Surgery - part-time possible?

[nychila]

As a surgeon, is it possible to work part-time (20-30h/week as opposed to 60h/week), to devote the rest of my time to other personal affairs, excluding research?

I am deeply interested in surgery, particularly cardiac. However, ideally I would also like to run my family business in the healthcare industry after my medical training, which would require about 40h/week. You can also think of my question as someone interested in surgery who wants to work less than the usual full-time position in order to spend more time with family.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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[Buzz Me]

Please do a search for this frequently-asked question.

 

[nychila]

Please do a search for this frequently-asked question.

Hi and sorry about that. But I really tried looking for existing threads on this topic, and there weren't many. All of them had very limited responses also. It would be very much appreciated if anyone could help me out or point me to the right direction. Thanks!

 

[Smurfette]

As a surgeon, is it possible to work part-time (20-30h/week as opposed to 60h/week), to devote the rest of my time to other personal affairs, excluding research?

I am deeply interested in surgery, particularly cardiac. However, ideally I would also like to run my family business in the healthcare industry after my medical training, which would require about 40h/week. You can also think of my question as someone interested in surgery who wants to work less than the usual full-time position in order to spend more time with family.

Thanks in advance for any help.

For cardiac surgery?
Possible? Theoretically, but it's a stretch.
Realistic? No. Who would hire you? Even if you were self-employed, you couldn't run a solo practice on only 20-30 hours per week (financially or time-wise).

 

[nychila]

For cardiac surgery?
Possible? Theoretically, but it's a stretch.
Realistic? No. Who would hire you? Even if you were self-employed, you couldn't run a solo practice on only 20-30 hours per week (financially or time-wise).

What about as a less specialized surgeon? After a surgeon becomes established, would he/she be able to spend the rest of the week (40h say) on research, administration, or business? Thanks.

 

[Winged Scapula]

What about as a less specialized surgeon? After a surgeon becomes established, would he/she be able to spend the rest of the week (40h say) on research, administration, or business? Thanks.

The problem you will face is that there are overhead expenses which are fixed, regardless of how many hours you work.

Malpractice insurance, for example, does not decrease because you work less. I would also worry that a part time surgeon in my practice would not be available to cover call, vacations and wouldn't be dedicated to the practice.

 

[maxheadroom]

The other issue is that your first couple of years in practice are the years in which you establish yourself clinically (figuring out what you do well and what you want to avoid), build a referral pattern (primarily by being available when others are not), and by demonstrating that you are willing to handle difficult cases.

Those particular qualities are difficult to establish if you want to work part-time early in your career. If part-time is your goal, look to Emergency Medicine, Derm, or Rads. All frequently have schedules that are more flexible.

 

[thedrjojo]

The other issue is that your first couple of years in practice are the years in which you establish yourself clinically (figuring out what you do well and what you want to avoid), build a referral pattern (primarily by being available when others are not), and by demonstrating that you are willing to handle difficult cases.

Those particular qualities are difficult to establish if you want to work part-time early in your career. If part-time is your goal, look to Emergency Medicine, Derm, or Rads. All frequently have schedules that are more flexible.

Or GYN. If you become a hospitalist in GYN, you can do 3-4 12hr shifts a week, cover L&D doing deliveries/Csections, and covering the ER for the ectopics, torsion, etc, that needs to go to the OR. Might not have to do any clinic either... trying to get my wife to do that post residency 🙂

 

[45408]

What about as a less specialized surgeon? After a surgeon becomes established, would he/she be able to spend the rest of the week (40h say) on research, administration, or business? Thanks.

Research and administration, yes. The department chairman or a professor with a research lab might be able to do this, at a large academic medical center, for someone whose practice tends to be more elective and not dependent on the ER (e.g., endocrine surgeon, breast, surgical oncology, as opposed to trauma, general surgery, transplant, cardiac).

But that's only after you've established yourself after 10-20 years of full-time practice. Surgery is simply not conducive to anything less than full-time for the vast majority of people.

 

[nychila]

Surgery is simply not conducive to anything less than full-time for the vast majority of people.

That message seems to be the consensus within this thread. Thank you everyone for your replies, and I will definitely keep in mind that it is possible to undertake another part-time commitment (research, admin, business) with a career in surgery, but it can usually only happen after 10 or more years of full-time practice.

 

[cchoukal]

There are lots of career paths in the various medical specialties, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to get someone to pay you for what you're doing, or accept a lot less money for the time you aren't doing something you can get paid for (the poster's point about fixed overhead being a very important caveat to my point). In academics, there are all sorts of other roles you will be expected to fill, aside from patient care. Some of those will come with salary support (grant-funded research, hospital/medicalschool-funded committees), and some will not. I'm not a surgeon, so it's possible that this advice may not be strictly applicable, but I would guess that it would be easier to work part time in either a very large HMO-style practice like Kaiser or in an academic center, where the large fixed costs are already spent, and as on cog in a vast machine, your individual productivity is a much smaller part of the overall bottom line.

In my own department, the non-clinical work that grants "time" is sort of a mixed blessing. The time it actually takes to complete the work always exceeds the fraction of non-clinical time that is given with the assignment, so I worked many fewer hours when I was more strictly clinical.

 

[europeman]

Surgeons at the VA I work at are "full time" but in reality are home by 4-5pm everyday and never come in on weekends.


European

 

[nychila]

Surgeons at the VA I work at are "full time" but in reality are home by 4-5pm everyday and never come in on weekends.


European

Pardon me for my ignorance, but what does VA stand for?

 

[Med0123]

Pardon me for my ignorance, but what does VA stand for?

Veterans Affairs medical facilities