<p>Can physicians/surgeons work part time?</p>
<p>Yes he or she can.</p>
<p>Yes, but you get paid “part time”…and what counts as “part time” for physicians is not necessarily the same as it would be for other fields</p>
<p>Some fields like Emergency medicine would fit the part time designation compared to most doctors, as they typically do three 12 hour shifts a week. But in most normal jobs, 36 hours a week would be considered nearly full time…and ER docs work hard during their shifts. Plus it includes a lot of night shifts and the ER has to be staffed 24/7/365 so you will frequently work weekends and holidays. Part time positions are probably most common in Pediatrics - finding a position that’s 3.5 days of clinic a week and every 8th weekend on call is not an unreasonable possibility for a general pediatrician, but you’ll get paid in the $65-75k range for such a position. It certainly can be done, but there are consequences for choosing such a position.</p>
<p>Yes, “full time” in medicine is generally between 50-75 hours a week so “part time” is somewhat misleading.</p>
<p>bigredmed, what are some of the consequences?</p>
<p>I have considered going into Emergency medicine or trauma surgery and regardless of what specialty i choose, i ask about the part time possibilities because i want to know if i will have time to pursue other interests that i have.
On the other hand i don’t want to commit career murder by not investing enough into medicine.</p>
<p>I knew an ER doctor that worked part time, she wanted to stay with her family more, and my children’s pediatrician has a part time doctor that works with him, 3 days a week, who also wants some time with her children until they are older. It can be done, just isn’t the norm.</p>
<p>Most docs have such an enormous student loan debt they feel compelled to work hard for many years to get that down, as well as save for a house, a rainy day, the normal life stuff.</p>
<p>My wife works in a top 5 teaching pediatric hospital as a clinical pediatrician in the ED and outpatient centers…she works 80% of full time…meaning about 3-4 shifts a week…at about 5-8 hrs per shift. Many of her colleagues work 60% (married with small kids). It’s a great job for someone who doesn’t want to do research and doesn’t want to do a fellowship…it’s a job, albeit one with good pay for a few hours.</p>
<p>The nonprofit HMO, Kaiser Permanente, has many part-time MDs. I can’t tell you how many hours that means, however. Most are probably in primary care working in the large clinics and not surgery.</p>
<p>I know lots of doctor/moms who work < 50%. You need to be in a large group to do so usually. You can also to loco tens work. A lot of docs semi retire doing that.</p>