Does private practice get boring?

[Oranges123]

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Does private practice get boring? Is it less intellectually stimulating than academic medicine? Sure, you will probably get paid more in private practice but your patients will have less interesting pathologies than in academic medicine?

I'm just wondering if any physicians who have been in private practice (including owning your own business or being an employee of a HMO like Kaiser or working for a community hospital) for a long time (greater than 5, 10 years) can comment on this.

Career-wise, do you feel fulfilled? Thank you.

 

[DIce3]

I read 30 to 60 minutes every day just like I did as an intern in 1995. General internal medicine is a behemoth to do well. Really practicing private practice general internal medicine, and not being a referral king, is crazy cool.

 

[robin082006]

Does private practice get boring? Is it less intellectually stimulating than academic medicine? Sure, you will probably get paid more in private practice but your patients will have less interesting pathologies than in academic medicine?

I'm just wondering if any physicians who have been in private practice (including owning your own business or being an employee of a HMO like Kaiser or working for a community hospital) for a long time (greater than 5, 10 years) can comment on this.

Career-wise, do you feel fulfilled? Thank you.

I am a hospitalist and met several PMDs, they asked me when I will have my own primary office.

They are happy with their practice. Some old doctors said they have enough and want to retire early, but they don't want to leave their patients, they asked me to take over their practice (they will work another year in the same office to help me) but I am not interested in primary care at all. Some of them are making more than 1m/year.