Part-time Pathology Positions

[MedStudent0005]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking into which specialties have the most opportunities for part-time work and out of the commonly listed ones I am most interested in family medicine and pathology. I am much older than the average student and do not want to go into a high stress/high hours field such as EM, due to personal health concerns. Ideally after residency work 20-30 hours per week. I have not done any pathology rotations yet, but I would like to get feedback from people already in this field about what type of part-time positions are available in pathology. Here are some questions:

1) Threads asking about this state that pathology offers a lot of "shift work", what do pathologists do during this type of work and is this more for anatomical or clinical or both?

2) Is shift work mainly at hospitals or is it at private practice laboratories?

3) Obviously working part-time will lower salary due to working less hours, but would you expect a significant pay decrease per hour worked?

4) Is the job market for part-time pathologists even worse compared to full-time? Would large hospitals hire part-time pathologists if they were willing to take a somewhat reduced hourly salary?

5) (question for both pt and ft positions) For pathologists nearing the end of residency, it is easy to get a job at a large hospital in the location of their choice and all the job market crique on these forums is mostly for difficulty finding private practice positions? Do all pathologists really need to do a fellowship before finding a job? Do academic positions pay much less than private practice and this is why people complain about the job market on forums?

Thank you all for reading and leaving feedback.

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[caffeinegirl]

The vast majority of pathology positions are full time and not shift work. Very very very rare to find part time work outside of academics.
Also, there is a vast difference between pathology and family medicine. I would recommend that you do a rotation and see the difference for yourself prior to committing or even exploring pathology.
The job market for pathology currently is that of over-saturation of trainees, and it is very hard to find a position in a geographically restricted location.

 

[Alteran]

In over a decade, I haven't seen one part-time position that wasn't in academia and only open to either friends of the chairmen or some desirable big name hot shot as an "adjunct" teaching gig.

I've mentioned to my group in passing about trying to opening part time positions and the answer is always why do that when we can get a full time pathologist for not that much more.

 

[octopusprime]

I would go FP and not even consider pathology...you'll have infinitely more options for shift work of all kinds and won't be geographically restricted.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Drug companies have some part time work. I know of people who had part time gigs with Eli Lilly.

 

[ScubaV]

You might consider locums as part-time on a yearly scale, but you'd probably be working full-time for the period of your contract. Plus there's no geographic stability and I'm not sure people would hire a fresh grad for locums unless the pay/location was real crap and they couldn't get anyone else. My (maybe incorrect) impression is that locums is usually done by people who either weren't able to smoothly transition from one job to another or people in semi-retirement looking to stay busy or stave off withdrawals from their 401k's.

 

[LADoc00]

I do see PT gigs in pathology and I personally think the job is well suited for it.

 

[deleted314957]

If at all interested, psych can be a good gig specialty. I know of a guy who only does locums (at the time and place of his choice) and it is almost all med checks. Easy, good money.

 

[path_spouse]

My husband’s previous and current groups (both hospital based private practice) each had part time pathologists. I do see occasional part time ads both on pathoutlines, and I know he gets some from recruiters too. I also know a couple of gastroenterologists who have pathologists working for them part time.

Drug companies have some part time work. I know of people who had part time gigs with Eli Lilly.

I work in the device industry (also have former colleagues at Lilly). At least from what I see true "part time" roles are probably the exception, but there are a lot of consulting roles for physicians. And there is also flexibility to negotiate your role.

 

[AZpath]

Yes there are some part time work in path. It is not the best field for it.
There are not these positions in every city.
Very hit and miss.
FP will have many more opportunities in any given locality.

 

[Zarniwoop]

In med school I thought pathology was one of the top fields for being part time, but the truth is those positions are hard to come by and almost guaranteed to pay poorly. Docs in other fields can go part time, but in path you are often forced to pretend that your retirement age body can still hack going 100%. OK, this is pathology and not the Bataan death march, but still....

Any limitation (geography, part time, etc) makes your chances of personal fulfillment that much lower, but anything is possible.

 

[Med Director New England]

I know / have known a few part timers. Mostly those near the end of their career, hanging on a few more years in the same area or same group.

a good part timer has a lot of value. Can really help with staffing esp if the part timer can flex up to FT when others are on vacation

if you do part time at the start of your career you likely will be taken advantage of regarding salary.

there are a lot of other threads that answer some of your other questions

 

[eulAEgy]

In over a decade, I haven't seen one part-time position that wasn't in academia and only open to either friends of the chairmen or some desirable big name hot shot as an "adjunct" teaching gig.

I've mentioned to my group in passing about trying to opening part time positions and the answer is always why do that when we can get a full time pathologist for not that much more.

I think you might be surprised, lots of wealthy people that went into medicine for prestige reasons. I know one pediatrician making a bit under $40k a year for one shift a week. Comes from some deep rooted racing family in England.

Additionally the huge number of IMGs in path and most have zero debt.

And one more is lots of people of gen Z generation wanting to live up the Instagram life, happy to work less for little pay. Though more of the "medfluencers" are more attracted to EM, far sexier for them too.

 

[LADoc00]

Huh, I had assumed PT gigs werent advertised because there was no appetite for them on the employee side.

What would be a fair 1099 rate for week/month gig? $5500? 6K?

1/2 time Gen Z gig for 145K/yr reasonable?

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

A histotech told a former old timer in our group about part time work with a drug company. I don't even know if the job was advertised. Goes to show, make friends with as many people as you can. You never know who may help you out some day.

 

[Mx300]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking into which specialties have the most opportunities for part-time work and out of the commonly listed ones I am most interested in family medicine and pathology. I am much older than the average student and do not want to go into a high stress/high hours field such as EM, due to personal health concerns. Ideally after residency work 20-30 hours per week. I have not done any pathology rotations yet, but I would like to get feedback from people already in this field about what type of part-time positions are available in pathology. Here are some questions:

1) Threads asking about this state that pathology offers a lot of "shift work", what do pathologists do during this type of work and is this more for anatomical or clinical or both?

2) Is shift work mainly at hospitals or is it at private practice laboratories?

3) Obviously working part-time will lower salary due to working less hours, but would you expect a significant pay decrease per hour worked?

4) Is the job market for part-time pathologists even worse compared to full-time? Would large hospitals hire part-time pathologists if they were willing to take a somewhat reduced hourly salary?

5) (question for both pt and ft positions) For pathologists nearing the end of residency, it is easy to get a job at a large hospital in the location of their choice and all the job market crique on these forums is mostly for difficulty finding private practice positions? Do all pathologists really need to do a fellowship before finding a job? Do academic positions pay much less than private practice and this is why people complain about the job market on forums?

Thank you all for reading and leaving feedback.

Hello everyone,

I have been looking into which specialties have the most opportunities for part-time work and out of the commonly listed ones I am most interested in family medicine and pathology. I am much older than the average student and do not want to go into a high stress/high hours field such as EM, due to personal health concerns. Ideally after residency work 20-30 hours per week. I have not done any pathology rotations yet, but I would like to get feedback from people already in this field about what type of part-time positions are available in pathology. Here are some questions:

1) Threads asking about this state that pathology offers a lot of "shift work", what do pathologists do during this type of work and is this more for anatomical or clinical or both?

2) Is shift work mainly at hospitals or is it at private practice laboratories?

3) Obviously working part-time will lower salary due to working less hours, but would you expect a significant pay decrease per hour worked?

4) Is the job market for part-time pathologists even worse compared to full-time? Would large hospitals hire part-time pathologists if they were willing to take a somewhat reduced hourly salary?

5) (question for both pt and ft positions) For pathologists nearing the end of residency, it is easy to get a job at a large hospital in the location of their choice and all the job market crique on these forums is mostly for difficulty finding private practice positions? Do all pathologists really need to do a fellowship before finding a job? Do academic positions pay much less than private practice and this is why people complain about the job market on forums?

Thank you all for reading and leaving feedback.

There are part-time positions however what I have seen is that it is usually full-timers in a practice for a while that then switch to part-time later in their career. What I will say is that there are jobs in path that are in essence a part time gig in medicine. If you go to a low volume practice, I have heard of people that only do 4-6 hours of work with alot of down time and low stress. Most people dont want jobs like that because you wont make alot of money. I have also heard that VA jobs are super chill and it might as well be part-time. So part time in FM might actually be more stress than a full time path gig in a low volume institution. I dont know but it sounds more stressful to me and more annoying paperwork. However path training is longer 5 years vs 3 years for FM. If you want low volume in path it will be similar pay. From my limited search of the job market so far I have seen that low volume jobs seem to be numerous while the high volume gigs are not as common and more stressful. It will be up to what is your preference for the type of work.

 

[Napoleon1801]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking into which specialties have the most opportunities for part-time work and out of the commonly listed ones I am most interested in family medicine and pathology. I am much older than the average student and do not want to go into a high stress/high hours field such as EM, due to personal health concerns. Ideally after residency work 20-30 hours per week. I have not done any pathology rotations yet, but I would like to get feedback from people already in this field about what type of part-time positions are available in pathology. Here are some questions:

1) Threads asking about this state that pathology offers a lot of "shift work", what do pathologists do during this type of work and is this more for anatomical or clinical or both?

2) Is shift work mainly at hospitals or is it at private practice laboratories?

3) Obviously working part-time will lower salary due to working less hours, but would you expect a significant pay decrease per hour worked?

4) Is the job market for part-time pathologists even worse compared to full-time? Would large hospitals hire part-time pathologists if they were willing to take a somewhat reduced hourly salary?

5) (question for both pt and ft positions) For pathologists nearing the end of residency, it is easy to get a job at a large hospital in the location of their choice and all the job market crique on these forums is mostly for difficulty finding private practice positions? Do all pathologists really need to do a fellowship before finding a job? Do academic positions pay much less than private practice and this is why people complain about the job market on forums?

Thank you all for reading and leaving feedback.

I've seen a couple situations where people have asked for part time work (ie. 0.5 or 0.8 FTEs) and they made it work. However, you have to ask for it since most positions are advertised as 1.0 FTE. Everything is negotiable, you just need to find the right group.

 

[KeratinPearls]

The vast majority of pathology positions are full time and not shift work. Very very very rare to find part time work outside of academics.
Also, there is a vast difference between pathology and family medicine. I would recommend that you do a rotation and see the difference for yourself prior to committing or even exploring pathology.
The job market for pathology currently is that of over-saturation of trainees, and it is very hard to find a position in a geographically restricted location.

Looked into a job that was part time near me. Good pay 0.8 FTE mostly biopsies. Pretty good pay for 4 days a week but they are busy. You have to gross all biopsies however.

 

[DoctorMD1]

My husband’s previous and current groups (both hospital based private practice) each had part time pathologists. I do see occasional part time ads both on pathoutlines, and I know he gets some from recruiters too. I also know a couple of gastroenterologists who have pathologists working for them part time.



I work in the device industry (also have former colleagues at Lilly). At least from what I see true "part time" roles are probably the exception, but there are a lot of consulting roles for physicians. And there is also flexibility to negotiate your role.

My wife is path and works part time - 3 days a week.