Physician, Build Your Own Career!
Friday, January 28th, 2011Looking back throughout the last month it’s been very rewarding to determine the development of Freelance MD.
It has been interesting to read Jeff’s recent post about Freelance MD’s first four week period in addition to the resonance this website has had with physicians. Freelance MD was designed to offer physicians objective, credible information on a range of topics which are necessary to modern physicians. We knew moving in to this very project that there seems to be no other destination on the net something like this, and then we felt that these topics we could be discussing would fill a critical void. Based on our numbers, seems like others agrees to us. Jeff and that i sincerely hope you’re simply finding the site to generally be informative and encouraging.
In pondering the increase of Freelance MD as well as the start of the Medical Fusion Conference, I begun to think more about physicians and their careers. I’m inside of a rather unique spot with regards to the condition of physicians and their career issues. First, I’m a physician. Second, I come from a household of medical people (my cousin is a medical student, my father and brother are surgeons, my sister is actually a medical malpractice defense attorney, and my mom is an elected official who sponsored wrongful death tort reform in my home state). Third, I run two national conferences and are available into contact with physicians from multiple specialties who practice all over the region. All of this contact with various types of physicians allows me a wide range of possible opportunity to discuss the idea of physician career modification and what physicians can be doing to further improve their situation.
When the issue of career modification pops up in conversation with my physician friends, apparently lots of people are frustrated in their clinical practices, but they also seem completely at a loss for the very idea of making a change. These friends are like the survivors of the plane crash within the deserted island who are sitting on the beach in stunned shock realizing they’re now marooned. They’re so overwhelmed with all the shock and horror of the crash which they haven’t moved beyond the shock to the issue of working towards their survival and, hopefully, escape from the island. They’re still sitting in the sand, wailing, “We’ve crashed! We’ve crashed! We’re all alone! How will any of us survive? Precisely what are we likely to do!??!!!”
Look, That’s not me saying situations are rosy and that we shouldn’t have concerns. I believe it’s obvious to everyone that the medical profession has crashed. Gone are the days when becoming an excellent clinician is the only worry of the physician. Today’s physicians have to balance clinical excellence with billing codes, patient satisfaction scores, duplicitous administrators, underhanded trial lawyers, as well as a government bureaucracy seemingly set on driving the entire healthcare industry into the dirt. It’s not a terrific situation to be in and when there ever was a period when one could well be justified somewhat despair, now’s that time.
However, what I’ve found amazing about Freelance MD in addition to the Medical Fusion Conference is usually that in spite of all this doom and gloom in medicine, there are various of talented individuals that happen to be not simply surviving the present environment, they’re thriving. These individuals aren’t sitting in the sand weeping throughout their losses, they’ve moved from the beach and have taken active, deliberate steps to further improve their situation.
I’m reminded from the quip in the author G.K. Chesterton who, when asked by a journalist what book he’d most want to have with him if he was ever marooned even on a deserted island, said, “Why, A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding, not surprisingly…”
The leaders I’ve met?a lot of whom are authors about this website?are inspirational because they aren’t just moaning about precisely how horrible the crash also has been with them or waiting passively on the beach for someone to rescue them. No, these leaders are in the jungle, foraging for food, building shelter, scouting the island for opportunities and, most importantly, constructing a vessel to acquire them off the island in the event the timing is appropriate.
If these people have already been so successful when making the transition, why then a large number of physicians still moribund, stewing in despair and learned helplessness? Why’s making the alteration so difficult for several physicians?
There’s a lots of theories relating to this there are numerous individuals writing on Freelance MD who have been completely addressing this very issue, but it is imperative to note what appears to generally be a universal truth: many physicians are experiencing a difficult time adjusting their careers to the current reality around them.
When we build Freelance MD, among my very own goals is to build this website in a way that offers very practical, systematic steps for physicians to start taking control of their careers, shaking from the learned helplessness in which they’ve been festering, and commence focusing on their “ship” to acquire them off their deserted island and back on the road to adventure in addition to a more fulfilling career.
Are you interested?
If that’s the case, join our motley crew and learn from the experts on this website. Become involved and ask questions. Bring about the community and teach others what you are learning. In a nutshell, get going, right now, making the transition on your own.
The amount of time for sand-wallowing is through.
You’re ready to establish your own ship.
Post courtesy of Freelance MD, a nonclinical physician careers community offering physician resources like nonclinical jobs and offering information that allows physicians more control of their career, income and lifestyle, from medical spas to real estate investing.