inpatient psych job hours?

[freudianslipp]

Psych resident here thinking about what kind of job I want to take after residency. Ultimately I would want to have a hospital based job after residency so I can have some kind of stable income with enough time to start building a PP.

If you take a full-time (as in full salary) inpatient psych job, when are you usually able to get out of the hospital to go and see private patients? Most of my attendings in med school and residency seem to come in, round/see patients, and are GONE by noon--however since it is academic they are probably going to do other things and not getting paid extra for doing them. If you are in a community/private hospital, when are you able to leave? Once you round and see patients are you done for the day or do they expect you to sit around like a resident all day until sign out…

I think I would like to be able to leave hospital by early afternoon so I have a good 1/2 day to build a practice--leaving at 5 or 6 PM would only give me a few slots in the evening.

Any advice welcome!

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[vistaril]

Psych resident here thinking about what kind of job I want to take after residency. Ultimately I would want to have a hospital based job after residency so I can have some kind of stable income with enough time to start building a PP.

If you take a full-time (as in full salary) inpatient psych job, when are you usually able to get out of the hospital to go and see private patients? Most of my attendings in med school and residency seem to come in, round/see patients, and are GONE by noon--however since it is academic they are probably going to do other things and not getting paid extra for doing them. If you are in a community/private hospital, when are you able to leave? Once you round and see patients are you done for the day or do they expect you to sit around like a resident all day until sign out…

I think I would like to be able to leave hospital by early afternoon so I have a good 1/2 day to build a practice--leaving at 5 or 6 PM would only give me a few slots in the evening.

Any advice welcome!

It just depends on what you can work with them. Taking a non-salary inpatient position may be better for you based on your goals because then you are going to have more flexibility. I come in WHEN I WANT TO and leave WHEN I WANT TO. But sure, if you can work out a salaried position where it's ok to leave early if all the pts are seen that would be excellent.

 

[milesed]

It all depends on the inpt unit hiring you and whether or not they change things up once you have signed on the dotted line.

When I first left residency, our docs covered part of an inpt unit. It was a 20 bed, locked facility. One of our docs would work there until noon and see outpatients from 1-5pm. The unit also had their own full-time doc who was supposed to cover the consults from the medical floors and half of the inpatients. He worked 8-5 for them and had a decent gig, but we got screwed. I did all outpatient but had to cover my share of weekends, call and we covered each other's vacation time.

He was given 6 weeks off per year and we only had 3 (different employers) so I'd have to cancel all morning clinics to complete the work in 4 hours that he was given 8 to do. We also had to cover all of the call nights and weekends when he was off (twice as often as we were). We got paid nothing extra for call, weekends, etc. He never had to make up for all of the extra time we covered for him while he was off. The hospital's doc left and the next guy they hired was too slow. Anytime I had to cover, I'd end up with 2/3 of the patients to see in 4 hours compared to his 1/3 seen in 8. They also expanded the "max limit of 20 beds" to 25, which compounded the problem.

We finally pulled out of inpt work completely and the until there now cannot keep docs for more than 2 years. Just be careful and don't sign any non-compete clauses.