This question was originally posted on Quora, and below are some of the best selected answers: Answer 1 by: Raghuraj S. Hegde, Ophthalmic Plastic Surgeon A surgeon's schedule-at least a younger surgeon's- is never set in stone. Every day is quite unpredictable. Broadly I would say my day depends on whether I have a full clinic session or a surgical session or a mixture of both. Also on some days I have to attend academic sessions. My morning schedule: I get up quite early at around 5:30-6am. Go for a jog. I read the newspaper quite religiously for half an hour, then take a shower and get ready. Depending on the day and when I have to be at work I either take breakfast at home or at work. If I have an academic session I have to be at the hospital by 7:30- 8am depending on the session otherwise I land up in my clinic at 8:30-9:00am Hospital Schedule: Academic sessions: Presentations, Tumour boards and Discussions with Colleagues and Residents. Clinic Sessions: where we see patients with fresh complaints/on follow up/ post-operative visits. Surgical sessions: Where we list all the surgeries that we do. My usual working day is a combination of the above three. It varies a lot depending on the combination. I have a working lunch somewhere in between at work (sometimes packed from home). My working day starts at 7:30 am and ends at 6-8 pm depending on the list. Then there are some emergencies I attend to sometimes. I also have to put the obnoxious Bangalore traffic to the mix. (I wish I owned a helicopter) Night Schedule: A perfect night schedule would be the following. (though for reasons I mentioned above it is quite flexible sometimes as unpredictable as my work) Home at 8 pm. Have Dinner. Say a cheerful "Hi" to my wife back from work. (not really in that order if you know what I mean!). Read any newspaper I had left out in the morning.(yeah I realize that this is a crazy obsession), Browse/answer emails, browse the net checking random things (yes even I do it,don't judge me), Check Quora and spend about an hour (or two) reading and answering (this is a new addiction which don't get me brownie points with my wife :-( ), watch an episode of some good TV series (not a regular habit, only sometimes). Read a book for an hour (medical or others)and finally force myself to sleep by 12am. I do this 5-6 days a week. Answer 2 by: Liang-Hai Sie, Retired general internist, former intensive care physician. Getting up at 6:30, get a cup of coffee, do simple exercises while viewing video's on the computer for about 30 minutes after looking through my emails, shower, and off to work for the morning handover at 8:15. After that at 8:30 seeing patients at the out-patient clinic, or starting an endoscopy session, viewing the inner surfaces of the hollow digestive organs being esophagus-stomach-first and second part of the duodenum, and the whole large bowel. This session end at around 12:30, then on to the lunch meeting, until 13:30 to start the afternoon session either seeing patients or doing endoscopy until 17:00 hours, then the late afternoon meeting, the evening handover and if not on call off to home after dictating letters to referring colleagues at around 19:00 hours. One in six weekday nights on call, one in six weekends on call, meaning although sleeping at home the phone rings all the time about lab results and what to do with them, and if needed coming in besides rounding late Saturday and Sunday morning (so lab results and X-ray studies will be available) as we routinely do. A working week was ±55 hours the last years I worked, when I started decades ago it used to be 90 to 100 hour weeks. When the children were young I started work at 8:45, so before that making them breakfast, helping them get dressed, and bringing them to school, so I saw them for some time once a day (not in the evening since by the time I got back home they already were sleeping). Answer 3 by: Kireet Ratan, Evolving Doctor I am writing this on behalf of my father. He is a General Physician in a town in India. He owns and manages a Nursing Home all by himself. Our hospital has 50 beds with 15 in the Intensive Care Unit. As he is the only Physician around, all the emergency cases are referred to him first. He manages all the poisonings, snake bites, heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies. His daily routine: His day usually starts at 7:30 AM. Reads newspaper for about 20 minutes, has his breakfast, gets ready and goes to the hospital by 8:30 or 9:00 am. Visits all the patients in their rooms. Makes any changes if necessary in their treatment plans. Starts seeing his out patients by 10:00 am. He sees around 100 patients daily. During his busy days it goes on upto 6:00 PM in the evening. He doesn't have his lunch till then !! (Yes ! We always rough him up on this). But on less busier days his sees his last patient by 3:00 PM. When he does have a break, he takes a siesta after lunch. And he is back to business by 5:00 PM for his evening clinics. And there is a constant trickle of patients until 10:00 PM. He then has his dinner at around 11:00 PM. Reads for an hour and catches sleep by 12:30 0r 1:00 AM. As my father is only competent Physician around he has his fair share of emergencies. He has to take a break in his out patient clinic to attend the emergencies. He is woken every single night (Yes, every damn single night) to attend to emergency cases. Sometimes that night call may last till the break of dawn. Again just an another day. He is a favourite among his patients and people travel from very far to get his treatment. Inspite of seeing more than 100 patients daily ( and that is without the in patients), he maintains his composure talking to them and answering all their questions. This is something that wonders me !! How does he have such patience?! I am extremely proud of the work that he has been doing since the past 20 years. But there are certain downsides though: -His health has taken toll because of his very busy schedule. He almost never takes his food on time. -We don't go out often. Infact we don't go out at all. My mother also being a doctor adds to this misery. Our last movie outing as a family was 12 years ago. And we had a dinner at a restaurant as a family 7 years ago. And its a miracle even if we all manage to catch our lunch/dinner at home together. -There is almost never a free time for him. Even when we are out, he is always pestered with calls from the hospitals and there is always that background noise. Even through all these hardships I sometimes ask him is this kind of service worth it ? He gives me the same answer everytime, that his life ambition was to be a doctor and he has dedicated himself to the profession and is responsible for the well being and good health of all his patients. As I have recently graduated from medical school, he is obviously my role model and my admiration for him grows by the day. Those answers on Quora made me more curious about the daily routine of doctors around the world. As a doctor how do you spend your day? Source
