Lance Wobus, MD, psychiatry resident at Richmond University Medical Center in New York City, recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the changes he'd like to see related to physician compensation.
Question: How satisfied with your income are you currently? What changes do you hope to see related to your income?
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Dr. Lance Wobus: I am a PGY-1 resident, so of course I'm very dissatisfied with my income. I make about $79,000 a year in New York City and am working 60 to 80 hours a week in my medicine rotation (I am a psych resident). I've always thought the match is essentially forced labor — we take whatever the programs decide to give us or else we don't practice medicine.
The best way forward is to unionize, hands down. This is a growing movement, although everyone I know fears being labeled as a "troublemaker," so they stay quiet. They'd rather suffer (what I consider to be) injustice rather than getting dismissed from a residency program, jeopardizing their medical career. More moonlighting opportunities to supplement income would also be beneficial, but there is simply no time, at least in my schedule.