PIECEWORK.(hospital doctors)(Column)

To become a doctor, you spend so much time in the tunnels of preparation--head down, trying not to screw up, trying to make it from one day to the next--that it is a shock to find yourself at the other end, with someone shaking your hand and asking how much money you want to make. But the day comes. Two years ago, I was finishing my eighth and final year as a resident in surgery. I had got a second interview for a surgical staff position at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, where I had trained. It was a great job--I'd get to specialize in surgery for certain tumors that interested me, but I'd also be able to do some general surgery. On the appointed day, I put ...