I define a part-time physician as one that does not follow a traditional Monday to Friday 8-???? hour schedule. Within that description are a number of variations. One physician blogger does an excellent job of describing it here but I will expound.

A physician can choose to work a certain number of days per week, such as I do. I have alternated between a three day/week schedule when I first started  to a four day/week schedule when we lost a physician. I worked as many hours as I needed during that time to get the work done. Those days could be six hour days to 14 hour days. I’ve found keeping those days consistent as in Tuesday-Thursday was most beneficial to my schedule. I could set my email on auto reply on Mondays and Fridays alerting those who sent me emails not to expect a response until Tuesday. My operative days and office hours day were the same from week to week. For others those three days worked could vary by week, as with one part-time cardiologist I know.

Some professions lend themselves very easily to shift work. A pulmonologist friend of mine simply works 16 weeks a year in an intensive care setting. Those weeks are 12 hour shifts for seven consecutive days. Those in anesthesiology, hospitalists or emergency medicine may work a certain number of shifts per month which could be scattered throughout the month or back-to-back for a limited amount of time.

I recently met a cardiothoracic surgeon who shared one full-time position at a regional community hospital with another cardiothoracic surgeon. They divided up the year so that they worked a total of only six months per year.

Finally, for those physicians who do not confine themselves to one practice location or who perform locums, the schedule could vary by the job location and/or needs. The position could be one to two weekends/month indefinitely, two weeks per month for a six month stretch or even full-time for several months straight.