How much autonomy do physician scientists have over their clinical commitments?

[deleted728364]

If an mdphd wanted to solely do their outpatient clinical work at a clinic in an underserved area (that was in their academic hospital system etc) is this possible, or will your department direct you to work at another clinic/location that, say, generated more revenue etc? Another example would be if one preferred to travel to a small rural town (only like an 45 min-hour away from their Big Academic Hospital) and see patients there, can they do so?

I can see things like call being out of one's control, but other than call how much (clinical) freedom does an mdphd with limited clinical time have?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Fencer]

Everything is in the negotiating table. During our early years, we take a pay-cut because we have a different PURPOSE than other clinical educators or clinicians in the department. Sometimes you must accept to do a clinic just to help the department and earn some political capital for later... As you move up in the academic ladder, you get more flexibility with your schedule and pay.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

You can try to negotiate as much as possible, realizing that as a new hire, the thing you can negotiate the most for is time. That being said, things often happen (people leave, new clinics open up, whatever) and you will generally be expected to make up for the deficient. Even on a training grant, the NIH considers a work week 40 hours. So even if you are getting 75% protected time on a research grant, that's 30 hours of research a week. The rest of that week, you do what the institution requires you to do. When I was on my 2nd to 3rd of my K and we had a bunch of physicians in my group burnout and leave, I was required to make up the deficit and worked doubled my FTE (I got paid bonuses though... so it wasn't all bad). But, those will always be the breaks... unless you can be successful enough to completely buy yourself out of clinical responsibilities or you are willing to take a pay cut by cutting down your clinical load (realizing that most of your salary typically comes from clinical RVU generation).