Dr. Katie Amin
Appearances
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Yeah. So we actually we don't have family in Miami either. So we pay a lot for help. So we just show all the money. But I mean, you have to. So, you know, we are just like you. We both do procedures. So we both have to be up and out the door pretty early. And also as part of academic for better or worse, we have 7 a.m. meetings quite a bit, too.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So, that being said, our nanny comes at 6.30 in the morning. My kids go to two different schools, so there's two different drop-offs. There's a lot of driving. And, you know, we had... I'm so sad. But we had a unicorn nanny that was amazing. She was with us for four years, and she left a month ago. So we are kind of in the thick of things of having a new person.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And after four years, I mean, that person becomes part of her family. I mean, we would take her on vacation sometimes with us. She traveled with us to Europe, to Vancouver, all sorts of places. But then even the grandparents... get to know the nanny very well. So that was so nice.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And, you know, they really truly do become like family and you want, and you want to treat your nanny like, like family because then they feel, you know, more responsible. They treat your kids like, you know, the, you know, how you would want to treat them, right? So I do think that's important. But then once they know that they're invaluable, they know it. And then they will kind of squeeze you.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
But sometimes, you know, you have these conversations, you know, and offline with, you know, you and your spouse, all these conversations, you know, are we paying this nanny too much? You know, she keeps on asking for raises or Miami was getting expensive and her rent was getting higher. And we, you know, you are that person's employer sometimes.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So, I mean, you know, so you have to continue to pay her. I mean, if you're going away on vacation, she still needs that weekly paycheck because she has to pay her bills. So I think that's an important concept to really understand. And it's not worth it to cut corners with that because then you're not going to keep someone for a long time. So for what we do, I mean, we have...
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And a nanny right now, and it's kind of changed, but we have a nanny that is willing to do a split shift. So she comes 630 to 930. And then she actually kind of just like watches a little baby twice a week, but it's very flexible in the middle of the day. And then she'll come back. 1.30 to 5 to drive around the kids because we need a driver.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
That's the biggest thing because our kids are just in so many activities. Piano, martial arts, swimming, all those activities. And then there's days off. My kids go to two different schools, so they don't have the same schedule. One's at an all-girls Catholic school. The other one's at a preparatory school. So even religious holidays are different. Everything is different.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So we need flexibility as well. So, you know, all those things are so important. And then we have a backup person, you know, you have to have many people. And I also want to, I want to give a plug and a shout out to undergrads. So we have really, you know, there's, we always like, you know, kind of young, energetic nannies.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And so, you know, I think our main nanny has always been young, energetic, has some experience. But that being said, the people that fill in, if they're, if
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
someone is sick or whatever maybe are you know even for babysitters at you know on Fridays and Saturdays we love our 20 year old undergrads they are amazing and they have so much energy and they kind of come with like fresh ideas games to play with the kids they know all the movies so that's that's my plug I think we we underestimate them that's such a huge important point too
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Yeah, I mean, we outsource, you know, quite a bit. But I just think it's, you know, just putting another thinking cap on is that outsourcing at work is really important, too, because, you know, nurse practitioner changed my life. And having that I have a whole team now, which is so beneficial. I'm not dealing with my Epic in basket late at night or even on vacation.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
We talked about going on a two-week vacation and putting your computer away. Not being able to have to open up Epic to check those messages is so invaluable and truly priceless just for the mental energy and the break. We definitely outsource at home, but I think there's really something to be said about having help at work as well and having a good team and good support at work.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Get all the help you can. Yes, I have scribe because they pre-chart, which is also so nice. And then, yeah, just getting out the door. I mean, I literally am leaving with the last patient. And so I just try to rush home and get home to start dinner and just to kind of be home for the homework part and all that kind of stuff too.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And the other thing is that, so, you know, we talk about, you know, all sorts of aspects of real life, but like exercise is really important to me. So I actually am out the door at 5.30 in the morning every day. I mean, I am not here for the morning at all, but that's why, you know, our nanny, my husband gets up at 6.10.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
He has 20 minutes to kind of be with the kid by himself, but our nanny is here by 6.30. But, you know, I just was saying to my husband because he actually, his procedures are more add-on procedures. So he can stay quite late because, you know, a surgical oncologist will call him and say, oh, can you add on a case or whatever?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So we kind of just have this understanding where he kind of deals with the morning. But, you know, then I am there, you know, I'm coming home at a certain time, except on my long OR days, my robotic days or whatever it may be. But I'm there, you know, usually home by 4.30 or 5. So I think that's important. So making sure that everyone gets that.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So I am married to a gastroenterologist. He's interventional GI. He does ERCPs and EOSs, and He's kind of like the interventional radiology of gastroenterology. So he does a lot of procedures. He has a half day of clinic once a month. So he's mostly kind of in the operating room, I guess you would say. And so we've been together for 15 years. We've been married for nine years.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
What we've done actually, which is kind of funny, and the fact that my admin day is always on Friday. And my husband was like, I want my admin day on Friday. So we used to have the whole, you know, oh, his admin day used to be on Tuesday. That was my robot day, you know, whenever it may be. But then we had our housekeeper. We actually switched our housekeeper's hours.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
This is, you know, a person that cleans their toilets and does all that. But she works from 2 to 7 a.m. So she works from 2 to 7 p.m. like cleaning. But then, you know, if someone's not home, she can actually wash the kids, too. And actually, you know, she's kind of can do both. So she cleans house just late afternoon. But then now he switched his admin day to Friday. And it's amazing, you know.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So then I'm not, you know, saying nagging him like, you know, for, you know, keep closest this day, you know, because we're going to go away or whatever, maybe. But so that works out for well for us. Actually, we have the same admin day, which is great.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And we have a five-year-old daughter and a four-year-old boy. Oh, Peter, what about you guys?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Oh, it's tough. I mean, I think biggest aspect of our lives, because we're both pretty in the trenches of academic world and academia. Would be just knowing to their schedule and just communicating, you know, so one night I'll have a work dinner and then the next day I'll have a work dinner. And then if, you know, otherwise we need to get a babysitter, even on a Tuesday sometimes.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And we both travel quite a bit, get talks. We both are program directors of our fellowships. So having a lot of didactics and other commitments as well, both part of societies. So having two people in academics is quite challenging. Sometimes he'll be in a Zoom meeting and I'll be in a Zoom meeting in a different room.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
But I just think, you know, having access to each other's calendars and that it goes with, you know, call schedules and all of that to call schedules, travel schedules. You know, dinners, all that. So it's challenging. But and sometimes the ball gets dropped and you just kind of have to roll with the punches, I think.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
But and that being said, in terms of whose practice is is busier, you know, not as busy. I mean, everyone has their own seasons to a career in academia. So sometimes you may get tapped a little bit more that year. to give a talk. But that's more, you know, about the sponsorship that you have and, you know, the relationships that you have.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And, you know, one partner may have different sponsorship than the other. But I think that, you know, just the understanding that it's all kind of a roller coaster and it waxes and wanes. And it's kind of like everyone has their own season of life. And so you have to prioritize different things.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
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BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Yeah, I can take this. So, I mean, my husband's from Vancouver, Canada, and I'm from Buffalo, New York. So we're from very different places in the country, in the world, and our families are in very different locations as well. And, you know, and that being said, so location wise, we weren't really tied to one place or the other.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
But Sunil, my husband's name is Sunil, and his parents really always wanted us to move back to Canada. So when we were first dating and when we Got married. The plan was for us to both move back to Canada. So we both took our Canadian boards. So I'm Canadian board certified. Flew to Ottawa, took my boards. It was a written portion and then also an oral exam in Ottawa.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And so I was really proud of that, really excited. I did my fellowship in Seattle because we wanted to try out the Pacific Northwest after we met in New York City. We moved out to Seattle to try this location and, you know, develop contacts to move to Canada. That was always the plan.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And you might want to ask, oh, you ended up in Miami, probably the furthest location that you could possibly be compared to Vancouver, Canada. But, you know, we tried it out. I'm so glad that we did. And also the Canadian systems, you know, we just learned that the Canadian systems are very different actually for both of what we do or both of our specialties.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So urology is very different in British Columbia with like, you know, access to robots and things. The billing system and, you know, just how busy you can be because, you know, there's only so many cases that can go and can be billed to the government. So there's all those little nuances. And then for gastroenterology, there's different nuances as well.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So then we kind of were looking around and ended up in Miami. So, you know, the location thing you never know. And I think I don't have any of the answers. And you kind of have to roll with the punches, too. Because sometimes you have a plan and that plan doesn't always work out. And then to your second point about finances. So my husband doesn't have any loans, never had any loans.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
He comes from an Indian family that, you know, basically they would do anything, you know, they would live in a shack and then to make sure that their kids never had loans. but I have a lot. And so that was always one thing or the other. But I think you have those frank conversations with your partner and nothing is going to be perfect.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
You're never going to match and be the same when you're going and talking about those tough conversations, I think. And that's if someone's in medicine or not in medicine. Now you bring up a really great point. Peter, what about you guys?
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
Yeah, I think for us, I mean, we were, we both wanted to be in academics. So that's always a challenge you kind of have to think about. That's, I think the first thing that you need to think about is, you know, are we looking at big institutions or private practice where you could look at small groups or large lug pug groups and things like that. So kind of hone in on that. For us,
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
I mean, while we are looking at different places, actually, we interviewed in New York, Miami, California. So we did we did interview broadly and didn't really tie. We didn't have ties with family because our family is very spread out to begin with. But what was important for us is just the advancements that we could have at the institution and the opportunity at the institution.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So University of Miami is fantastic. The opportunities are tremendous here. It's just such a growing institute right now. And just really the momentum is amazing here. So that's what we were promised and they absolutely delivered for that. So I think that's what we're looking at.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
With just the opportunity for growth for both of us, because sometimes there's a strong department, like if your husband, if you're assuming your other is not in the same department, maybe one department is a little bit stronger than the other. Your partner can kind of feel that if they get the short of the stick. So that's important to think about as well.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
To go to piggyback off of this for the paternity leave. So because this is a school podcast, I just want to put this out there that the leave policy can change. You just have to ask and you have to advocate for yourself as well. So actually, two things about that is that I had my daughter when I was actually I timed it very nicely. I don't know how I did this, but
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
She was born July 18th, the July of when I graduated fellowship, right? So like to the day I graduated, then my daughter was born. That worked out really, really well. So my maternity leave was kind of just moving. You know, I moved my five week old daughter from Seattle to Miami, but that was fine. And that being said, my partner came in and she was pregnant.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And so University of Miami had a policy that for paternity leave, you couldn't, you had to be working at University of Miami for, I think, a certain period before you could receive paternity leave paid. And that was changed even like what she was pregnant and she had signed on, you know, and started. And just because she asked and she actually went to faculty council and and everything.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
And so that policy was changed. And that being said, because for dual physician couples, if you do have the same employer, you should ask about both of you getting leave, or maybe sometimes there's a situation that arises where only one person would get that 12 weeks because you have the same employer, and that can come up as well.
BackTable Urology
Ep. 213 Dual Physician Households: Managing Parenthood and Careers with Dr. Katie Amin and Dr. Petar Bajic
So just questions that can arise if you both work for the same employee.