Hello.

I'd love to hear from the part-time physicians out there. Even just a jot of your hours and what works for you:

If I actually get to pick my hours in an academic center -- husband has benefits and his salary is very much more primary than mine -- *if* this happens -- not to mention the obvious blessing this would show --
What are some part-timer thoughts on ideal work schedule? I'm aiming for half time or maybe less. Weeklong call about q6 weeks. I could work during school-hours only -- how many days? One full day and how many school-hour days? One of my major stressors has been morning and and afternoon child transportation, so it seems obvious my schedule should take care of this, if possible. How much alone time do I need to build in? How long will I be grateful for the amazing opportunity to see my kids off to school before I got to work and pick them up as I leave? (or, how soon will I resent the daily driving, like so many other SAHM and various working Moms)

Better to work fewer hours and add more in, or to start on the higher side and back down if needed?

Thanks to everyone... for any opinions and for your inspiration through these years :-)

I would negotiate for as few hours as you think you ideally want. If they say no, then work more, but keep asking and if you are persistent and patient, you will get what you want. You did not say what field you practice or will practice in. I am a general pediatrician, work 15 hours per week seeing patients (one full day and two half days). In addition to this, I have an equal share of rounding (every 12 weeks), weekends (every 12 weekend), evening office hours (one to two nights per month), and call. With meetings, CME, and other extras added in, you can see how it is really more than half time! Anyway, I am moderately happy with my current arrangement. I have worked different combinations of full days and half days, my kids are school aged so I by far prefer working more half days at this point. Even though this means more driving. Well best of luck! There are several other threads in the Family and Parenting section on this exact topic, check them out.

Hey
I am an orthopod and have been lucky to find another who wanted to switch on and off with me every 2 weeks. I have a 20 month old at home now and the guy I switch on and off with is maybe 5-10 years to retirement. If you can find someone to do this with, I think it is important to have relatively similar philosophies about patient care.
Good luck with all of this!

ellie, what a neat idea for job sharing. I'm in psych, though, and patients often want their own doc ;-)

For inpatient psych, though, it might work.

I'm still kind of nervous -- choosing the mostly known vs the totally unknown (academic vs private). I've been thinking, like KPZR, that one full day and 2 half days would be pretty ideal for me. Maybe 1 full and 3 halfs. I'm not yet very productive of my slow-mornings-getting-kids-ready, but I sense in the future a little calm space might really help the child-rearing.

I initially tried one long day and 2 short days, but this was more difficult for the support staff. Also, if I was working a half-day and an 1-hour new patient didn't show, then it was really annoying. Now I am doing 2 long days, but that's hard in terms of before and after school. We really need a nanny on those days, because my husband (anesthesia) has really unpredictable hours. I've thought about the "more short days" and will push for that when they want me to work more hours.

Ohiomom-I have been part time in family med for some time and I think I now finally have a good schedule-I recommend one full day where you can stay late if need be-reason being, even if you are only scheduled for 'school hours' for example, there is always the last minute add on patient, and it sometimes builds resentment if you are always saying no. It also gives me a chance to finish my paperwork and not be running out the door to pick up kids....

Also, keep in mind the patient phone calls, paperwork to sign, etc. If you are not in the office your partners have to deal with it. I find for me I need to be in the office at least three separate days during the week to feel that I am no burdening my partners with this stuff, and my office staff knows they can call me on my day off for emergencies or quick questions-they respect this and don't call most of the time. My office mate will also call or text me if a patient of mine is seen and she has a question-like about narc refills or something. We have an EMR which also helps, I generally run my messages on my off day at night. Takes about 15-20 min.

My current schedule is:

Monday -off
Tuesday- am session only
Weds-pm session only but I teach in the am a bit
Thurs-am session only
Friday all day

Total I get paid for-24 hours-75% time. Call is 1:4. I am on a hospital committee that meets twice per year, and have med staff meetings 4x per year in the evening, as well as OB meetings once per month but that comes out of my clinic time so isn't really extra hours.

Final advice-school hours are tough to stick to-I would leave at least an hour 'buffer'-like, my sessions supposedly end at 12:30 but I am rarely totally done before 1:30. Pickup at school is at 3 and we are 10 min away, I schedule my last pt for 2 or 2;15.....I personally think it is better to work the am session only and do more days then try to fit in a few pts after lunch and get out in time to meet the bus, just my .02....(or .05!!)

PS -I am really anal and usually complete all of my charting/messages/etc before I leave for the day so it isn't waiting for me the next day. I currently have no outstanding charts......but...if I don't finish at the office I do it at home after the kids are in bed since we have an EMR...

Love that EMR! I used to stay so late due to huge pile of charts on my desk. Plus I would have such anxiety going in to work, knowing I had not been in the office for a day or two and wondering what had happened...Now I can log in whenever I want on my days off and take care of most things. I generally do not make phone calls from home to families or specialists (maybe three times a year for urgent stuff no one but me can take care of) but at least I can go through things. This really helps me get out on time on my work days! And it does not take long. I love the flexibility!

I'm just wondering for those of you who have part-time jobs, how did you find them? I am in a full-time practice and need to cut back to part time or a job share situation. I have talked to some recruiters and searched every job site including pedsjobs, but haven't been able to find any jobs that are easily listed as part-time or job share. Instead, you have to go through them individually and read all the descriptions. The one recruiter told me they only were interested in finding full-time positions for physicians. Is it better to be less upfront about wanting part-time? Is there a place or website to go to that advertises job-share positions? Thanks.

nikkipedi, there is a job-share section here on MomMD:

http://www.mommd.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/10/1/Physician_Job_Share_Network

Nikkipedi -
Try asking for part time in your current job. If they like you and don't want you to leave, you may have a good chance. I've had several part time jobs and in both of them, I cut back after being full-time. You usually have to have a good reason, though, like having kids at home. I don't think either of them would have hired me initially as part-time, but once I was "in" and cut back, we made it work.
As some of the others said, if you can be in the office in some arrangment 3 days a week and if you are willing to share call and do the other things associated with a full-time practice, you probably can be successful.
Also, I found that working half-days wasn't as effective because often the half day would expand into only 1-2 hours short of a full day.
Good luck!

I have my first part time job now. I am paid hourly, which makes them be sure I don't get hungup over time. I work 1 full and 2 half days a week, and an extra half day every third week. I love it-- I feel like I can do the job I like and keep my family life under control at the same time. Also since I am an employee, a lot of stress is off in terms of practice management and whatnot.

hourly... that's so interesting. Are you still at an academic center, residentmom?
What hours do you work on your half days?

Our lives are much smoother if I'm home by 4, preferably 3:30. It seems like a nice mommy-gift in the long run to get them off to school in the morning (although I have to admit there are no concrete benefits yet!). So, I'm thinking of school hours, 4 days / week, or maybe 1 full and 2 halfs... but it's so hard for me even to write that wonderful sounding schedule ;-)

I'm considering, also, seeing if I can cover a more intensive service every 6 weeks or so-- it's interesting to me, but it has potential to mess up the kiddies' schedule.

And, as for the half-days expanding, I think I'll request my day end 30 minutes earlier than I'll need in order to pick up kiddos on time -- take the pay cut, be social or helpful if I'm not having a patient emergency.

getting excited.

I am employed by an independent private practice. I know, practically nonexistent. I love it- no production pressure, although I still crank 'em out. I work 8-5 on my full day, and 12-5 one day, 8-12 one day. Love it.

Nikkipedi, what I have found is that the part time jobs are not really advertised. The employer has to pay a stiff fee to the headhunter so this may not be worth it to hire a part timer. The best way is word of mouth. Can you stay in your current position, but cut your hours back? I have been able to get the schedule I want out of seniority and keeping on asking! Good luck! I think that part time physician employment is becoming more acceptable and common. Think about it, there is a shortage of physicians! So why should we not get our way? It is all about negotiating. The other (conflicting) issue is that the benefits package for the employer is becoming more expensive due to increasing malpractice and health insurance costs to the employer. So if you were able to negotiate, say, you do not need the health insurance as your husband carries your plan, that may be helpful. Good luck!!

I am employed by an independent private practice. I know, practically nonexistent.

Me too! Works for me.

Nikkipedi-I sent out my CV to headhunters and was very specific in my cover letters that I wanted part time. The job I got was advertised as a full time position but they wanted me there so they made it work. I also did not walk in requesting the schedule I have right now. I have been there almost 4 years and tweaked it each year to get it to where I wanted it.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I do have a couple of jobs that I am interested in and they are looking at arranging interviews. I have found for the most part, that the jobs advertised online are usually rural and seem to have call much more frequently than I want. I have been on-call 1:4 for the past year and it is awful. It may be that I am in a rural location, but attending all C/S, ER admitting and FP consults has completely worn me out. I just don't have the stamina that others do I guess.

I did talk to my current partners and CEO and I think the main problem is if I go part-time (3 days/week), I still have to do full-time call which is just really hard. In addition, I don't get to pick what days I would work, they basically said it's what helps the department out the best. So, bottom line is I would have to work the day after call because they don't want to clean up any of my messes from the night before. I have been doing this for the past year and I can say that my tolerance for pts who have colds that think they're dying is pretty low at 4:30 on Friday after having been up since 7AM the day before.

I know that most part-time people take full-time call for benefits or whatever, but call in this rural location is too hard. That leaves me basically looking for another location/job. My family is willing to move pretty much anywhere for the right job.

Nikkipedi, have you considered peds hospitalist work? I did the same gig as you for almost 10 years - rural to semi-rural outpatient/inpatient peds with the whole shebang - office, full call, admits, deliveries, phone calls, paperwork, ED consults, sick babies.... I got burned out too. I am now working as a hospitalist - shift work, no call, no parent phone calls(!) It has been a nice change of pace, and since programs are being started all over the country, you can frequently find one that is hiring. Also, many if not most are comprised of both full and part-timers.

I do miss the continuity and my old patients, but I don't miss the long days in the office that I used to have after being up all night! And I now have more time to make other connections in the community - like coaching my son's soccer team.

By the way, in my previous work I worked only 3 days in the office (my full-time colleagues worked 4), but I frequently saw more patients per day than they did, and carried close to the same overall patient number, so I was just squishing a full time schedule into 3 days instead of 4!

The problems of rural practice have come up before here at MomMD. It makes sense that rural practices would be smaller groups of people, with not as many people to take call. Also, there are not that many practices to choose from. I wonder if it is easier for physician moms to find true part-time work in metropolitan areas.

There are lots of places looking for peds hospitalist. I would definitely suggest considering it as well. Look on pedjobs and the Society of Hospital Medicine (lists internal medicine jobs too). We have full time and part time people in our group that is in an academic setting. I would be happy to talk to you more about it. We are also looking to add more people to our group.

There are many options and hospital/clinics are becoming much more aware of how beneficial these positions are to doctors. When you have work/life balance, you will give them loyalty for a long time. Where at in Ohio? We only place permanent part time, flexible hours, reduced, as a single mother I need work/life balance, which is why I started Flexdox. Good luck