CL job responsibilities

[erys]

Hi all,

I am a early career psychiatrist working full-time inpatient CL in a community hospital. I will likely be relocating to another state and looking for another job. I love CL, but I realize how lucky I am with my current job and the work-life balance it provides. Wondering if my responsibilities below are typical? Looking to relocate to the northeast.

Currently, my job responsibilities include:
-Full time inpatient CL
-No ED/crisis, no outpatient
-No mandatory call. Overnights and weekends are telehealth moonlighters. I have the option to working nights and weekends for additional pay.

Would it be possible finding the above easily at community hospitals? I suspect that it may be easier at academic hospitals, but I do not have a CL fellowship.

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[Celexa]

Agree with splik you shouldnt write off being able to get an academic position without a fellowship if they would otherwise be a good fit for you (which is to say, that the lower pay being compensated for by teaching and the other differences in academia work for you).

Places need a certain number of CL boarded psychiatrists to have or start a fellowship, but there just aren't a lot of boarded CL psychiatrists running around so few departments can afford to reject otherwise qualified people just because they don't have the fellowship. Including mine.

 

[comp1]

That is indeed a pretty sweet gig you had. You could definitely get an academic job. Nobody cares about CL fellowship. That said...you're asking for a heck of a lot here. Only medium to large community hospitals can have someone JUST doing med floor CL and be a FTE. A lot of places are looking for combined inpatient psych, ED and C/L to make a FTE. The separation of ED from the rest of C/L is a bit unusual all around, although I can certainly see why you liked it. And on top of this, you're also looking for no call? What you're describing sounds a bit more like a possible 1099/contracting job than a salaried FTE. Academics might make it work because they'd get their full FTE out of you with teaching and admin responsibilities, but I've yet to see academic jobs that don't have SOME call, at least as a backup to a resident as a first call.

 

[Stagg737]

Agree with above. I do know of a few docs who do C/L with no ER duties and no call, but these are not FT positions and are docs who are either cobbling positions or just doing it to keep an income stream. I work with an academic C/L team where there is a separate ER team (me and a couple others), outpatient is not required. Call is required but is Q6 weekends with RVU credit + extra pay for calls. We also are the overnight call people during that week/weekend, but actually being called is exceptionally rare (I've been called twice in 1.5 years and never after midnight).

Imo it's a "pick 2" kind of situation. If you want FT inpatient C/L, you're either going to have to cover the ER at some point or be on call. If you don't want call OR ER duties, you're most likely going to find this in PT or locums/1099 type positions.

 

[mistafab]

I'm at a very large academic joint that has all of those things except the no call part. The consult physician has to be in the general call pool and covers call once every few months.

 

[Celexa]

Agree with above. I do know of a few docs who do C/L with no ER duties and no call, but these are not FT positions and are docs who are either cobbling positions or just doing it to keep an income stream. I work with an academic C/L team where there is a separate ER team (me and a couple others), outpatient is not required. Call is required but is Q6 weekends with RVU credit + extra pay for calls. We also are the overnight call people during that week/weekend, but actually being called is exceptionally rare (I've been called twice in 1.5 years and never after midnight).

Imo it's a "pick 2" kind of situation. If you want FT inpatient C/L, you're either going to have to cover the ER at some point or be on call. If you don't want call OR ER duties, you're most likely going to find this in PT or locums/1099 type positions.

I agree it's probably a pick 2 type of situation. In my (academic) gig we all have to cover a mandatory small number of weekend day CL call shifts. The workload on those is highly variable but nothing crazy. We do get extra compensation for it. Thankfully we have no general inpatient or ED call obligations, though.

A full time CL job with reasonable workload, no call whatsoever, and no ED coverage does sound like a unicorn position.