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 chose this non-clinical career in part because I was sick of clinical practice and hospital administration, and in part because I became a mom for the first time at a very ripe age. You’d call me a very elderly primip!!
 
I didn’t want to be leaving the house at 7 AM, getting back by 6 on a good evening, and handing over the raising of my child to someone else.
 
Many of my women physician clients, friends and colleagues are stuck with situations that look just that — leaving early, returning home late, arranging rides to and from school, making sure the cupboard isn’t bare … and on and on. I am sure you have your own horror tales to share.
 
While I still love my “entrepreneurial MD” coaching, I have been feeling something stirring inside me. I no longer want to be helping physicians leave medicine only because they are unhappy in practice.
 
I want to support physicians — women physicians — through the often very painful decision as to whether to quit medical practice while helping them discover the many options of making a difference to their communities and the larger society.
 
We shouldn’t have to relinquish all our hard-won education and experience just because we want to raise healthy happy children. Or care for ailing parents. Should we?
 
I know I want to continue contributing in ways that work for me … not at the expense of my personal life. How about you?
 
You represent a wealth of ideas and experience and I would like us to join forces. Let’s raise our voices together in service of better choices for women leaving medicine, for all their various reasons. Let’s not waste all that talent.
 
Please read the Women Leaving Medicine Manifesto and tell me if you agree. We can add any missing essentials.