Why you need a physician career strategy

COVID has transformed the workplace and workplace attitudes. Sickcare and healthcare professionals are no exception. Many are finding that the job or career they have is no longer what they signed up for and they are neither willing nor able to adapt. Many don't want to work for their boss any more or want to work from home.

Roughly?2.6 million Americans retired earlier than expected?between February 2020 and October 2021, according to estimates from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis senior economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro. Some, like Ms. Sinclair, left the workforce after being laid off or furloughed from jobs. Others retired after finding that working from home caused additional stress and burnout, or because they were concerned about health risks associated with returning to the workplace.?So, what do you do next when you retire early?

?Substantial numbers of women physicians are cutting back or quitting and taking jobs that offer them more flexibility in terms of hours and the ability to work from home. This withdrawal is creating a crisis for health care organizations — one that promises to deepen in the years ahead if it isn’t addressed. Research sheds new light on the causes and points to three strategies that can stem the tide: flexibility, respect and equitable advancement and pay opportunities.

More nurses are going into business for themselves.?

If you are a physician or other sick care professional, now is the time to reconsider your career strategy. These authors, who train over 100,000 people a year in career development, have identified four common challenges that get in the way of people’s growth. They categorize them as?when, who, what, and?where?challenges. Here’s how you can think and act creatively to overcome these challenges and continually invest in your career development.

WHY?

1. The environment has radically changed
2. There is no job security
3. The opportunities to serve your purpose in medicine have expanded
4. You might need to find another job or career because you have to
5. Burn out is pervasive and where you work is both physically and emotionally toxic.
6. The rapidly changing sickcare delivery landscape and business models and forcing doctors to make choices without an full understanding of the implications or with incomplete information
7. Generational attitudes and the medical student and clinician persona has changed
8. Physicians are trying to reconnect to the lost tribe of medicine
9. Technology has radically changed who does what work and subsequent income inequality
10. The corporatization of medicine threatens physician mastery, independence and purpose
11. Issues specific to women
12. Academentia

WHO?

Networking is part of the entrepreneurial DNA.?But simply accumulating 30,000 connections on LinkedIn or thousands of followers on other social media platforms is a waste of your time. Here is how to improve the quality of your network.

WHEN?

Here are some tips on when to quit your day job or take your white coat and shove it.

Baby boomers aren’t totally ready to retire: 79% of workers between the ages of 57 and 75 want to go part-time instead, according to?a new survey?from Harris Poll and staffing agency Express Employment Professionals. The reasoning? Two-thirds of those surveyed reported not feeling financially prepared to fully enjoy their third act. The COVID-19 outbreak exacerbated that concern: More than 20% reported the financial burden of the pandemic?delayed retirement plans.

One in 5 doctors are planning to quit in 2 years

Half of nurses say they will quit in 2 years.

WHERE?

You will need to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince. Here is how to decide where to find them.

Why is just the start. If you want to be your own career coach, add on Who, What, When, Where and How.

HOW

Making a career transition is never easy — and it may feel impossible when financial responsibilities get in the way. In this piece, this author outlines four steps you can take to take control of your career journey and reshape your trajectory so that, eventually, you’ll end up exactly where you want to be.

Here are the 6Rs of career transitioning

The medical education establishment is reassessing their purpose and business models. Are they in the business of educating doctors to just take care of patients, or, are they in the business of educating and training doctors to do what they choose to do to help patients, including non-clinical or alternate career pathways? In fact, do they consider themselves a business at all?

Medical students, trainees and clinicians shouldn't wait for an answer. Take control of your career and plan now.

Arlen Meyers,MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs

Updated 12/2022