Looking back over the previous month it was very rewarding to witness the growth of Freelance MD.
It has been interesting to read Jeff’s recent blog post about Freelance MD’s first month and the resonance this great site has had with physicians. Freelance MD was designed to offer physicians objective, credible facts about a plethora of topics that happen to be important to modern physicians. We knew getting into to the project that there seems to be no other destination on the web something like this, and that we felt that the topics that people could well be discussing would fill a necessary void. Based on our numbers, it appears others agree with us. Jeff and i sincerely hope you’re simply finding the site for being informative and encouraging.
In thinking about the rise of Freelance MD in addition to the start of the Medical Fusion Conference, I begun to think more to do with physicians and their careers. I’m in the rather unique place with regards to the issue of physicians and their career issues. First, I am a physician. Second, I originate from a family 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 actually an elected official who sponsored medical malpractice tort reform inside my home state). Third, I run two national conferences and come into connection with physicians from multiple specialties who practice all over the region. Everything contact with great diversity of physicians allows me a lots of chance to discuss the very thought of physician career modification and what physicians could be doing to further improve their situation.
When the problem of career modification arises in conversation with my physician friends, it seems that most are frustrated by their clinical practices, nevertheless they seem completely overwhelmed by the idea of building a change. These friends are exactly like the survivors of a plane crash within the deserted island that happen to be sitting at the beach in stunned shock realizing they’re now marooned. They’re so overwhelmed using the shock and horror on the crash that they haven’t moved past the shock to the point of working towards their survival and, hopefully, escape from the island. They’re still soaking in the sand, wailing, “We’ve crashed! We’ve crashed! We are all alone! How will we survive? What exactly are we planning to do!??!!!”
Look, I am not saying everything is rosy and that we shouldn’t have concerns. I believe it’s obvious to everyone that the profession of medicine also 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 intent on driving the complete healthcare industry in to the dirt. It isn’t really an excellent situation to be in and if there has ever been a period when one is going to be justified slightly despair, now is that period.
However, what I have found amazing about Freelance MD together with the Medical Fusion Conference is the fact that notwithstanding all this doom and gloom in medicine, there are various of talented individuals who are not merely surviving the current environment, they’re thriving. These individuals aren’t sitting in the sand weeping through their losses, they’ve moved from the beach and have absolutely taken active, deliberate steps to further improve their situation.
I’m reminded on the quip from the author G.K. Chesterton who, when asked by the journalist what book he would most desire with him if he was ever marooned even on a deserted island, said, “Why, A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding, of course…”
The leaders I’ve met?a lot of whom are authors about this website?are inspirational because they aren’t just moaning about how precisely 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, above all, developing a vessel to acquire them from the island if the timing is correct.
If these individuals have already been so successful for making the transition, why then are so many physicians still moribund, stewing in despair and learned helplessness? Why’s making the change so hard for most physicians?
There are a wide range of theories regarding this and then there are numerous individuals writing on Freelance MD who have been completely addressing this very issue, however it is essential to note what appears to be a universal truth: many physicians are experiencing a challenging time adjusting their careers to the current reality around them.
When we build Freelance MD, certainly one of my personal goals is to build this incredible website in a way that offers very practical, systematic steps for physicians to get started taking control of their careers, shaking off the learned helplessness during which they’ve been festering, and begin focusing on their “ship” to acquire them off their deserted island and back on the road to adventure as well as a more fulfilling career.
Are you interested?
If that’s the case, join our motley crew and learn in the experts on this incredible website. Become involved and ask questions. Give rise to the community and teach others what you’re learning. In short, get going, right this moment, making the transition by yourself.
The time for sand-wallowing is over.
It is time to build your own ship.
Post courtesy of Freelance MD, a non-clinical physician jobs site offering physician resources like nonclinical jobs and offers information that allows physicians more control of their career, income and lifestyle.