moonlighting

Hello all!

Does anyone else's SO moonlight? My DH has been moonlighting, at least, 1x/month and is going to try doing 2x/month so that we can increase our income. He is so tired when he gets home from work all week and then he moonlights on the weekend. I feel bad. Being a SAHM isn't easy, but at least there's down time.


-Melanie

[Flynn]

My DH moonlighted before we had kids and while he was in the lab so it was a great way to get some extra income and not kill yourself.

There is no way he could moonlight and be a resident....there's no time in surgery.

[SueC]

My dh just started moonlighting. He picks up a couple of shifts a month and so far it has been OK. We really needed him to do it since we've been scraping the bottom of the barrel these days. He tried an overnight shift and hated it, so now he is doing shorter shifts (4-6 hours) and an occasional 12 hour daytime shift on the weekend.

My husband moonlighted during his last 1 1/2 of residency. He did an ER residency and didn't have to be on call after his intern year, so this made it easier for him to moonlight...not to mention that we also don't have any children yet. Moonlighting helped our financial situation tremendously. During residency, we lived in a high rent area and we were literally scraping by each month. The moonlighting helped give us extra freedom...and we weren't at each other's throats about money (at least not all of the time).

The downside is that I never saw my husband. He moonlighted an average of 100 hours a month on top of his residency hours. One thing that did help was that for one of his moonlighting gigs, he worked in a hospital that was really quiet, so during a 12-hour overnight shift, he was usually able to sleep for 8-10 hours of it. Sometimes he got more sleep than me when he was on those shifts and he got paid for it!

One plus to moonlighting (other than money) is that my husband gained lots of useful experience from it. Moonlighting helped boost his confidence tremendously. During residency, the attendings were always by his side to help him when things got complicated. While moonlighting, my husband had to rely on his own knowledge and instincts. Moonlighting also helped my husband land a job as an attending. The group he joined was very impressed by his moonlighting experience because he had worked with 3 different hospitals and got a taste for how private groups differed from county hospitals, how different groups bill, etc... He was also able to get great references from each of the hospitals where he had moonlighted.

If your husband continues to moonlight, make sure he is fully covered by the new hospital's malpractice insurance (with tail coverage).

moonlighting

Hello all!

DH will only moonlight with tail coverage. He did a med-peds residency and is now doing a peds cardiology fellowship. One plus to moonlighting is that it keeps up his knowledge of treating adults and kids. He also has a moonlighting advantage because he has his NICU license (I don't know what you call it). DH purposely signs up for the overnighter shifts so that he can spend the day with our 3 kids and they wouldn't notice too much that he's gone. Then, he gets back the next day and is totally dead tired. I hate being broke!


-Melanie

[SueC]

Yeah, the malpractice thing did prevent my dh from moonlighting at a few of the choice hospitals. He is able to moonlight at the VA without any problems, though. This month he picked up 32 hours, which is the most he's over done. It hasn't seemed too bad so far, but I don't expect he'll do that many hours on a regular basis.

[migirl]

I wish my DH could moonlight. His hours in his surgical subspecialty are pretty good so he could probably find the time, but his chairman won't allow it.