Somedays you may be so fed up with the overwork and stress of medical work and be seriously considering leaving medicine. Yet leaving the medical profession is not as straightforward as it might seem.
To leave Medicine you have to come to terms with leaving a profession in which you have had challenges to overcome in relation to:
- dealing with patients
- dealing with colleagues
- many problems to solve
- much ‘juggling’ enabling you to attempt to get your work done during each day
- finding the time to enjoy some time for yourself
- finding time for your partner and family, friends
Often these aspects of life may have been discarded and most of your time and energy devoted to getting the work done in the wards and clinics and the mental gymnastics trying to work out the ins and outs of the patients’ diagnoses.
So if you make the decision to leave there will be other and new challenges:
Missing the challenges of your working life.
Suddenly when you stop working in medicine all those challenges of being a doctor will disappear and may leave a hole in your life. Much as you hated them they occupied your time and energy each day.
Yet when you leave the profession you have to decide how to fill that gap with more pleasurable activities.
Not having the same intellectual problems to solve
Being a doctor keeps your brain working well. In spite of advances in technology you still have the intellectual stimulation of dealing with a patient with a problem and working out the best way to treat them. When you no longer work as a doctor you need to find something to replace this mental stimulation. Would Sudoko fill the gap for you? What could you be involved in which will exercise you brain and keep it active? No more excuses for avoiding doing some situations It could be that you’ve used the excuse of being so busy to avoid taking part in some social situations and activities, even though you’ve expressed regret at not being available to take part.
When you suddenly have more time you no longer have those excuses and may have to face up to the challenge of being more involved with family, friends, partner and your community. Getting used to not ‘being a doctor’ others continue to think of you as a doctor and if you want to shed this label it can be a challenge to persuade others that you are no longer part of the medical profession.
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Want some coaching to enable you to decide the path to take and whether or not to leave Medicine? Coaching can help.
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