be pretty long. But I will try to give a concise answer.
Hours during medical school: during the first two years, assume you’ll be at school as if for a full-time job. But then know that you will need to do studying as well - in other words, you’ll be a forty-hour-a-week person who brings work home from the office.
Third year, when you do clinical rotations, is generally more demanding although there are peaks and valleys. You’ll leave home MUCH earlier, generally. Some days you’ll be home for dinner. Other times, you’ll be staying to finish up something and be home late; still other times, you’ll be staying because you’re on call. You’ll work weekends. At least at GWU, we got a break over Christmas-New Years, and a week-long spring break… so there were definitely some down times and chances to re-connect with my family. But it was a pretty intense year.
Fourth year has some of the same features as third year, in that you’ll do some rotations with long hours. I left the house at 5:30 this morning and got home at 7:00pm. Plus I was in the OR all afternoon and didn’t even have a chance to touch base with my daughter who was home wondering if anyone besides her was going to be around for dinner. (fortunately she’s resourceful; she got an invitation to a friend’s house!) But I’ve also had LOTS of time off and many rotations with much better hours, so I am not complaining.
Intern year for me will be hours that are a lot like the worst of third year, without the holidays. 
As a family practice resident, it will get a LOT better during my second and third years of residency - I’ll work more office-type hours but with some weekends and nights on call. But there will be many times that I am able to be home for dinner, yay. (probably averaging 70 hrs/wk)
Pay - well, it depends on your living situation and what you need. My intern salary of approximately $38K is going to come in handy, no doubt about it, but since we’re indebted in various other ways including a mortgage, and since I’ve got a bazillion dollars in loans to pay off, I don’t think it’s going to feel like very much at all.
Residency salaries vary little from program to program. It’s more than a starting salary for an ensign in the U.S. Navy (according to my kid #2 who is going to be one), but not by much.