Does the Ideal Physician Job Exist?
In an article today from HealthLeaders Media, "For Stressed Docs, Where to Turn?", the author writes:
“A recent survey and report by Physician Wellness Services, a Minneapolis, MN-based company that counsels physicians and hospitals on wellness and related issues, and Cejka Search, a St. Louis, MO-based physician executive search firm, shows more physicians are getting stressed and it's getting worse.
...How bad is the problem? The survey shows that 87% of 2,000 physicians reported they were moderately to severely stressed, and 63% said the stress has increased ‘moderately to dramatically’ over the past three years.
...For physicians, the work-related stress factors are:
Administrative demands
Long work hours
On-call schedules
Concerns about medical malpractice lawsuits
All those factors are essentially built into today's job of being a physician, at least for the docs who stick with it.
...’The result of this cumulative stress is declining job satisfaction, motivating physicians to change jobs or leave the practice of medicine altogether,’ the report states.”
Okay, so it's getting really rough, leaving you fantasizing about a finding much better job, or quitting.
For most physicians, quitting isn't a realistic option, so maybe it's time to work on redefining your ideal job. Once you know what you want, you can go out and find it, right?
I'm going to play Reality Checker here. Let's begin with the radical idea that your ideal physician job doesn't yet exist (unless of course you have actually found it).
An even more radical thought: You are going to have to create it yourself by assembling it in bits and pieces.
So how do you do this?
Read on.
Philippa Kennealy, MD, MPH, CPCC, PCC is President and founder of The Entrepreneurial MD. She is a business advisor, coach and teacher to physicians grappling with the challenges of launching, building or growing their own successful practices or businesses.