So you've just finished your residency, and now you have to consider your next step. Or perhaps you've been in a group practice for a few years, and the other physicians are inviting you to move up. Or maybe you've been working in a group practice for too long, and you're simply ready for something else.

If any of the above situations sound familiar, you're likely facing the same question: Should I become a practice partner?

Just as most people move from dating to marriage to children as their lives progress, physicians traditionally move from school to residency to partnership. But is this track necessarily right for everyone? How can you decide what's best for you?

Everybody's (not) doing it

These aren't idle questions. A recent survey by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a physician staffing firm in Irving, Texas, reveals that 60 percent of physicians over age 50 are planning to leave their practices within the next three years.

There's a trend here. William Frank, president and CEO of ThePhysicianCareerNetwork, a consulting firm headquartered in Englewood, Colo., teaches a class called "Non-clinical Careers for Physicians" that identifies at least 500 different occupations suitable for doctors. Recently his classes have sparked a lot of interest.

"The interesting, and surprising, thing is, it's really physicians of all ages," Frank says. "From physicians who are midway into residency who have identified that medicine is not for them to those who have been practicing for a year or two — maybe they've even done a second residency, and it's still not working."

But that doesn't mean all — or even most — physicians are attempting to "escape" traditional patient care careers. Physicians leave practices for many reasons. Some find they genuinely don't enjoy medicine, while others discover more fulfillment in areas of medicine that don't involve direct patient care. The fact remains that the vast majority of physicians still see patients, and most of those physicians are partners within group practices.

A balancing act

Still, everyone admits there are some definite advantages to being salaried. After all, a partnership is an investment — and investments don't always pay off.

"The partners get paid after everything else gets paid," says Chester Cedars, a partner in a two-physician family practice in Lone Tree, Colo. "So if you have a month or two where your collections are a little light ... the partners have to skip a check."

A salaried physician in a group practice doesn't have such worries. "[The advantage] is your guaranteed salary," says Cedars. "Even if the practice owners have to skip their salary, they have to pay you because they have a contract to pay you that much."

Of course, salaried physicians don't benefit as much when practices are thriving. In general, physicians who choose to remain salaried take a pay cut over the long term.

But many physicians are willing to forgo that extra income for other perks. "The first benefit would be life balance," says Frank.

Practice partners must make important administrative decisions that can take lots of time. Salaried physicians don't have to deal with business details.

"There are a lot of good things about [being a salaried employee], especially if you're working for a hospital or a place where you don't have to worry about any employees," says Stacy Childs, one of three physician partners at Urology Clinic, PC, in Steamboat Springs, Colo. "You don't have to worry as much about your productivity. ... Even though you may not be making quite as much as they think you should for the corporation or the hospital, still they need you there."

Like many other professionals, physicians equate more personal time with a better work/life balance. That can be especially important to female physicians with children. "A lot of women are not looking to work 40, 50, or 60 hours a week," says Cedars. "They're looking for a lighter work schedule to allow them some family time."

"That sounds like a sexist statement, but it's not," adds Smith. "Every statistic shows you that female physicians work between 25 percent and 28 percent less than their male counterparts. It's not that they're going off and trekking Nepal — there's a reason it happens."