Newly graduated DPT wants part time work; and got it

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JOhnH

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A young man I know (my nephew) graduated with a DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) in May. But he is looking for his first job to be part time (~3 days per week) so he can focus his time on other interests.

From my experience, I can't imagine anyone hiring a newly graduated doctor (Physical Therapy) in a part time position. Should I try to talk sense into him, or am I wrong and just need to keep out of it?

He is quite a skilled carpenter and has been making some money doing small projects. There is nothing wrong with that, but I would advise him to do one or the other. Not try to do both. But again, should I keep out of it?
 
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JOhnH said:
A young man I know (my nephew) graduated medical school in May. But he is looking for his first job to be part time (~3 days per week) so he can focus his time on other interests.

From my experience, I can't imagine anyone hiring a newly graduated doctor (Physical Therapy) in a part time position. Should I try to talk sense into him, or am I wrong and just need to keep out of it?

He is quite a skilled carpenter and has been making some money doing small projects. There is nothing wrong with that, but I would advise him to do one or the other. Not try to do both. But again, should I keep out of it?
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Stay out of it. Reality is his generation is going to have to work for fifty years before retirement. That is plenty of time to pursue both choices.

Tim
 
The doctors on remote islands like Wake, Midway or Kwajalean are contract doctors that sign on for 6 months at a time. While not 2-3 days a week, they are part time and offer a chance to explore the world. I think the company that contracts these doctors also provides doctors to cruise ships. He may want to sign up with them.
 
Sooo..... He spent all that time in medschool, on momma and daddas retirment fund but now is like, meh.... I want to go swing a hammer? What a frigging idiot. Lemme guess... Book smart, zero common sense? Let him do what he wants I guess. You can't fix stupid as Ron White says.
 
tspear said:
Stay out of it. Reality is his generation is going to have to work for fifty years before retirement. That is plenty of time to pursue both choices.

Tim
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I can agree on that from a public school view point. They changed our retirement figures and I would be working close to 45+ years to get full retirement. I believe I would end up in prison if I stayed a public school teacher for that long.

But as far as your Nephew.. I've got no advice for him. We are probably the same age. I feel as though the debt acquired from med school would give me some enthusiasm to work full time. If he doesn't have debt then I've got no idea.
 
JOhnH said:
Should I try to talk sense into him,
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Convince him to move to Alaska and somewhere remote. Multi-skilled Drs/PTs/carpenters can be quite the ticket. But first convince him to get his PP. Then he could join us on POA and give you a place to visit.
 
Did he graduate from a DPT program or medical school? I agree with you, I don't see anyone hiring a medical doctor part time right out of med school. Now a doctor of physical therapy who knows.
 
gdwindowpane said:
Did he graduate from a DPT program or medical school? I agree with you, I don't see anyone hiring a medical doctor part time right out of med school. Now a doctor of physical therapy who knows.
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I do believe it was DPT, but not sure.
So far, most of the comments here have been quite insightful.
 
Maybe a small rural community. Doctors around here complain that they don't have enough patients to make a living, and they're probably right. Almost all the ones I know are either semi-retired or work for hospital systems (especially Basset) at their affiliated outpatient clinics. But one who only wants to practice part-time anyway may be able to pull off an old-school private practice while building barns on the side.

At the other extreme, non-profit urban clinics may be interested in part-timers. Maybe places like jails and shelters, too.

And then there's the government at all levels. I know FedGov hires part-timers to supplement practically every other sort of full-time staff on a fill-in and on-call basis, so why not doctors?

As for what you should do, I might offer suggestions, but not advice. No good deed goes unpunished.

Rich
 
Millenials ;-)

That's going to be hard to find straight out of residency. I am not familiar with the job market for PMR, but most who work part-time in my or my wifes specialty worked full-time in the same setting and then cut back. There should be a good supply of part-time jobs in rehab as many smaller facilities dont really need the services of a full time provider. Come to think of it, we have a two PMR part timers in our hospital system. They are both married to other specialists.
 
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If he was a state licensed physician he could earn a part-time living conducting BasicMed examinations. Physical therapist? Last one I knew became a fire fighter.
 
Unit74 said:
Sooo..... He spent all that time in medschool, on momma and daddas retirment fund but now is like, meh.... I want to go swing a hammer? What a frigging idiot. Lemme guess... Book smart, zero common sense? Let him do what he wants I guess. You can't fix stupid as Ron White says.
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What He Said ^ +1000

And someone please school me...is a Physical Therapist even a Dr? Is the nephew an Orthopedist maybe?
 
John, (op) you can offer advice as a concerned uncle but that is as far as it should go. It is your nephew's life and his decision to make.

If I had taken the advice of the people who thought they knew better than me, I would probably be living a miserable existence.

To the rest of you, if I were the nephew, I would say thanks for the advice, but but out.
 
Unit74 said:
Sooo..... He spent all that time in medschool, on momma and daddas retirment fund but now is like, meh.... I want to go swing a hammer? What a frigging idiot. Lemme guess... Book smart, zero common sense? Let him do what he wants I guess. You can't fix stupid as Ron White says.
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^that
 
I know so many people who are working in a field other than what they went to college for and some of them have doctorates. Let him be. He’ll find his own path on his own. It might be rocky and uphill but it will be the path he chose.
 
Did he ask for your advice? Until then, it’s not your problem.

If/when he does, ask him questions that lead to his self-discovering the answer.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
John, (op) you can offer advice as a concerned uncle but that is as far as it should go. It is your nephew's life and his decision to make.

If I had taken the advice of the people who thought they knew better than me, I would probably be living a miserable existence.

To the rest of you, if I were the nephew, I would say thanks for the advice, but but out.
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He asked, we deliver. We are not talking to the kid. The wiser, seasoned adult is looking for guidance.
 
Btw. I work part-time.

If someone plans his life from the outset to function on a part time PMR physicians income, they don't even have to work any longer to reach retirement. It's all a function of cost control. A used Accord instead of the leased BMW, the 3 bdrm cookie-cutter instead of the hilltop mc-mansion, a spouse that works instead of being 'a fixture in the local philantropy circuit'. A 172 in a partnership instead of a Cirrus owned solo ..... Too many of my colleagues end up on a treadmill with their lifestyle growing to match their income. If you don't allow that to happen, you can do just fine on a part-time income.

Plenty of 'dr +something' folks out there. Realtor, pilot, insurance, restaurant-owner, developer, rancher, farmer. Few of them started out that way, they added the +something along the way.
 
If he wants to swing hammers for a living, than the best thing to do is support that decision. As stated above, most folks don’t work in the field their degree is in. He’s got a great field (PT) to fall back on if the carpentry doesn’t work out.
 
Ronbonjovi said:
I can agree on that from a public school view point. They changed our retirement figures and I would be working close to 45+ years to get full retirement. I believe I would end up in prison if I stayed a public school teacher for that long.

But as far as your Nephew.. I've got no advice for him. We are probably the same age. I feel as though the debt acquired from med school would give me some enthusiasm to work full time. If he doesn't have debt then I've got no idea.
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twenty to sixty five is 45 years. Look at the numbers for Social Security and other aspects. Regardless of what people want, the math does not support a retirement age of 65 anymore, let alone the 67 a few politicians supported a few years ago. To balance the Social Security trust, it needs to increase to 70 ASAP; and there are predictions that it will need to be 75 for millennials, maybe even higher.

Tim
 
Greg Bockelman said:
John, (op) you can offer advice as a concerned uncle but that is as far as it should go. It is your nephew's life and his decision to make.

If I had taken the advice of the people who thought they knew better than me, I would probably be living a miserable existence.

To the rest of you, if I were the nephew, I would say thanks for the advice, but but out.
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To be fair, I was asking for advice for me. Those others were not offering advice to my nephew.

Your other points and observations were valid though, so thanks.

Also to be fair to my nephew, he did go to medical school on his parents dime, but that was at their insistence. He is a good, hard working kid and will be successful, no matter which direction he chooses. I have always been a strong advocate of young people going into the trades rather than everyone automatically being pushed into college. He did well in college to please his parents, who paid for his college. My point is that I don't think too many people are going to hire a newly graduated doctor on a part time basis. It takes a couple of years to train a new grad to be a productive doctor. During that time, they are usually a negative asset to the employer who must train them. As a part timer, it will take much longer for that employer to recoup their investment, and the reality is that most young doctors change practices several times in their first few years. So I don't think FINDING a part time job is a reasonable expectation on his part. But if he can, then more power to him. And the longer it takes him to find a job, the harder the job search gets. So I suspect he is aiming himself for a career as a carpenter. That's actually good for me because I have a lot of work for him, and he does good work.
 
weilke said:
Btw. I work part-time.
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Just curious; did you start out part time or did you transition to part time after you gained experience?

I assume you work part-time out of choice?
 
JOhnH said:
Just curious; did you start out part time or did you transition to part time after you gained experience?

I assume you work part-time out of choice?
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I was FT before. It's a choice. I wear many other hats and doing that with a full time schedule wouldn't work.
 
He will have an easier time working PT if he opens his own shop from the outset. There is contract work in PMR. A rehab ''hospital' that is just a floor in a nursing home complex doesn't need a FT PMR doc. They just need someone for x hours and to serve as medical director. They usually don't want to employ that person either. They usually contract with a large group for the service but may be open to a one man shop.
To do that, you would need some experience in a leadership position to know how to manage the medical side of it. Again, this would make it harder to do right out of residency. A friend of my wife does this in TX, but she worked FT in the area before. Her +something is real estate development btw.
 
tspear said:
Regardless of what people want, the math does not support a retirement age of 65 anymore
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Not quite. All depends on what "math" one chooses to follow... fuzzy or not. FIRE is an acronym for those who want to try.
 
Bell206 said:
Convince him to move to Alaska and somewhere remote. Multi-skilled Drs/PTs/carpenters can be quite the ticket. But first convince him to get his PP. Then he could join us on POA and give you a place to visit.
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This post has a total "Northern Exposure" vibe.
 
Work full-time for 3 years and then go part-time. Just put the time in, most of us had to make some compromises in life. It’s part of being an adult. You can do it.
Also, congrats on finishing med school as that’s quite an accomplishment.
 
Gosh man these Millenials are out of control
 
Let’s stop referring to a DPT as graduating from “Medical School” please - implies the same gravitas as having an MD - which it does not.
 
tspear said:
twenty to sixty five is 45 years. Look at the numbers for Social Security and other aspects. Regardless of what people want, the math does not support a retirement age of 65 anymore, let alone the 67 a few politicians supported a few years ago. To balance the Social Security trust, it needs to increase to 70 ASAP; and there are predictions that it will need to be 75 for millennials, maybe even higher.

Tim
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Therein lies the problem...Social Security was never intended to do more than supplement what people saved/planned on their own. Social Security can set their “retirement age”at whatever they want...it’ll have little impact on when I retire.
 
CC268 said:
Gosh man these Millenials are out of control
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Best to leave it that way too. Can you imagine what a mess this place would be if we told them "You have control". :eek:
 
GRG55 said:
Best to leave it that way too. Can you imagine what a mess this place would be if we told them "You have control". :eek:
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Probably leave the budget and environment in better shape than the previous couple of generations. Just like the generation who survived the great depression they were wiser for it.

Sent from my SM-J737T using Tapatalk
 
It still isn’t clear; is he a physician or a physical therapist? There are PhD physical therapists, but medical school doesn’t go that direction.
 
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