Rural Pediatrics

[nboullard]

I recently moved to a small town in rural Southeast US and the patient census is nearly non-existant. I get, on average, five patients a day. Occasionally I have a full eight-hour shift with zero patients. I work for an FQHC, so I don't have any control over who I see - instead, I am just expected to remain available for any potential walk-ins or rescheduled patients. Compared to my last job, I'm bored to tears and feel that my skills are being wasted. I have to stay at this FQHC in order to get my loans forgiven, and yeah, it's weird complaining about having free time, but I can't help but feel that I'm advertising myself as expendable. Has anyone else here been in a similar situation, and if so, how did you best make use of your free time?

Thank you

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[Ladholyman]

Oh my, you're in a sweet spot.
You're probably making 200k plus on top of loan repayment.
Your free time is whatever you make of it. If you feel that you are losing your skills then just go on Abp.org and do a couple of the practice test question a day.
If I was in your position I would be doing something outdoors like golf. Pick up a hobby and roll with it.
Just be glad you aren't seeing 25 to 30 patients daily.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

Moonlight or have like 4 kids or if you want to have the life completely sucked out of you... do both.

Also "too much free time on your hands..."

 

[LaughingMan]

Bro, take a medical spanish course, do ABP stuff to get MOC part 4 or part 2, do PREP questions.

When I had downtime on my first job out of residency, I maxed out Part 4 and even got 75/50 to have some carry over.