Working Part-time in Psych

[dhopeful29]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello beautiful people 😛
I was wondering about the prospects of a psychiatrist working solely part-time? I know the medicine world expects us to work 60+ hours but I have other interests in life as well that I would like to pursue.
Also how easy it is to get a part-time gig immediately after residency?

PS: Didn't mean to offend anyone by posting this! My top interests among the specialties lies in psychiatry. When I asked about the part-time work in Psych to some medical students and docs, they looked at me as though I committed a deathly sin by asking about part-time work. 🤔

 

[FlowRate]

Hello beautiful people 😛
I was wondering about the prospects of a psychiatrist working solely part-time? I know the medicine world expects us to work 60+ hours but I have other interests in life as well that I would like to pursue.
Also how easy it is to get a part-time gig immediately after residency?

PS: Didn't mean to offend anyone by posting this! My top interests among the specialties lies in psychiatry. When I asked about the part-time work in Psych to some medical students and docs, they looked at me as though I committed a deathly sin by asking about part-time work. 🤔

Most academics I know work part time. Probably also doable on the private side of life.

If you do your own solo practice, you can work however much you want, problem being that overhead tends to be a constant cost unless you find a way to split time in the office with another provider.

 

[downwithDTB]

Part time is available in most fields of medicine, but below a threshold can be less rewarding/hr (as overhead may be fixed, which you get around by joining a practice and you probably won't get benefits)… and loans. But if money isn't the issue, part time private practice, covering inpatient moonlight shifts and doing random psych ED shifts come to mind as possibilities in the right place. I think there are a decent number of school or community gigs that are less than full time where people usually supplement with private practice.

I've also met part time general surgeons (cover 1-2 night acute shifts/week), primary care, hospitalists, ED docs, ect. The world is your oyster is making money isn't a priority.

 

[nexus73]

Part time in psych is pretty easy as an employee. Find a community mental health center that needs you for 3 days a week. Contract with a jail or prison for a few days. Find a part time psych ED job if in a bigger city. String together various on call weekend shifts at inpatient psych units. Doing part time private practice is tougher; though overhead in psych is relatively low. You can get a part time discount on liability insurance. Office overhead can be relatively cheap, depending on the location, because psychiatrists don't need elaborate exam rooms like other physicians. You could probably call around to local therapy groups and find many have extra offices sitting vacant. The tough part about part time private practice will be you are really on call 24 hours 7 days a week unless you can create an agreement with other docs to cover for each other during off hours.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Totally doable where I live. Most of the employees for my community job are part-time and do other things (or don't and are tapering down). Lots of people also start up part-time private practices -- you can often sublet office space. As mentioned above, malpractice insurance is pretty cheap, and you get a discount for part-time work. I agree that coverage for part-time could potentially be an issue but not insurmountable.

 

[dhopeful29]

thank you for all your replies! Very insightful
Like some of you mentioned, I am not entering this field for the love of money.

I do have a question though, I am not inclined towards private practice since I believe I don't really possess that business acumen. For community health centers, do we get health benefits if working part-time?

 

[notdeadyet]

. For community health centers, do we get health benefits if working part-time?

That'll vary by locale. In the county I'm in, you get full benefits for 20 hours/week or more (with obviously pro-rated retirement).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Doctor Bagel]

thank you for all your replies! Very insightful
Like some of you mentioned, I am not entering this field for the love of money.

I do have a question though, I am not inclined towards private practice since I believe I don't really possess that business acumen. For community health centers, do we get health benefits if working part-time?

With the community agencies I've worked, you get benefits if you work 20 hours/week. One agency pays a little more in hourly wages if you are below that to make up for the fact that you aren't getting benefits.

Thoughts, though, with not entering medicine for money -- I'd definitely endeavor to minimize your loan burden. Interests rates on student loans are pretty brutal, and they grow while you're a resident. Working parttime becomes a more viable option if you have fewer loans. You also don't qualify for PSLF forgiveness unless you work 30 hours a week for a nonprofit.

 

[dhopeful29]

With the community agencies I've worked, you get benefits if you work 20 hours/week. One agency pays a little more in hourly wages if you are below that to make up for the fact that you aren't getting benefits.

Thoughts, though, with not entering medicine for money -- I'd definitely endeavor to minimize your loan burden. Interests rates on student loans are pretty brutal, and they grow while you're a resident. Working parttime becomes a more viable option if you have fewer loans. You also don't qualify for PSLF forgiveness unless you work 30 hours a week for a nonprofit.

I see.....hmm...I didn't know about the PSLF part. Will keep that in mind.

What range are you thinking when you say "fewer loans"? Is $150k considered towards the lower end of loans? I will have around that much indebtedness when I graduate.
My spouse has a stable income (>120K) so I was thinking of repaying a chunk of my loans starting from residency...I hope this will allow me to repay everything faster? Also by working part-time say 25-30 hours can I expect to make atleast a 100K?

Edited for grammar.

 

[keifernny2]

Part time jobs are easy to get, though hard to live on. By the time you pay your licensing fees, dues, CME costs (conference & travel), malpractice, buy your umbrella liability policy (since those MD plates on your car might as well be a great big bulls-eye for scammers on the road with you), you won't have a lot left if you work less than 20 hours. 30 Hours, definitely doable. Also, remember, in a 30 hour job, that doesn't mean you'll be spending 30 hours face-to-face with patients, and in fact the number will usually be closer to 24 or 25 (or less).

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Like some of you mentioned, I am not entering this field for the love of money.

About people looking at you funny when you say you want to work part-time, part-time work is less of an option for people who don't have spouses who earn six figures. So maybe they're jealous. My partner doesn't earn six figures (and earned way less when I was in medical school in part because he followed me to a low wage part of the country and opted to go back to school). Hence, part-time work is less of a reality for me. I'm not sure it's about either of us being more focused on money or greedy.

Just throwing that out there. My suspicion is generally that those who de-emphasize money are those who have the privilege to de-emphasize money by things like coming from families with money, not having debt, having spouses who earn high incomes, etc.. Not saying this is you but if you give a hint that you're morally superior to your colleagues by caring less about money (which is often how it comes across when people say things like this), it might not be met well.

Anyway, though, it's good for you that you get to borrow less and that you have a partner who can do well. You can definitely earn $100k working 20 hours right now where I live -- I suspect this is true in much of the country if you steer clear of the NE.

 

[dhopeful29]

About people looking at you funny when you say you want to work part-time, part-time work is less of an option for people who don't have spouses who earn six figures. So maybe they're jealous. My partner doesn't earn six figures (and earned way less when I was in medical school in part because he followed me to a low wage part of the country and opted to go back to school). Hence, part-time work is less of a reality for me. I'm not sure it's about either of us being more focused on money or greedy.

Just throwing that out there. My suspicion is generally that those who de-emphasize money are those who have the privilege to de-emphasize money by things like coming from families with money, not having debt, having spouses who earn high incomes, etc.. Not saying this is you but if you give a hint that you're morally superior to your colleagues by caring less about money (which is often how it comes across when people say things like this), it might not be met well.

Anyway, though, it's good for you that you get to borrow less and that you have a partner who can do well. You can definitely earn $100k working 20 hours right now where I live -- I suspect this is true in much of the country if you steer clear of the NE.

I added that part about money just to mention that money wasn't a priority and spending time with my husband and child was more important. Also about the people who looked at me funny, it was during shadowing and I never told anything about my spouse or any personal information. So I am not sure if they thought I was entitled. I don't come from a privileged family at all, and my spouse is not paying for my tuition. I am taking a loan and I am not planning to burden him with my loan. Since we are married I just don't have to think of cost of living thats all. That is definitely a plus I believe. 🙂

Anyways, didn't mean to derail the thread...is 150K of indebtedness doable while working part-time?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Anyways, didn't mean to derail the thread...is 150K of indebtedness doable while working part-time?

Didn't mean to sound snappy. I think the statement about not doing it just for money got at me, especially as I'm becoming more and more aware of how much my loan payments are going to be each year.

About paying the loans off, it's probably doable. The government has calculators where you can determine monthly payments, which will give you a better idea of how much money will go to loans. Just be sure to figure out how much interest will build on the loans during residency, so you'll know how much you have to pay them to stop that from happening. One bummer part about income based payments are that they're phasing out the deal where you can file separately and not get your spouse's income included in your calculations for the REPAYE program. Not sure what that means for new borrowers, but it could be an issue if you have a higher income spouse.

 

[Shikima]

Didn't mean to sound snappy. I think the statement about not doing it just for money got at me, especially as I'm becoming more and more aware of how much my loan payments are going to be each year.

It's for this reason alone that I cannot go back to working W2 alone in a single income family.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Students are so poor that it is easy for them to say it isn't about the money. 😛 They see 100k per year as fabulously wealthy. I see it as way less than my brother who works in the transportation industry with no college degree (hence no student loans) earns.

 

[dhopeful29]

About paying the loans off, it's probably doable. The government has calculators where you can determine monthly payments, which will give you a better idea of how much money will go to loans. Just be sure to figure out how much interest will build on the loans during residency, so you'll know how much you have to pay them to stop that from happening. One bummer part about income based payments are that they're phasing out the deal where you can file separately and not get your spouse's income included in your calculations for the REPAYE program. Not sure what that means for new borrowers, but it could be an issue if you have a higher income spouse.

Thank you doc, I shall look into this. Part-time may not be a good idea for me...atleast initially.
Thanks for all your comments!

 

[Trismegistus4]

Students are so poor that it is easy for them to say it isn't about the money. 😛 They see 100k per year as fabulously wealthy. I see it as way less than my brother who works in the transportation industry with no college degree (hence no student loans) earns.

A classmate in med school once remarked that he couldn't imagine how anyone could ask for more than $100k/yr. I wanted to reach across the table and slap him.

On an unrelated note, now that that time of year is approaching, does anyone know how to figure out what your full student loan payments will be if you let IBR expire? I have loans through Navient, Nelnet, and Great Lakes Servicing, and none of their websites seem to show that information.

 

[smalltownpsych]

A classmate in med school once remarked that he couldn't imagine how anyone could ask for more than $100k/yr. I wanted to reach across the table and slap him.

On an unrelated note, now that that time of year is approaching, does anyone know how to figure out what your full student loan payments will be if you let IBR expire? I have loans through Navient, Nelnet, and Great Lakes Servicing, and none of their websites seem to show that information.

Ugh. I have loans through two of those companies and they are horrible about communicating information. I think you will actually have to call them unfortunately. They have messed things up and pissed me off so many times that I want to pay the loans off just so that I don't have to deal with them anymore.

 

[Shikima]

A classmate in med school once remarked that he couldn't imagine how anyone could ask for more than $100k/yr. I wanted to reach across the table and slap him.

On an unrelated note, now that that time of year is approaching, does anyone know how to figure out what your full student loan payments will be if you let IBR expire? I have loans through Navient, Nelnet, and Great Lakes Servicing, and none of their websites seem to show that information.

 

[F0nzie]

12 years without any real retirement contributions, plus student debt, plus starting a family...it starts to feel like a race against the clock. Though I wonder if my life will feel empty after I pay off my student loans.

 

[Shikima]

12 years without any real retirement contributions, plus student debt, plus starting a family...it starts to feel like a race against the clock. Though I wonder if my life will feel empty after I pay off my student loans.

You can fill it with Pinball machines.