So lately it seems like many doctors I know are hanging up their white coats (or at least their stethoscopes) and leaving clinical medicine. A cardiologist is going to work for Pharma. An internist is going to work in finance. A surgeon got his JD and is going to work for a law firm. A colleague is going back to school to get an MPH. An ID doc is going to work for a health plan.
Why? It seems the reasons are varied. In some cases it’s the crappy call schedule and the way it dictates your social life. In others, it’s dropping reimbursement rates for what used to be their bread and butter. Others are just sick and tired of dealing with whiney, needy patients. Others are just bored intellectually. Some complain that MD’s have lost the respect they used to have.
I wonder if this phenomenon is more common in the last decade or two than before. In any case, you can’t just peg it to one reason. I also think there are more opportunities than ever before for doctors who don’t want to be in clinical medicine any more. I also think people are less tolerant of unpleasant aspects that impact their lifestyle. In the 60′s and 70′s I think most docs just stuck it out even if they were unhappy.
My department is hiring…..
@Officer Cynical: What are the prerequisites/requirements? Do you drug test?
20 (some) years ago (before it was popular) I RAN to research from clinical for ntellectual challenge – the heck with money. After starting a family, education beconned.
There are choices other than being miserable…
wow. treat patients with respect, and they will return it. those who do not, stand out to be mocked or ignored. the skills and knowledge we have are to be applied, and those who choose not to probably needed better insight when they were killing each other as premeds. flame on.
Medical school is structured in a way that makes one think life is all about medicine, until voila! We become doctors and realise there’s still an unfulfilled part of us. As for me, I hope to do an MBA very soon.
Just out of curiosity, how many of those folks started Med School straight (or close to straight) out of undergrad? My husband just started at 34 years old, after a career in social services. Looking at all the (young!!) kids he’s in classes with, who seem hardly out of the nest, to me, I wonder how much (if any) of the attrition is due to folks deciding on the physician track so young, and figuring out later that clinical medicine is only what they THOUGHT they wanted. Not what actually fit. Regardless of all the other changes in what clinical practice means today. I’d love to see some numbers on this one.
Big changes for sure. At least once a week I am asked if PA schools accept MD’s. They don’t.
The above comment is right on. There are kids entering medical school who have no idea what they are about to take on. By that, I mean they don’t even know how long a residency is or sometimes even what that word means. Mom or Dad told them to go to med school and filled out the forms for them, so they went, figuring they could text and Facebook their way through classes like they did in undergrad. Step 1? It’s like a test?
So can you imagine when they graduate?
I had a long overnight conversation with a colleague that teaches at our local school, he swears it’s not an exaggeration.