Physician re-entry programs are a great idea, but that one sounds really expensive! I know of a really good one for anesthesiologists, and it is only $1000/month. I wonder if that one you found is more for people who have lost their medical licenses and have to be "re-educated." When I was searching at one point, I found a program like that that was about $14,000, but it didn't even involve any patient care!

Talking with other pediatricians directly sounds like a great idea. Good luck!

Hang in there and good luck! Have you thought about trying residency programs? Sometimes they do reentry or have contacts....I know at the community health center I used to work at, we had pretty extensive shadowing/mentoring when we hired someone who had been out awhile. You should be able to get SOMETHING!

pastpedmd, you have probably already seen this site, but I just learned about it on Sermo:

http://www.physicianreentry.org/

It has some interesting articles and talks about different re-entry programs that already exist. It sounds like they are all pretty expensive.

College doc? family planning clinics doing yearly/pap/etc on young women?

Met with a fellow pediatrician in my town. He seemed very nice and asked about my situation. Said his practice was looking for someone as they hope to expand. He did seem a bit concerned about the length of my 'break' but I left a CV and he said someone would be in touch. That was 6 days ago and no word yet. Am starting to wonder and worry if I'll ever hear back or am I being too impatient?

Also my son has had a recent setback I hope is recoverable, so more to worry about. Thanks for the chance to vent a little.

I am also a pediatrician/at-home mom for the past 5 years. I have one child in college and two still at home. I think it sounds like you are doing all the right things and just need to persevere -- everyone is having trouble finding work right now! Maybe you could start by doing something non-clinical, as in insurance or legal chart review. This might give you more confidence that your knowledge is still there. Also, it is always easier to get a job when you have one! I guess what I am saying is, if you need to work, take what you can get and work your way back to where you want to be. Also, it sounds like your clinical practice experience was not a great one -- maybe consider non-clinical alternatives that might fit your personality and family needs. I am also thinking of finding work again, and many of your concerns echo my own. I don't believe you should regret or feel guilty about your time at home -- if you are like me, it has been a great gift to myself and my family. Good luck!:)

Can you apply for a short fellowship program (ie. sports medicine)? That might facilitate the re-entry and provide you with some contacts at the same time...

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. Afraid I got away from this site for awhile.
Here's an update and my latest dilemma:

After not hearing from the fellow pediatrician I met for almost 2 weeks I called him and was told that he had planned to call me after the physical construction/expansion on his clinic was completed (3-4 months!).

I asked him if I could mentor with someone in the meantime so that I could be ready when the new space was ready. He said he'd talk to one of his partners who would probably be doing the mentoring and call me back.

Well he didn't call back when he said he would, so I called again to be told that he hadn't talked to her yet but would and then get back to me. Again he didn't call, I called again and he said he had just talked to her and they agreed that their current space was just too small and cramped for me to mentor but that he would get in touch in about 2-3 months when the expansion was closer to being done.

While waiting around and getting pretty frustrated, I started calling around to other local pediatricians in the area to see if anyone needed some help. Though they were all very nice and helpful, the 4 that I called were not in need of help but directed me to others to try.

I stopped calling and decided that maybe I should just wait the 2-3 months until the clinic expansion is done - THEN yesterday's local paper had a Welcome ad to this clinic's newest PA hire who is "taking new patients now"!!

This was never mentioned to me. Not sure if I should feel really slighted, call him back to ask about this, or take this as a message that I am not wanted and will never be called again.
Please tell me your thoughts and if I'm way off base here and what you would do!

Thank you, and I have just sent my info to a medical consulting firm and am doing more non-medical volunteer work that I enjoy to help keep my sanity.

Here is my suggestion: Job Share!
I was working full time with 2 kids in Primary Care and just BURNT! I begged my clinic medical director to let me work half time, but basically I would still have to cover my share of the overhead and my income loss would be so significant. There was a real bias agianst half time providers in our organization for this reason. Many .5 FTE providers (almost ALL women MD's) were actually ending up OWING the company money. There was talk of actually filing suit for descrimination (remember Lilly Ledbetter?). I ask the organization to consider letting me set up a job share. It took 18 months to negotiate but I got it! When the job opening posted at our clinic we were FLOODED with amazing female MD applicants. Our organization ended up hiring my partner and 4 other women MD's to fill other positions they had not been able to fill at other clinics. We now have 5 sucessful job shares in our primary care group! My partner and I now out earn all the other full time MD's at our clinic. I work less and make almost the same amount of money!
Another pair of Mom MD's I know actually applied as a team to a 1 FTE position in another organization and got the job!

SO - start calling other Mamadocs and ask if they would be interested in a job share. It has turned out to be quite sucessful for us and for our orgainization as a recruiting tool. There is always one of us in clinic and patients love it.

GOOD LUCK AND DON'T GIVE UP!

What a great success story, medmama!