Job sharing as an employment alternative in group medical practice.

Although physicians discuss quality-of-life and employment issues with their patients, they often fail to consider flexible scheduling and reduced employment options to lessen their own job stress. We examined one of these options by surveying two community-based, private practice groups with a combined 13-year experience with job sharing. We found that a majority of respondents rated job sharing as successful, and most wanted it to continue. Job sharers derived considerable personal benefit from the arrangement and had significantly more positive attitudes toward work than full-time physicians. Job sharing appeared to have little impact on practice parameters. Dependability, flexibility and willingness to cooperate were the most important attributes in choosing a job-sharing partner. Job sharing is an employment alternative worth exploring to retain physicians in medical group practice.