Southern California Physician interviews physicians just getting settled in medicine. Generally, they like their work (and their time off), have warmed to managed care and see opportunity in technology.

Make no mistake about it. Andrew Corr, MD, loves his job. The Riverside-based internist says he can't think of anything else he'd rather be doing and sees no reason not to continue practicing medicine as he does today well into the future. His enthusiasm is evident when he talks about how content he is with his professional life and his place in the medical group.

But Dr. Corr, 39, is like many physicians of his generation in that his love of medicine is his love of a job. For many under-40 doctors, medicine is just that: a job, not a calling.

The distinction is clear and Dr. Corr is uniquely qualified to point it out. He comes from a long line of physicians--including his father and grandfather--so he has seen firsthand the relationship older-generation physicians had with the field. "They just loved medicine," he says. "I don't love it as much as they did."

What's changed? Physicians and medicine both, of course. Young doctors face administrative hassles that their older peers never imagined in their worst professional nightmares. But they also spend more dinner hours at home with their families and actually take vacations where they don't spend time on the phone with frantic patients.

"A lot of older doctors got calls at home and didn't seem to mind," Dr. Corr says. "But I wonder how much of the stress that produced translated into their bedside manners. I think it's a give and take."

Work-Life Balance
Carl Knopke, MD, 34, is a family practice physician based in Riverside. His view of personal time typifies the way young doctors tend to balance their commitment to patient care and their need for time off. The key, he says, is understanding that physicians don't just want time off--they need time off. That's something that's changed in comparing the younger and older generations of doctors.

As medicine becomes more of a business and less of a mission, its practitioners treat themselves more like businesspeople and less like missionaries. "Time to myself is very important," Dr. Knopke emphasizes. "I am just now getting to a place in my career where there is the option to take more time off. Optimally, I would like to be able to take long weekends on a regular basis."

Taking breaks from work is a learned behavior--and one that many of Dr. Knopke's colleagues need to relearn. "I was talking to a surgical associate of mine a couple of weeks ago," he recounts. "Surgeons are notorious for working extremely long hours in residency. I am convinced that by the time they get out of residency, they have forgotten how to take time for themselves. To a more limited extent, I think all doctors are like that. They have spent so much of their time in training for their careers that by the time they are done, they do not know how to do anything else. Doctors as a group need to learn to take more time off."

That's exactly why Brian Bearie, MD, medical director and chair of the emergency department at St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino, chose emergency medicine. "It's shift work," he says. "And most people who gravitate to it greatly value their personal time. Most of us don't even carry pagers."

The arrangement gives Dr. Bearie, 33, plenty of time to travel and, as he puts it, "go to Mammoth for three days of snowboarding." He notes that medical school graduates pursuing residencies in emergency medicine have the toughest time finding open slots. "There were more of them interested in emergency medicine this past year than in any other specialty," he reports. "The generation that's coming up and joining the physician ranks sees it as an opportunity to be a doctor, but still have a real life."

That elusive "real life" is also the reason Brian Eichenberg, MD, a plastic surgeon in Temecula, chose his specialty. The 37-year-old likes having a set schedule and being the king of his professional castle. "My family time is very important," he says. "It's the main reason I am in my profession. I want to spend more time with them and the position I am in makes it possible."