Questions for hospital employed psych

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Hospital Dwelling Nomad

In search of food, shelter, and meaning
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Hello,

I'm wondering if it is the norm for folks to agree to take a certain amount of unpaid call while working for any hospital based practice, or do you all ask to be compensated for every call you take?

Also, for those of you who have worked in hospital based practices, what's your standard for the amount of PTO time?

Thanks

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Often there is some call as part of the job, especially if you do inpatient. There may also be consult call.
There is variety regarding call frequency from place to place and what is expected. Some places you have to go in to the hospital for every seclusion and admission. Other places you can handle most things by phone. Some places are very busy, others not so much.
PTO is typically about 3-4 weeks, more or less.
This stuff (call, PTO) is usually presented to an applicant up front. If not, ask. Then wonder what they aren't telling you and ask the people already working there.
Everything is negotiable. If you want to be paid extra to do call, ask for it.
If they won't negotiate at all, walk away. Psychiatrists are valuable assets.
 
Agree. Several new attendings don't know how valuable they are because their last frame of reference was being the equivalent of an indentured servant (if they were in a hard program).

I've seen situations where bad residents attained a bad rep in the local area, so when they graduated they could not obtain a more competitive job. Getting a job was never a problem, but getting a choice one? No. While I was at U. of Cincinnati they would never hire a bad psychiatrist in their main hospital though I've seen a few (just maybe 1-2) bad ones in their satellite hospitals outside of downtown. Several of the residents that were not considered good looked for work there but were turned down.

If the resident was good, however, the department was eager to take them, but then the resident-turned-new-attending didn't have a knowledge foundation on what they should expect as a good and competitive salary for their talents.

The state hospital pretty much took anyone, and it was hard to get fired, so that just goes to show you if the doc was fired from the state hospital they truly were pathetic. I'm talking sex with patients, doing something that killed a patient (or close to it), double-dipping level of pathetic. There are some good doctors in the state hospital but they were a significant minority.

VA was a broad range of terrible to excellent doctors.

Private practice-broad range of terrible to excellent, but the bad ones are able to get away with it because they were usually their own bosses.

Community hospitals: broad range. The community hospital either didn't care because the guy was making money (but might've been an idiot-e.g. was making money because he was inappropriately doing excessive ECTs), or they needed a psychiatrist and were willing to settle for anyone that could fill in the gap.

A big frustration of mine was I felt I figured out the job situation, opened several doors, and was solid with where I should head my professional career before my move to St. Louis. Now I'm starting over in many respects.
 
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I've seen most jobs giving 4 weeks with 1 week for CME. Some places, depending on where they are located, are giving up to 6 weeks off. Some places will pay for call, some won't. Have to take into context this arrangement and adjust your based salary for compensation if your call isn't compensated.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I've been busy on the interview trail. I appreciate the insight. I will definitely take that into account. Most places seem to ask for some level of uncompensated call, and most places offer to pay you more for taking extra call. So it seems like the amount of PTO I'm seeing is within the range of what everyone here is used to seeing.

Yes, I'm aware I'm a valuable asset. Hence, why I'm looking in multiple places to see what kind of offers they are willing to give. Frankly, if they ask me to take a ton of call, and pay me crap for it, then I'm sticking to the public sector/government/VA :nod: though all private hospitals are offering production bonuses.

I am also ready to review my top choice(s) with an attorney. I have already heard the tragedies from residents ahead of me (and warnings from you all).
 
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