College Health Service Physicians

[DOrk]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi all

Anybody out there working in college health? I'm considering this as a career and I have a few questions.

How much time (on average) do you spend doing clinical medicine, and how much time is spent doing administrative tasks?

What do you think the physician's role in college health will be in the future? i.e do you think physicians will be replaced almost completely by midlevels? What kind of opportunities are out there for full-time practice of college health?


What's the lifestyle like in terms of hours/benefits/pay/vacation?

 

[deleted6669]

My understanding is that at this point the vast majority of college medicine jobs for md/do folks are as administrative medical directors with the majority of the clinician spots going to pa's and np's. I get job announcements in the mail all the time that basically say:
join the staff at xyz college in beautiful where-ever for a guaranteed 40 hr week with occassional weekend coverage and no call. join our staff of 12 pa's and 1 md to provide care to our student body.good salary, full benefits/retirement, 6 weeks paid vacation, etc
there are probably a few small liberal arts schools out there that have a staff of 2-3 docs and no midlevels but all the larger colleges have midlevels as their primary staffing at this point.
for example:
Oregon State University Student Health Services

Oregon State University Student Health Services, a multidisciplinary team, is accepting applications for a full time, academic year (9/16-6/15) Mid-Level Medical Practitioner (Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant) to provide general medical care to a diverse campus community. For complete announcement, minimum qualifications and application materials visit website http://oregonstate.edu/admin/hr/jobs/classified/desc285.html or contact Employment Services, 122 Kerr Admin Bldg, 15th & Jefferson, Corvallis OR 97331-2132; 541-737-3103; TTY 800-735-1232. Closing Date: 01/03/05 at 5 p.m. OSU is an AA/EOE.

 

[DOtobe]

DOrk..what happpened to EM?

College medicine is something I thought would be interesting to do as well, but I don't know how much of a demand there is for college physicians. Even my small liberal arts college (~1000 students) had a nurse practitioner as the main health provider. I didn't see a doctor any of the times I went to health services. I worked with a doc during my IM rotation who was a college physician - one day a week in the morning she was in the college health office instead of her own. I have not seen any physicians anywhere whose sole source of income was college health.

My $0.02...for what it's worth. 🙂

 

[DOrk]

DOrk..what happpened to EM?

College medicine is something I thought would be interesting to do as well, but I don't know how much of a demand there is for college physicians. Even my small liberal arts college (~1000 students) had a nurse practitioner as the main health provider. I didn't see a doctor any of the times I went to health services. I worked with a doc during my IM rotation who was a college physician - one day a week in the morning she was in the college health office instead of her own. I have not seen any physicians anywhere whose sole source of income was college health.

My $0.02...for what it's worth. 🙂

EM is still the plan.....I'm thinking about post-EM burnout...I think I'm just thinking too much....What do you think? 🙂

 

[DOtobe]

I can definitely see you getting post-EM burnout...as I am burned out after only 8 weeks of it... 😴

 

[PsychMD]

For future reference, here's a link to job listings on the ACHA (American College Health Association) site, where I've seen from time to time jobs for physicians

http://www.acha.org/prof_dev/job_listings.cfm

 

[gherelin]

Hi all

Anybody out there working in college health? I'm considering this as a career and I have a few questions.

How much time (on average) do you spend doing clinical medicine, and how much time is spent doing administrative tasks?

What do you think the physician's role in college health will be in the future? i.e do you think physicians will be replaced almost completely by midlevels? What kind of opportunities are out there for full-time practice of college health?


What's the lifestyle like in terms of hours/benefits/pay/vacation?

At UF-Shands/Gainesville, FP does rotations in student health. It is primarily FP physicians and they provide top quality care both urgent care, womens health, occupational medicine, ambulatory medicine, and sports medicine. I don't know what they get paid but they all seem to love their work. The patient population is fun, interesting, and generally interested in doing what they need to do to get better and get on with their lives. There's a surprisingly interesting range of pathology, people with unusual diseases sometimes aren't caught until college age, or even if it was, they'll go to student health rather than go all the way home to see their specialist unless they absolutely have to, and the university setting also makes it intellectually stimulating. Unfortunately for the midlevels, they seem to do the boring stuff--sore throats, small lacerations etc, although they often catch complexities that were initially missed. I don't know what the physicians get paid, but the hours and benefits look great to me.