June 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 6
FPs praise part-time practice
BY SHERI PORTER
On Wednesday, Joyce Simon, M.D., of Overland Park, Kan., delivered a
Joyce Simon, M.D., right, of Overland Park, Kan., and her daughter, Rachel, have time to plan Rachel's graduation party on one of Simon's days off.
Kim Barbel Johnson, D.O., of Jacksonville, Fla., romps with her 2-year-old son, Joshua, during a break from medical conference meetings in Kansas City, Mo.baby, performed a flexible sigmoidoscopy and saw another 14 patients in the office. On Thursday, she relaxed on her sunny back porch, sifting through recipes with her 18-year-old daughter and planning a high-school graduation party.
Simon, a part-time family physician since graduating from residency in 1982, deliberately chose this lifestyle.
And the advantages?
"Having a life outside of medicine," she says without missing a beat. "I've never polled them, but most of my patients don't even know I'm part time." Simon delivers all her patients' babies unless she's out of town, sees all her own patients without job-sharing and doesn't mind fielding phone calls on her days off.
But working three 8 1/2-hour days a week also means she has time for an exercise regimen, church activities and family. "Parenting is really high on my list," says Simon.
According to statistics compiled by the AAFP in Facts About Family Practice, FPs work an average of almost 51 hours a week. It's a safe bet that many work far more than that.
But figures culled from an annual AAFP survey of more than 1,900 members appear to tell another story. Some 3.6 percent of FPs surveyed worked 20 hours or fewer a week, and more than 25 percent reported working 40 hours a week or fewer.
Count Kim Barbel Johnson, D.O., of Jacksonville, Fla., a new convert. She recently left a full-time position at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville for a county health department position. She'll provide care to homeless and indigent patients in a 20-hour workweek.
At the hospital, "eight-hour days turned into nine hours, then 12 hours, and that was time away from other priorities in my life -- namely, my family," says Johnson, mother of a 2-year-old son, Joshua.
The balance Johnson seeks comes with a price. "Deciding to work part time meant compromising the benefits and salary I once had," says Johnson, who renegotiated payments on her six-figure student loan.
"The tradeoff is Joshua," she says.
But Johnson also feels that she can give her patients the time they deserve if she carries a smaller patient load. "I did not want to compromise my style and my compassion for the patients I serve," she says. "And a part-time physician is not less of a physician."
Johnson's sentiment is backed up by a study published in the April 2000 Archives of Family Medicine. It suggested that "overtime" physicians were less satisfied with the amount of time spent with each patient and with the amount of personal and family time in their lives.
Mary Helen Morrow, M.D., of College Station, Texas, took the part-time plunge several years ago. She's worked through obstacles such as finding reasonable part-time child care in a system designed for "8 to 5" professionals. Staff meetings consistently scheduled on Morrow's day off presented a particular challenge.
"You need supportive co-workers," says Morrow, adding that the smaller the practice, the more difficult scheduling becomes.
Physicians need time, for example, to conduct research, run for political office and assume leadership roles in professional organizations such as the AAFP. Every life needs symmetry.
"This is an issue for anyone who wants to live a balanced life," says David Hutcheson-Tipton, M.D., of Marysville, Wash. This FP, a father of six, is in his first military assignment out of residency, and he has a family-friendly schedule: 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Hutcheson-Tipton says he'd seek a similar schedule if he were in private practice. "We tell patients to exercise and eat well and balance their lives, and we should, too."
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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