Why I left Clinical Medicine
It is more than burnout
My relationship with medicine has been up and down. When I was younger the only interaction I had with it was death and sickness. As I got older I saw healing and hope. I reevaluated what I saw as a child and looked beyond my experience, at all the people that were giving my loved ones comfort and hope.
Fast forward to after I graduated from pharmacy school. I was so excited to take on the world and help patients and their families. Then I became part of the system. To say that doing the right thing is hard is an understatement. I would say that we are set up to fail in our current healthcare system. The fact that we manage to have so many wins is a testament to the people that work in healthcare.
I am not someone that can just accept “well this is just how it is.” I saw many problems that I wanted to solve and in 2015 I started working on some ideas. Then I spent the next three years of my life trying to make those ideas a reality. Unfortunately, it did not work out but what I did learn was that two of my passions, healthcare, and technology, can intersect. Where they intersect is a beautiful place. During that time I felt like I was solving problems not just creating workarounds for them. That feeling never left me.
One question that changed it all
Now it’s 2019 I am sitting with my student and we are talking about his future plans and what he sees himself doing after he graduates. He then asks me a simple question that would change my path forever.
He asked me “could you see yourself doing this for the rest of your career?”
After what felt like an hour I answered “No, I don’t think I can.”
That was the first time I had ever thought about that question. I spiraled into an existential crisis. Every thought was racing through my mind.
Did I make a mistake?
Why not? I am getting paid well.
What else can I even do?
In the end, it wasn’t the job, it was me. I loved my job. It was amazing. I loved the patients and the people I worked with. But, I was sick and tired of turning people away. I was tired of the same scheduling issues and working more with less. I was also angry at how all these problems were making me jaded. This is not why I got into medicine. I got in to help. At some point that shifted to only helping myself and I could not live with that. I knew that I could do more. I knew that I wanted to do more. I just didn’t know how.
So, I reflected back on when I was the happiest in my career and it always led me back to when I was working on my startup. I was working two jobs and getting paid nothing but I loved it. It tapped into why I went into medicine. It allowed me to solve complex problems, with the only thing holding me back was my imagination.
That day was the day I came to grips with leaving clinical medicine. It was not a decision that was easy or one that still hurts but I knew that I had to let it go to accomplish what I want to accomplish.
Every person left behind
You’re probably asking why leaving clinical medicine is helping at all. There is a massive staffing shortage you are just adding to the problem and you are not fixing it. To that, I say you’re right, but I also think that we all can help in our own ways.
The reason why I am drawn to healthtech is because I love technology and I understand it. We need more clinicians in healthtech guiding the future of practice, not people that have never worked in medicine. This is by no means a dig at anyone but usually, the people that work in an industry know all the issues and what can work and what will not work. Half of healthtech is health and I was tired of having solutions forced fed to me and leaving it up to us to figure out how to make it work. You can ask anyone who has ever worked in the hospital, there is a drawer or a room filled with branded iPads and devices that are just not used anymore.
I also want to make clinicians’ lives easier so they can do what they do best and that is taking care of their patients. I want to make technology the reason for their efficiency, not the reason they’re bogged down. I want to augment them so they can be in multiple places at once. Give them the freedom to help as many people as they would like. The saddest thing I saw in my career was not sick people; it was seeing amazing clinicians lose their passion and worse lose their lives.
Finally, technology allows me to think on a scale that I could only dream of. Not hundreds or thousands but millions and hopefully billions. One of the issues with clinical medicine is you can only help one person at a time. You are bound by your schedule.
In the end, we all have our unique skills and different ways we can help and our training should reflect that. There is so much talent in healthcare that is wasted. It is time we take control of our own destinies. My calling is tech, but yours can be policy, finance, or sales…the possibilities are endless! Let’s get back to why we were excited after we spent more than half our lives in school! We are more than capable of anything.
If you are interested in learning about my career transition, you can find the article here. I am back to feeling excited and ready to take on the world. I think I have found a way I can help. And I am here to not only help the patients but also the clinicians! Here is to the next chapter.
Every week I share a random fact about myself. This week’s fact is…
Random fact about me: I have changed 5 toilets in my life. 5 more than I ever thought I would. It isn’t too hard but a valuable skill to have.
Thank you so much for your support! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or leave a comment.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn and I am trying to be more active on Twitter. Would really appreciate a follow there!
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I hope you have a great day!
We need more people like you Zain who talk about these important matters!