Hi everyone,
I’m a family doc, graduated about 4 years ago and have been working in the same location since graduation.
I think in the world of family medicine, I made a good choice with this job. I am earning just under 320k with a 10% 401k match and 23 vacation days per year. Patient volume is about 16 per day, though the patients are often very sick with little to no health knowledge, and many don’t speak English.
(Just as an aside - to achieve that 320k I do work an additional 8 hours per week running a specialized program (i.e. a 48 hour work week in total - which is really more like 58 hours with all the charting and inbox stuff).)
I love my job. I love my patients. But I have begun to find the day to day work kind of boring and the workload mentally taxing. I have definitely experienced severe burnout more than once over these 4 years.
I spend pretty much all my free time recovering from the challenges of each day. Seeing patients, reviewing a boatload of information about each one, thinking about the best course of action for them, ordering treatments, fielding questions, documenting, signing forms, prior auths etc. The mental energy required to do all of that takes a toll on me and I’m usually forced to spend most weekday evenings (and weekends) recovering - I don’t want to think about anything, I don’t want to talk to anyone… I mostly just want to do mindless activities to give my brain a rest.
This is a problem for me because my personal life hasn’t exactly gone the way I expected. I’m 36 and I’ve never been married. I’ve been in a few long term relationships (the longest were 6 and 8 years each - both ended due to factors outside of my control).
I find myself needing time to try to sort my personal life out, but all my time is taken by my job, and by my need to decompress after work.
I’m thinking of making a change, but I’m not sure what I should transition into. I don’t want sell my soul to join the dark side of administration, and I don’t think I’d make a good educator either.
I’m curious about technology with the recent A.I. boom and I wonder about entering the health-tech space somehow (but have no idea where to start).
Overall my goals are to 1. Do something new and interesting and 2. Reduce my workload to a more acceptable level (ideally a maximum 40 hour work week with less time needed to decompress).
I don’t care much if this change results in a drop in salary. I’m more than willing to trade the money for the time.
I’m wondering if any of you all have any suggestions as I’m sure at least a couple other family docs feel some of the same pressures as I do.
Thanks for reading.
I’m a family doc, graduated about 4 years ago and have been working in the same location since graduation.
I think in the world of family medicine, I made a good choice with this job. I am earning just under 320k with a 10% 401k match and 23 vacation days per year. Patient volume is about 16 per day, though the patients are often very sick with little to no health knowledge, and many don’t speak English.
(Just as an aside - to achieve that 320k I do work an additional 8 hours per week running a specialized program (i.e. a 48 hour work week in total - which is really more like 58 hours with all the charting and inbox stuff).)
I love my job. I love my patients. But I have begun to find the day to day work kind of boring and the workload mentally taxing. I have definitely experienced severe burnout more than once over these 4 years.
I spend pretty much all my free time recovering from the challenges of each day. Seeing patients, reviewing a boatload of information about each one, thinking about the best course of action for them, ordering treatments, fielding questions, documenting, signing forms, prior auths etc. The mental energy required to do all of that takes a toll on me and I’m usually forced to spend most weekday evenings (and weekends) recovering - I don’t want to think about anything, I don’t want to talk to anyone… I mostly just want to do mindless activities to give my brain a rest.
This is a problem for me because my personal life hasn’t exactly gone the way I expected. I’m 36 and I’ve never been married. I’ve been in a few long term relationships (the longest were 6 and 8 years each - both ended due to factors outside of my control).
I find myself needing time to try to sort my personal life out, but all my time is taken by my job, and by my need to decompress after work.
I’m thinking of making a change, but I’m not sure what I should transition into. I don’t want sell my soul to join the dark side of administration, and I don’t think I’d make a good educator either.
I’m curious about technology with the recent A.I. boom and I wonder about entering the health-tech space somehow (but have no idea where to start).
Overall my goals are to 1. Do something new and interesting and 2. Reduce my workload to a more acceptable level (ideally a maximum 40 hour work week with less time needed to decompress).
I don’t care much if this change results in a drop in salary. I’m more than willing to trade the money for the time.
I’m wondering if any of you all have any suggestions as I’m sure at least a couple other family docs feel some of the same pressures as I do.
Thanks for reading.