WHEN IT COMES to working on the weekend, adult hospitalists on average work 3.6 weekend shifts per month. And while most people don’t particularly like working weekends, hospitalists who work more weekend shifts seem to be less burned out and more satisfied with their careers.
Data from the 2023 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey show that weekend work hasn’t changed much for hospitalists in the last five years. In our 2018 survey, hospitalists reported working an average of 3.4 weekend shifts per month.
Weekend work is a little more common for nonacademic hospitalists, who reported working 3.7 weekend shifts per month. Academic hospitalists, by comparison, reported working 3.2 weekend shifts a month.
Pediatric hospitalists have it a little better when it comes to weekend work. They reported working an average of 3.2 weekend shifts per month than their colleagues in adult hospital medicine.
We didn’t see many changes in weekend work by the type of employer hospitalists work for. The exception was hospitalists working for primary care/multispecialty groups. That group reported working slightly more weekend shifts—3.9—per month.
Look at the data by region, and you’ll see that hospitalists in the Northeast reported working fewer weekend shifts (3.5). That’s likely because of the larger number of academic hospitalists in that part of the country.
One other difference in weekend: Hospitalists who are paid based only on productivity report working more weekend shifts: 3.9.
One surprise from our data: Hospitalists who reported working more weekend shifts also said they’re less affected by burnout and are more satisfied with their careers.
Hospitalists who said that burnout is very significant, for example, reported working 3.5 weekend shifts per month. Hospitalists who reported burnout as insignificant, by comparison, reported working more weekend shifts per month: 3.8.
Our data found a similar trend with career satisfaction. Hospitalists with the highest level of career satisfaction reported working 3.8 weekend shifts a month. Hospitalists who said they’re dissatisfied with their career reported working 3.1 weekend shifts a month.
For more on hospitalist schedules, check out our 2023 Compensation & Career guide here.
