As more and more doctors are leaving medicine completely or pursuing alternative careers along with their medical one, there are more and more organisations and individuals that have dedicated themselves to help us with this.
One article that I found particularly helpful was “10 pointers to finding your true passions“. It enabled me to re-discover what I enjoy and where my strengths and interests truly lie. This, and other resources here, have helped me look at a completely new career path within healthcare, one that is not on a list, but hopefully one that plays to my strengths.
If you are considering a career change, the Royal Medical Benevolent fund has produced a very comprehensive careers guide. This is a helpful starting point when considering career change.
They suggest that some basic questions to ask are:
• What are my interests?
• What are my values?
• What are my skills?
• What are my needs, responsibilities and constraints?
• What do I want from work?
• What is my preferred working style?
Rediscovering your interests & passions
This is a list of questions written by Dr Evgenia Galinskaya’s in her linked-in article. She has heaps of useful resources on her website, Other options for doctors which is really worth exploring.
What experiences / activities make you feel alive?
What activities / experiences enable you to be truly who you are?
What do you absolutely love learning about?
What do you find yourself doing at times when your mind wanders?
What would you gladly do at any time of the day or night, regardless of how you feel, and without the need to be asked or reminded?
What are you doing when you are fully engaged and can keep focus for hours?
If you figured out a way to get paid for this, it would be the best job in the world.
What do different people say that you are good at, time and time again?
What do people ask you to help them with / value your advice / opinion on?
If health / money were not an issue and you had another 100 years to live, what would you love to be doing?
Identifying your values
Values are different to goals. As doctors we are very used to goal setting; we do this annually with our appraisals, but how often do we really consider what our core values are and whether the things that we do and the way that we behave match our values?
Values are the things that we believe are important in the way we live and work.
Mindtools have a useful article which explains what values are in more detail.
Exploring your values
I found it useful to look at this in 2 ways:
1) Values in your life overall such as family, relationships, work
Use this to consider what values are currently important to you, where you are currently at and where you would like to be so that you can choose where you should best focus your energy.
2) Values applied to work
Non clinical doctors.com have a useful list of work-based values here which are specific to medics, such as:
- Challenging yourself
- Job security
- Respect
- Being appreciated
I found this very useful to work through. I listed all the values that resonated the most with me and have used them as a guide to help me follow ideas that are true to these.
Identifying your skills
When identifying your skills, there are many ways to consider this. One model that I found helpful was that proposed by the RMBF guide. They divide them into 4 main areas:
Motivated skills – skills that you enjoy and are good at
Developmental skills – skills you enjoy but need improving
Burn out skills – skills you are good at but do not enjoy
Irrelevant skills – skills you do not enjoy and are not good at
Looking at my skills in this simple format, helped me decide where best to focus my energy. Mindtools also have some useful resources on identifying your skills.
Transferable skills as a doctor
It might also be helpful to consider your transferable skills as a doctor. There are many lists on the internet of these. I like this one suggested by Medical Success.
Making the transition to non-clinical medicine
Non-clinical doctors.com also have some suggestions on the “steps to making the transition to non-clinical medicine”.
They finish saying that:
“if you decide at any time throughout this process that you want to stay in clinical medicine, but you think you need to make some changes to your current work environment, don’t delay improving your situation. Your patients will be better served if you are in a situation that is fair and productive. Every physician can and should achieve career satisfaction.”
Recognise. Prevent. Recover. 