Women Leaving Medicine: Archive

Women Leaving Medicine

February 2012

1 post

A switch from medicine to accounting

[This is a guest post] Hi, I graduated from medical school but did a complete 180 degree change and decided to pursue accounting instead. I have an undergraduate business degree and in college I liked accounting. I’m still searching for that 1st accounting job. I’ve been working on this career switch for a year. I was very unhappy before and knew I had to make a change. I know...

November 2011

2 posts

Quitting medicine was the most difficult decision...

[This is a guest post] I just read your post after stumbling on this site and it sounded “hauntingly familiar.” I had my first son during my 4th year of medical school. Before he was born, I naively set up childcare and thought it would be easy to leave him after he was born. After all, during my 3rd year OB/GYN rotation the residents who had babies left them after just 4 weeks and...

A doctor's despair - not sure what the next step...

[This is a guest post] I was Googling “women leaving medicine” one day when I was particularly down on myself, and found this site and could not stop reading. Finding out that I am not the only female physician feeling this way gave me chills. So I thought maybe my story should be out there, too. Maybe to help another female doc in my shoes. I gave birth in my last year of a tough OB residency. I...

October 2011

1 post

Time to move on from emergency medicine?

[This is a guest post] I am so relieved to have found this site. So much of what I have read feels like I could have written it myself. My story goes like this: I was one of those people that somehow decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was a child. My parents (a police officer and a stay at home mom) were thrilled and encouraged it all the way but never pressured me. I was always good at...

July 2011

2 posts

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should"

[This is a guest post] Only you know what you want out of life. I would only offer a cautionary tale because I was 25 when I decided to go to med school, because I thought I would like primary care, helping people, and being a doctor. I was unmarried at the time and didn’t feel like my work as a yoga instructor was quite “enough” to satisfy the critical voice in my head that...

[This is a guest post] I have been out of medicine for nearly 2 years. Had my daughter in 2010, was VERY part time. My non-MD hubby suggested I stay home, enjoy her after working so hard for some many years. Then, I had my son in 2011, and he has HLHS. Am not working in order to care for him and enjoy him as his condition requires numerous palliative surgeries. Not sure when I’ll be...

June 2011

1 post

"A good balance between mom and physician but...

[This is a guest post] Hi everyone, So many of the stories here touch me personally. I am a Internist who came out of residency wanting to build an outpatient practice and focus on preventive care. But taking that road would mean seeing 20-30 complex patients everday , with income not worth the time and emotional energy spent, so I decided to go part time. I crafted a parttime arrangement with...

April 2011

2 posts

"A bitter pill to swallow?"

[This is a guest post] My story is so similar to others here. I left my job, that I loved, as a pediatrician 10 years ago. I had worked hard to be the superhero employee and mom (and she cooks a great lassagna) and held up great for years. Eventually, with two kids in school and an unbelievably busy job, I was exhausted. My husband (now ex) was a very busy research doctor who traveled...

February 2011

2 posts

What sustains one working physician mom - The...

Image via Wikipedia I’m one month into my redesigned life as a physician mom and simultaneous physician business owner who traded in a nanny for an online business manager. As each day passes, I feel myself reaching out more and more to touch and stroke the textures of my life. There is the start to the morning – a brief lie-in as I catch the news headlines and drink the welcome cup...

January 2011

3 posts

My Story of Leaving Medicine 10 years ago

[This is a guest post] “Well, this may be more that any of you want to know. I am a 52 year gastroenterologist, married to a gastroenterologist, who chose to be a full time mom 10 years ago when my daughter was 10 and my son 8 years old. My son was accepting of our chaotic life, but our daughter was not. She was miserable and had grown up never knowing when we’d be home, who would...

The Entrepreneurial MD takes on the mommy life

I started the New Year in a whole new mode - no more regular nanny! This is a big step for me, as I have pretty much had a nanny working full-time since my daughter was three weeks old. These have been busy years, birthing and then raising a child and a business at the same time. As my daughter neared her eighth birthday, and we faced the decision of hiring yet another full-time nanny, I...

Can you ever go back?

[This is a guest post] “I’m so glad to find this website. I thought that I was one of only a handful of women who “took the leap” to stay at home. I finished residency 18 months ago and have been at home with my toddler since then. I was so tired when I finished, I couldn’t imagine going full-time. Part-time work has been harder to find than I thought, and now,...

Overworked physician mom

[This is a guest post] “Thanks Philippa. This is the first place I’ve found that describes how I’m feeling. I’m an almost 40, increasingly disillusioned, part time ophthalmologist (about 30 hrs per week) who is married to an extremely overworked nephrologist. I’m also primary caregiver to two beautiful kids(9 & 5). I think I should feel lucky, but usually I just...

December 2010

3 posts

dianezeigler asked: Dear Philippa

I've enjoyed your blog since I discovered it, and I thought it most appropriate that I reach out to you about a new book coming out that is right up your alley. new book, which is due out soon, published by Chelsea Green Publishing, whom I am a publicist for. I signed up for Tumblr just so I can send you this message; not sure you will receive it.

When motherhood calls, what's a working gal doc to...

Ever since my pregnancy a little over eight years ago, I have been working as a business and career coach to physicians and healthcare folks … and taking my professional role very seriously. Despite having a home office and theoretical complete control over my working hours, I have worked full-time and used the services of nannies and au pairs to help raise my daughter and manage our household....

November 2010

1 post

[This is a guest post] “I have lived my entire life to be a hand surgeon. Now that I’m here, I feel burned out and apathetic. Rare is the patient I feel I’ve really helped. So many are chronic pain patients and worker’s compensation patients that don’t want to go back to work. I left my first practice for a number of reasons and just started my second. I’m...

October 2010

3 posts

Any advice for an aspiring woman physician?

[This is a guest post] I am a 24 year old woman, who despite the odds stacked against me is willing to “risk it all” and pursue a career in medicine. I have a BA in Math and an unremarkable undergrad GPA. I thought about other career paths, but medicine is where my passion lies. I am deeply passionate about public health and primary care. I have lofty ambitions of research, and...

This moving 3-minute talk by Stacey Kramer from the wonderful TED Talks series will help create a fresh perspective on your life with all its fragility and amazement. What will you appreciate more deeply today? Who will you hug more closely?

What's the ideal work day for women physicians...

At the recent SEAK Nonclinical Careers Conference, while introducing myself to the audience as a Mentor, I alluded to “one of medicine’s dirty secrets”. My remark was directed to the many women physicians in the audience as I felt it was imperative to name one of the elephants in the room – the struggle many women physicians have around the timing of having children, whether to...

September 2010

7 posts

[This is a guest post] “I’ll make this quick because I know we all have other things we need to do BUT I have got to get this off of my chest! I am really angry and frustrated that I have almost no professional satisfaction despite putting in so much time and effort to get to this point! We work so hard to become established docs in our communities. I didn’t marry and have...

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother...”

– — Sophia Loren (I’m “thinking twice” as I get ready to go out of town away from the family for a few days)

"IMG in NV trying to fit in USA life style"

[This is a guest post] “Hi : I am a 42 year old Radiologist (since 1998) who 5 years ago immigrated from South America to USA (my husband was transferred), mom of a beautiful and smart 11 years old girl. I had obligatory quit my job as a MD for obvious reasons. Actually dealing with so much stress because I decided to take my USMLE Tests to get my license here, but after 20 years I...

"Childless Pediatrician Seeks Career Change"

[This is a guest post] “I’ve been practicing pediatrics for about 17 years. Now approaching 50, and childless, I find it harder and harder every day to remain in pediatrics. Emotionally it has become increasingly difficult for me to see newborn infants and to counsel first-time parents. Nursery rounds send me into a tailspin. In the primary care setting, when giving anticipatory...

"I am tired of giving more to medicine than my...

[This is a guest post] Not sure how to leave a guest post. I stumbled upon this blog site. I’m sitting here in tears as I feel like I’m reading all of my feelings, fears, bitterness that are being expressed by similar women. I am at that point where I am ready to quite. I just took a new position 7 months ago with a promise that my personal life would not be compromised. That...

I'd love to see a discussion board on this site!

[This is a guest post] Hello, I am touched as I read through the stories submitted thus far. I left my psychiatry practice three years ago after becoming seriously ill. I know my illness was a direct result of my lifestyle in my 30’s— I was either pregnant or breastfeeding for the entire decade while simultaneously working as a medical director and supporting my husband while he went...

August 2010

8 posts

Women leaving medicine - a wealth of untapped...

The third bullet point in the Women Leaving Medicine Manifesto strikes at the heart of my real concern. Image by Getty Images via @daylife “Women leaving medicine represent a great wealth of training and experience that must be tapped, to continue to benefit society”. When women leave their time-gobbling medical practices or drop out after a grueling residency, society loses out. ...

"Not Just Women With Families"

[This is a guest post] I’ve been practicing for 9 years and have basically been miserable the entire time. I’ve worked with career counselors, read tons of blog content and books on career change, and started a couple of masters programs only to discover that they weren’t the answer either. I am continuing to practice because I don’t know what else to do. I am a woman,...

"I have a choice"

[This is a guest post] Perhaps it’s an existential crisis. I had a baby in residency and everything changed. I’m realizing more and more now that motherhood brings a certain clarity to the female physician that could never be found otherwise, despite hours upon hours of scouring the medical literature to be “the best” doctor she could be. Here I am, at last, finishing...

"I'll be up at midnight for MY child"

[This is a guest contribution] years ago i felt very trapped in the post-residency physician rat race after having my first child. i felt like i had no choice but to continue sacrificing for others (ie) my patients, my employers/”partners” etc etc instead of living my life for myself and those i cared most for in life, my husband and children. my child at the time was spending close...

"My children come first"

[This is a guest post] I really hope this website takes off. I left medicine about two and half years ago after having my fourth child. My children are now involved in many activities which I believe they wouldn’t be able to do if I still worked. ( there is no way I would be able to get them to 5:30 practices) Watching my kids play their sports is my biggest joy. Might sound lame but it...

Women physicians - keepers of the family flame

The second bullet point in the Women Leaving Medicine Manifesto is “women physicians have the right to nurture their families to the extent they desire”. Parents age and get frail. Babies need nursing and nurture. Kids act out when their parental attachment is threatened. And physicians, both men and women, flame out in the absence of self-care. Fundamental to being human are the...

Image via Wikipedia Dr Elizabeth Berger,...

Slowing the Physician Brain Drain

I wrote my Women Leaving Medicine Manifesto with the encouragement of a small Mastermind group I’ve belonged to this summer. Since the Manifesto represents my most pared-down thinking on a big topic, I plan to write a series of articles, each dedicated to one point of the document. So here goes… Point Number 1: Slowing the Physician Brain Drain is vital to the well-being of our...

July 2010

3 posts

"There are no coincidences!"

[This is a Guest Post] “thank you ….the universe is always guiding me…and i will be very honest: i have been out of an IM residency only six years. throughout medical school and residency i felt uncertain/not confident in my knowledge base of medicine, but i chose im by default…nothing else jumped out at me. outpatient clinic during residency was a huge disappointment...

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly,...”

– Image via Wikipedia A favorite quote from American author, Henry Miller (1891-1980)

Welcome to "Women Leaving Medicine"

You may be wondering why there’s yet another blog littering cyberspace. If I knew any other way to do this, I’d be onto it! But I don’t, so here goes… For the last eight years, I have worked as a physician business and career coach, helping my physician clients search their souls and then master the steps of leaving clinical practice or starting a new business. I...