US medical career advice? For a character in a story

[joy_of_cooking]

For my first foray into Romance, I'd like a character to downgrade his medical career when he unexpectedly becomes a widower and a single father. Any suggestions what he used to be and what he'll become?

The simplest move would be to put him in internal medicine or emergency medicine and have him move from doing that at a big urban hospital to doing the same thing a small rural hospital.

I think there are also some changes in specialty that would be easy from a licensing perspective. E.g., a residency in internal medicine would already qualify him to do primary care, so he could go from attending at a big urban IM department to joining a small town private practice as a PCP.

Ideally, wherever he ends up should sound like it has a good chance of letting him be there for his kid, but turn out to drag him away occasionally for plot reasons. E.g., late to pick the kid up from school because he got stuck with a patient, or called in at night when he should be home with the kid.

I'm not super committed to having him be a doctor, but it'd be convenient for other reasons. Also happy to hear other careers that would satisfy the same plot requirements.

 

[JGittes]

It sounds like you have everything covered. I grew up in a medical family during the middle of the last century, and everything you mentioned would work well.

If this is your first journey into Romance, I recommend watching one of the classics, 'Sleepless in Seattle.' The widower is an architect, but the basic setup is the same.

 

[Aukey]

Other options:
1. Go part time
2. Switch to locums tenens work (analogous to being a substitute teacher)
3. Work remotely. For example, if he were a radiologist, he could work from home reading imaging studies, but occasionally have to go to the hospital to perform procedures

 

[BobbyBrandt]

If you wanted a major downgrade, the character could be a volunteer EMT with a small rural volunteer fire department. He could now reside on a small farm or ranchette with his kid(s) and get call out occasionally for emergencies.

 

[jsmiam]

It happens also, that they go corporate and become medical directors, do things on the business side rather than seeing patients, do things on the research side rather than seeing patients, etc. I agree too though: you’ve done more than enough already for plausibility.

 

[Trionyx]

Being a PCP internist in a small community is more time-consuming than a big-city med school attending who has students, interns and residents doing all the patient care. Part time work is probably not doable as PCP IM doesn’t pay well and the big corporations which have taken over most of the practices keep demanding more and more from the providers.
Remote telework is a reasonable alternative. Popular gigs include telepsych and teleradiology.

 

[Bamagan]

For my first foray into Romance, I'd like a character to downgrade his medical career when he unexpectedly becomes a widower and a single father. Any suggestions what he used to be and what he'll become?

The simplest move would be to put him in internal medicine or emergency medicine and have him move from doing that at a big urban hospital to doing the same thing a small rural hospital.

I think there are also some changes in specialty that would be easy from a licensing perspective. E.g., a residency in internal medicine would already qualify him to do primary care, so he could go from attending at a big urban IM department to joining a small town private practice as a PCP.

Ideally, wherever he ends up should sound like it has a good chance of letting him be there for his kid, but turn out to drag him away occasionally for plot reasons. E.g., late to pick the kid up from school because he got stuck with a patient, or called in at night when he should be home with the kid.

I'm not super committed to having him be a doctor, but it'd be convenient for other reasons. Also happy to hear other careers that would satisfy the same plot requirements.

Just wanted to note that, as a general trend, rural doctors in the US tend to have a heavier workload than those in urban areas. There are various reasons for that, but at the simplest level, it boils down to economics and population distribution. Rural hospitals are not as profitable as urban ones, so there's a rather pernicious reinforcing tendency for doctors to prefer urban ones, between reduced workload and higher pay.
But the same rules don't apply to private practices, at least not uniformly. He could also be a dentist, I suppose.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Work in the lab. Punch the clock testing samples, full or part time. Or supervise the lab, easier salary.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Thanks, everyone! I'm currently leaning toward "used to be a radiologist at a big trauma center with lots of interventional and on-call work, took a fully remote diagnostic radiology job and moved to a more rural area for the lower cost of living."

This is for a full-length version of

A Smile To Remember (750 Words)
Lonely single parents find love on the playground.

It's the first time I've had someone request I expand on a 750! And they were totally right: the ending was rushed, and I could in general do a lot more if I had the word count for it.

 

[stonedinstilletos]

Have them become a medical expert for lawyers. If they are somewhat accomplished (no malpractice and maybe a few articles) they can just do record reviews and testimony with the occasional court appearance. I mean, yeah, they’ll be a shill but they can be well paid and set their own hours.

 

[Trionyx]

Have them become a medical expert for lawyers. If they are somewhat accomplished (no malpractice and maybe a few articles) they can just do record reviews and testimony with the occasional court appearance. I mean, yeah, they’ll be a shill but they can be well paid and set their own hours.

They've gone over to the dark side.....

 

[stonedinstilletos]

They've gone over to the dark side.....

They do have cookies…

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Have them become a medical expert for lawyers.

I totally forgot that was a thing!

Sadly, I need this character to speak English too poorly for anyone to put him in front of a jury. He can read and write fine, but strong accent and broken grammar when he has to choose his words in real time.