Moonlighting Emergency?

[futurevet_2025]

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Hi all! I am currently in vet school. I was just wondering generally how common it is to see GP practitioners additionally moonlight or do per diem emergency/critical care work. It seems like the best of both worlds to me, but I am wondering how feasible that is. Thanks for any input 🙂

 

[JaynaAli]

It’s very possible. There’s usually a need for people to work ER shifts, especially in the current state of vet Med. It can be limiting that the less desirable shifts tend to be nights which make it harder to fit in to your life if you normally work days and don’t have days off to reverse your sleep schedule around overnight shifts. But it’s done, especially when people are trying to save money or pay off loans. I think a lot of people are so tired and burnt out on their regular jobs they need their days off for mental health and other life reasons though too.

 

[Minnerbelle]

yeah. Totally depends on the market. But right now the market is in dire need of more vets especially at ERs. If you’re a GP that has a sweet 4 day schedule and want to tack on an extra shift, I would imagine a lot of ERs will be happy to have you for whatever capacity you want to help. You could probably specify being on with another doctor during X hours, and a lot of places would probably take you. If you don’t have considerable experience, I would caution you against taking on an overnight shift alone in a busy ER. Managing 15+hospitalized patients while intaking a barrage of new ER cases and fitting in procedures/surgeries wouldn’t really be a fun time especially if you aren’t well trained/efficient.

 

[Trilt]

yeah. Totally depends on the market. But right now the market is in dire need of more vets especially at ERs. If you’re a GP that has a sweet 4 day schedule and want to tack on an extra shift, I would imagine a lot of ERs will be happy to have you for whatever capacity you want to help. You could probably specify being on with another doctor during X hours, and a lot of places would probably take you. If you don’t have considerable experience, I would caution you against taking on an overnight shift alone in a busy ER. Managing 15+hospitalized patients while intaking a barrage of new ER cases and fitting in procedures/surgeries wouldn’t really be a fun time especially if you aren’t well trained/efficient.

Agreed. I would 100% recommend only doing this after you're kind of established and have general ideas of different drugs and sedation and whatnot, but I'd say ~80-90% of ER is just similar to the sick patients from GP with bigger budgets and no appointments bearing down on you from both sides.

Absolutely agree that overnights can be a beast though, and if you're just getting started I'd prioritize doing swing shifts with other docs around.

I did about six months of full time ER (after being in GP for several years) before tackling overnights alone. I *could* have done it straight out of GP, but my patient care definitely wouldn't have been the best.

 

[Lupin21]

I jumped into emergency pick up shifts about 6 months in. VIN was/is my friend and I was originally lucky enough that we had 2 docs on when I first started. Now not so much, but I'm an embattled vet at 2 plus years out. haha

 

[battie]

It's definitely a thing in my metro area. My hospital is 24/7, and we've had to lean on relief ER docs recently as one of our overnight docs left. For someone who is a part time associate at one practice, a few overnights a month at local ers would 1) be a tremendous help to those hospitals and 2) be a good way to make money.

 

[Angelo84]

I jumped into emergency pick up shifts about 6 months in. VIN was/is my friend and I was originally lucky enough that we had 2 docs on when I first started. Now not so much, but I'm an embattled vet at 2 plus

It's definitely a thing in my metro area. My hospital is 24/7, and we've had to lean on relief ER docs recently as one of our overnight docs left. For someone who is a part time associate at one practice, a few overnights a month at local ers would 1) be a tremendous help to those hospitals and 2) be a good way to make money.

This is definitely a thing! I would love to have a GP that was willing to take 2 night shifts a month! If you are newer would want to be on with other f do ice first do it’s not just you alone with everything but that can be fun too!

 

[britzen]

Piggy backing off of this question:

For those of us who will be new grads working in non-clinical roles (govt or similar), where do you think a good place to start would be for moonlighting in clinical practice?

Ideally I'd like to get to a place professionally where a can work a few night / weekend / holiday shifts per month, but am nervous as a new grad I will struggle and it will take me a long time to build up experience to be a self-sufficient doctor since I won't be doing it very often.

Is it reasonable to start right off in an ER? Or would it be better to get my feet under me in GP, shelter med, or something like vaccine clinics first and then transition over to ER once I have more experience?

 

[JaynaAli]

@britzen I’d personally probably try for the GP relief shifts and vaccine clinic stuff at first. That’s not to say you couldn’t be successful jumping right into an ER role, especially if your shifts had other ER doctors there to bounce ideas off of, but if you’re not seeing patients on a regular basis it will make a transition to ER even harder I think. I’m sure either would be fine in the end, but ERs are so slammed now it will be even easier to get overwhelmed by sheer volume. I think easing into it will let you learn some efficiency skills and confidence that will make a transition into ER work easier later.

 

[futurevet_2025]

Thank you all so much for your input & advice! I really appreciate it 🙂

 

[Angelo84]

By the way if this is something you want to do make sure it is allowed in your contract. Some places have statements that you can’t work elsewhere while working for them or you can but has to be outside a non compete radius which may or may not be realistic.