As I consider my future career prospects, I am very interested in general surgery. There are certain scholarships available for med students who agree to later practice in rural communities, which I am very open to, but I would like to learn more about the job prospects for general surgery in rural areas. Is it difficult to find a position in one's community of choice (obviously this may depend on the state)? How do salaries and work-life balance, or lack thereof, compare?
Job prospects for rural general surgery?
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Very difficult question to answer as there are too many variables. Demand across specialties is high in many rural areas, though it may depend on exactly where you look and how recently new docs were brought on and what facilities they have available. Generally speaking, finding a job should be quite doable.
The other stuff is the kicker. In a broad sense, the old advice was to look at salary, location, and work life balance. Generally you can get 2/3 of those. Finding all 3 is rare.
The other stuff is the kicker. In a broad sense, the old advice was to look at salary, location, and work life balance. Generally you can get 2/3 of those. Finding all 3 is rare.
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This is a good resource to get an idea of job market can be filtered by state.
www.nejmcareercenter.org
Job Search | NEJM CareerCenter
Surgery, General jobs. 191 Permanent jobs to view and apply for now with NEJM CareerCenter
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Shouldn't have too much of a problem finding a rural general surgery job as there tends to be a shortage of physicians in rural areas. But that doesn't mean the terms of the job will necessarily be good. Pay may be higher in most cases, but given the lack of physicians in rural areas would suspect that your call responsibilities will likely be higher. Also, rural areas more often means working for critical access hospitals (or hospitals that are poorly equipped or staffed) which don't have much subspeciality or ancillary support, so more of the work may fall on you than if you worked at a typical urban tertiary center.
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Job market for a rural general surgeon is excellent and you can find a job in any state.
It completely depends on the set up and what the expectations are. Pay is usually quite high, and often there are significant non-salary incentives (think loan repayment, housing stipends, etc) that aren’t there for jobs in more saturated markets. There is a job right now I know of that is 800k starting and significant bonuses/loan repayment (it’s in the middle of nowhere in a state a lot of people don’t want to live in)
Some places expect you to always be on call, or to be on call Q2 with a single partner. But in some places that call may be very light, with only a few calls a week. In other places you might simply be contracted for X days of call a month and the other days they simply don’t have coverage and have to send those patients out. Other places you might get crushed with call. It’s all in the details of the contract and you need to ask very specific questions
Most rural GS jobs have a heavy endoscopy component, think 40-50%. Everything else is usually bread and butter GB, appy, hernia, basic colon, skin/soft tissue, some do dialysis access, etc. Some rural GS do c-section (mainly just the technician and a rural FM is the actual “OB” and you’re just there to cut and get the baby out).
A lot of rural places treat their surgeons excellent, because you are the money maker for the hospital. It can take years to recruit a surgeon for some of these hospitals.
It completely depends on the set up and what the expectations are. Pay is usually quite high, and often there are significant non-salary incentives (think loan repayment, housing stipends, etc) that aren’t there for jobs in more saturated markets. There is a job right now I know of that is 800k starting and significant bonuses/loan repayment (it’s in the middle of nowhere in a state a lot of people don’t want to live in)
Some places expect you to always be on call, or to be on call Q2 with a single partner. But in some places that call may be very light, with only a few calls a week. In other places you might simply be contracted for X days of call a month and the other days they simply don’t have coverage and have to send those patients out. Other places you might get crushed with call. It’s all in the details of the contract and you need to ask very specific questions
Most rural GS jobs have a heavy endoscopy component, think 40-50%. Everything else is usually bread and butter GB, appy, hernia, basic colon, skin/soft tissue, some do dialysis access, etc. Some rural GS do c-section (mainly just the technician and a rural FM is the actual “OB” and you’re just there to cut and get the baby out).
A lot of rural places treat their surgeons excellent, because you are the money maker for the hospital. It can take years to recruit a surgeon for some of these hospitals.
Thanks so much for the thorough reply!
