I'm now in week 6 of 8 in the Internal Medicine clerkship - and I'm absolutely LOVING IT. While it's one of the less time-demanding clerkship so far (6 weeks of between 9.5 hr days, 2 weeks of 12-hour nights at the hospital, averaging 3-6 hours of work per night at home, only two weekends scheduled with an average of 12 hours studying at home on off weekends), 70-100 hr weeks are no small thing. Friends and family regularly comment on the number of hours that we, even as lowly med students, pay to be at"work" in the hospital, then go home to be with our loved one's study. These comments are often followed by some paraphrasing of "Well, at least someday you'll be pulling in the big bucks." Here's something that, while it does not take into account certain nuances of tax law, various debt repayment infrastructures, variable interest rates and debt consolidation, it DOES do a fairly good job of drawing an eye-opening, relatively accurate comparison between something with which most people aren't familiar (physician hours and compensation) and something they might understand a little better (teacher hours and compensation). Source
