Division of Time
How your contract structures your time matters a lot. Assume that you are taking a position at an academic medical center. You are interested in maintaining a “triple threat” model of clinician, teacher, and researcher. How do you ensure that you will be successful? The terminology that you should be familiar with is the clinical full-time equivalent (FTE). If your contract has you at a 100% clinical FTE, you are likely not to get any protected time for research. For those highly motivated individuals, you would end up burning the midnight oil, an using your free nights and weekends to pursue your research interests. However, most physicians would not consider this a sustainable model, not to mention the negative impact it would have on your personal life. If your focus is research heavy, the perhaps you’re looking for a position that is 50% clinical FTE. A good rule of thumb is that every 20% of an FTE equates to one day of protected time during the week. Therefore an FTE that is 80% clinical, and 20% research should average to one day a week of protected time. It is reasonable to ask the department to support you for the first 3-5 years as you build your research portfolio. Some institutions might then require you to bring in funding through grants at the end of that time period.
Get it in writing
During the negotiation process, it is highly likely that you will be negotiating with someone that has trained you – perhaps a mentor, or a prominent surgeon. You must learn to remove the emotion from the business aspect of this process. Promises are not sufficient, and your contract needs to clearly articulate the reached agreement. An example of a situation I saw where the agreement was not formalized happened to a colleague of mine, who after he was hired ended up having his division chief move to another institute. The new division chief that took over had different plans for how he would function within the team. The bottom line is that everything you believe is important to your success must be in writing.
The next article will finish highlighting other important aspects that will set you up for success when negotiating your compensation package, and provide some final tricks of the trade that will help make this somewhat intimidating yet exciting process easier!
Dr. Sakran is an assistant professor of surgery and Director of Global Health & Disaster Preparedness for the department of surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is currently chair of the ACS Resident and Associate Society and recently finished a year at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government studying public policy, economics, and leadership development. He has no relevant disclosures.