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Why would a dermatologist ever leave medicine? Isn’t this a dream job? In this episode, I share my very personal story of how I started out as a dermatologist but ended up leaving medicine – without a Plan B plan. You’ll hear about a time I refer to as “the crash” when things fell apart, and how I forged a new direction, creating the Doctor’s Crossing and doing the work I love helping 100’s of physicians with their own careers.
In this episode we’re talking about:
- How I made the decision to go into medicine
- What it was like running my own dermatology practice
- The time when everything fell apart
- The commitment I made to myself
- How I left dermatology and fell in love with helping physicians
- The good, the bad, and the ugly!
Links for this episode:
Timeline exercise and template – this includes a sample of my own timeline as well as several templates you can use to chart your own career path.
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Thank you Heather for sharing “your story”!
Helen
You are so welcome Helen! I am grateful to you and all that you do to help other physicians, including my clients. Thank you.
Wow, Heather! You put it all out there with grace and dignity, and as you have done in our meetings, you’ve inspired me again.
Thank you kindly Steve! I really appreciate your taking the time to listen and share your encouraging words. You know that you definitely inspire me and I’m most excited about this new chapter unfolding in your life.
Thank you so much for this podcast! I have been wanting to leave clinical medicine, but I struggle with it partially because I really like the patients and staff I work with. If you have any tips on how to navigate that struggle, I’m all ears. It really helps to hear how you experienced something similar. I agree that hearing other people’s stories makes me feel less alone on this journey. Thank you again.
Hi Jennifer you are most welcome! Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story. That’s a good question, about how to deal with the conflicting feelings! For me, the best approach was to first address the things that I could change, and keep trying different ways to be happier overall in practice. If there are things you can address that are making you want to leave, I would start there. I realize if you don’t have your own practice, it is harder to make changes. Some of my clients who really like patient care, but are burning out go down in their hours, and that can make a difference. For others, they are dealing with anxiety and that is creating a lot of added stress, so we work on the anxiety. Some physicians try to do a combo or a “blendini” of some clinical and nonclinical work so they can still care for patients but have more variety and less of the onerous parts of medicine. If you want to share some more details I might be able to give more specific advice. Thanks again for listening and for commenting!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and helpful response! My current issue is I don’t like practicing medicine anymore (not enthusiastic about medicine in general) and burnout (like so many others), BUT I do really like my coworkers and patients. I guess I’m trying to figure out a way to be of help to others that doesn’t involve medicine. Or further cut back on hours (I’m already part-time). Anyway, thanks so much for all the articles and podcast – your knowledge and perspective are so valuable to those of us who are confused about what to do next. Perhaps I will need to sign up to be a client of yours sometime soon!
You are most welcome Jennifer! I’m glad you are finding the content in the blogs and podcast helpful, that’s the goal. I know that a lot of my clients who have felt similar to you have found satisfaction in a variety of nonclinical jobs. They often talk about how they are learning more medicine than when in practice and also feel that they are making an impact and still helping patients, but many more at a time than in the 1:1 encounters. Sounds like you are in a good place for exploration! If I can be directly helpful for you, that would be a pleasure.