Newsletter Registration
Connect with Dr. Cohn
Transitioning from Clinical Medicine
Rarely does an action create as much angst as transitioning from clinical medicine. The pain can arise from several external sources, including family, colleagues, and presumed friends, who profess disappointment and lack the detachment necessary to view an evolving situation as anything but a threat to the established order.
Usually, more intense pain comes from inside the person considering transitioning, who may feel trapped between a sense of shame on one hand and inability to continue the current situation on the other, regardless of what is triggering the pain. The loneliness can become unbearable and lead to difficulty working with others and even substance abuse, creating a vicious cycle of depression and despair.
In a variety of medical disciplines, the combination of increased workload, decreased reimbursement, and increased expense (to say nothing of the recession and its effect on retirement assets) has worsened feelings of emotional exhaustion, decreased empathy, and resulted in a lack of personal accomplishment, the three components of workforce burnout. A recent survey of over 7,900 surgeons reported in Surgery News revealed that approximately 40% met criteria for burnout.
The process does not need to proceed through burnout for you to realize that you could benefit from taking a disciplined approach toward personal renewal. The first step involves admitting that it is time to take stock of your current skills and what brings you joy:
- Participate in a personal time out
- Reassess the skills that you have honed, people and organizations that can benefit from your skills, and what makes you feel alive
- Enlist others to help you think creatively without limiting constraints
Dr. Cohn has survived and thrived despite lymphoma, two job losses, and three recessions. If a surgeon can handle a transition or two, SO CAN YOU. If you would like to speak with Dr. Cohn for a 15- minute complimentary evaluation regarding transitioning, please click here.
If you are interested in hearing Dr. Cohn speak at the upcoming SEAK Conference September 23-25, 2011, Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians, where Dr. Cohn serves as a faculty mentor, please click here.
If you would like to learn more about experiences of physicians who have participated in the SEAK conference, Non-Clinical Careers for Physicians, please click here.