Answers to Physicians' Career Questions

Introduction

These essays were written to provide practical answers to physicians who wish to recapture the satisfaction of their early years in clinical practice or consider alternative career opportunities.

Common reasons for physicians to contemplate career changes today are:

• Daily life in clinical medicine is noticeably different from that experienced by physicians just a generation ago. The rate of change from scientific-clinical knowledge through practice and economic models to bureaucratic oversight has already been significant and seems likely to persist.
• Our Western world is increasingly fast paced, materialistic and disconnected. Our sense of community has declined despite all our new communication tools we have at our disposal. We ask whether a career transition would make us feel more comfortable, rooted and connected
• We have a high likelihood of living long healthy lives. After 25 or 30 years in practice many physicians are not ready to retire but want to consider other forms of professional engagement.
• We are members of a Western society where successful professionals within many fields contemplate taking their professional lives in new directions.

We must also contend with those concerns that hold back our push for career change:

• Finding a career option that matches the economic and non-economic rewards of our current work in clinical medicine is not an easy match to make.
• We worry that our talents and abilities are a low value currency outside of the clinic or hospital.
• We are unsure how to navigate the career search map. Previous career pathways were like well-lit runways. Alternative career paths seem much foggier.
• We fear failure after a career of sizeable success.

There is an inevitable risk of spending months if not years trapped in the netherworld between “I want to move my career in a different direction” and “what do I do if this doesn’t work out”. Avoiding or emerging from that purgatory requires establishing congruence between our aspiration to recast ourselves professionally while simultaneously not prejudicing our own futures and that of those we love.

Whether you choose to explore new career options alone or enlist the aid of an advisor your discussions should address how you draw a new career path from the convergence of the two lines of thought detailed above. If each of us has specific issues relevant to our particular professional and family identities there are also more general concerns that register with each of us and are the subjects of the essays in this portion of the website. Spelling these issues out is often helpful as a starting point for discussion and private thinking. Private more personal concerns may also emerge more easily as tangents from the more general concerns.

I’ve had a lifelong experience with the medical profession, including over a quarter-century of clinical practice. I have an extensive background in medical education, the administration and economics of health systems and physician mentoring. I am actively involved in life science entrepreneurship and consulting to industry and health systems. I hope my perspective provides you with useful insights to be applied to your own particular circumstances.

The material is organized into five sections, the first two geared to understanding burnout and enhancing career satisfaction, the final three to alternative careers outside of the clinic.

The essays aim to provide:

Answers to specific questions that a physician may have about their career dilemma; a how-to guide to finding new career opportunities, and, in some essays, links to more philosophical matters originally presented in the reflections/weblog section of the site.

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