As a doctor how to spend more time with your family?

You are tired of working too much and not seeing your family.

We talked to a lot of specialist EU doctors in recent years, and we can safely say that we have found all of them to be very hard-working, dedicated, ambitious, and driven. However, everyone has their physical and mental breaking point, and we find that a lot of doctors from particularly Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe are tired of having to work too much, work too many jobs, and/or work overtime due to structural issues with healthcare in their home countries. For these doctors, the motivation to leave their current surroundings and look abroad is not first and foremost about earning more money, but about figuring out how to secure more time to spend with their families. In other words, they are looking for job opportunities that offer a normal number of weekly working hours with the same reasonable level of income. For instance, a Greek rheumatologist told us that she is considering leaving Greece in favour of Scandinavia. Her reason for seeking this move is not about position or salary in her home country, which she described as satisfactory in both cases. The devil in the detail is that in order to reach her current level of salary in Greece she is required to work more than 55 hours a week. She finds that being away from home for such a huge amount of time each week is too costly for the well-being of her life with her husband and child. Meanwhile, a Hungarian rheumatologist explained the reason why she in two instances had to quit working at public hospitals: In spite of liking her work, colleagues and patients, she simply felt that countless hours of constant overtime meant too little time to spend with her children at home. Instead, she opened a private practice, but longing to go back to the public healthcare system she is now thinking about options in Scandinavia. Last but not least, we can mention the example of an Italian psychiatrist who had to work three different jobs a week to make a living for herself and her young son, adding up to a total working week of 60 hours. Quite simply, this left her with very little quality family time, not to mention practically no chances to ‘recharge her batteries’ from week to week.

There is another way. The future can be different.

The specialist doctors mentioned above have all expressed an interest in finding work in Denmark in order to change their lives around for the better in search of a more stable lifestyle – in a sense to gain a much better balance between career and family, thus enabling them to improve their life quality by seeing much more of their spouses and children. Working conditions in the public Danish healthcare system, based in collective agreements, ensure that a Danish working week consists of 37,5 hours a week and that overtime is not encouraged. Furthermore, Denmark is essentially famous worldwide for its focus on work/life balance, which serves a backbone of Danish society and makes Denmark an attractive destination for families.

How to make the future better.

If you are specialist EU doctor and would like to find permanent employment in Denmark, making use of the recruitment services of Medicolink can be the key to your future. At Medicolink we have many years of experience, and we strive to offer you a quality in service throughout the entire recruitment process. We know full well that a decision to move to another country is not to be taken lightly. That is why we offer our full commitment not only to you as a candidate but to your family as well. Please do not hesitate to contact us to learn more about what we offer and our list of current open medical positions.