Career Planning
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Finding the Right Practice
Know Your Practice Options
Before starting your career search, it helps to know about the multiple types of practices available.
Each has unique aspects which may or may not be attractive to you as you consider your future career.
As you review the different types, carefully assess your professional goals, practice preferences, and personal needs to choose a practice type that aligns with your priorities.
Before starting your career search, it helps to know about the multiple types of practices available.
Each has unique aspects which may or may not be attractive to you as you consider your future career.
As you review the different types, carefully assess your professional goals, practice preferences, and personal needs to choose a practice type that aligns with your priorities.
What are the types of practices to consider?
Many fellows have familiarity with two common practice types – academic and private. But there is actually much nuance to these two broad categories, and many others to consider.
There are actually 5 main category types, but keep in mind that there are multiple variations that exist for each.
Here is a brief description of each with links to more details:
Academic Program
Physicians are employed and practice in academic medical centers and engage in a variety of scholarly activities, such as research and teaching.
There can be varying levels of clinical workload with both clinical and research tracks available.
Fellows are clearly most familiar with this practice type from their years of training.
As you start to determine whether or not this is the right career path for yourself, access an in-depth overview of this practice type here.
Hospital Employment
Physicians have an employment agreement and contract with the hospital. The hospital typically manages many of the administrative aspects of the practice such as billing, insurance contracting, and human resources.
Hospital employment opportunities are usually in abundance for neonatologists considering non-academic career paths and many offer teaching and research opportunities.
Learn more about hospital employment positions here.
Private Practice
Physicians practice independently in a solo or group practice without employment affiliations and maintain complete autonomy over all aspects of the practice and business.
You can learn more about the different private practice models here.
HMO Position
Physicians are employed by a Health Maintenance Organization and serve as contractors to provide medical services to beneficiaries.
HMO positions are more prevalent on the east and west coasts, so if you are considering opportunities in these areas, it might be helpful to lean more about them here.
Locums Tenens
Physicians practice on a temporary basis with assignments varying from days or weeks to several months with the positions often obtained through a placement agency. Locum tenens offers a very unique and sometimes lucrative work model for physicians.
While it might not be a good option for everyone right out of training, you can learn about the various aspects involved in short-term contract work and decide for yourself here.
Additional Resources
A locum tenens company focused exclusively on neonatal and well newborn staffing.
Gives a very simple quiz to see which is a better fit for you.
A quick read comparing these two practice types.
Reviewing these trends can give valuable perspective during your search.
