Do you question if clinical medicine is sustainable for you?

I was the doctor wanting to leave Medicine due to the charting and paperwork. 15 years in clinical practice and still unable to tell my family what time I could be expected to be home. Heading home knowing I had hours left to do after family activities simmered down for the night.

I Loved the Patients and the Medicine, but was hated the job.

When I talk to clinicians I hear exactly the same fear; "Does it ever get any better, Do I have to leave Medicine to make this hamster wheel stop?"

What I know now is that - you will stay in medicine longer if you get a break from it, if you know when the day and the demands will end.

This is not about Physician Retention, this is about Physicians not desperate to escape medicine and building sustainable clinical careers.

When a high percentage of  Physicians are looking for an exit strategy, there's a problem.

This is a Physician Led Solution to the problem.

Clinical medicine feels unsustainable when;

 The clinical day spreads into the evening, weekend and holidays. 

You are feeling disrespected or burdened by more and more demands

You are required to get 5 stars on a Press Ganey score to unlock financial bonuses.

You need to meet productivity units and face performance reviews if these are not met.

You have loss of choice and autonomy in how you would choose to care for the patient

There are not enough Physicians for the population and therefore patients are not attached and fall through cracks if healthcare and Physicians feel responsible

When your job expectations, renumeration and position are at the mercy of government policy or employers

 As I worked through the challenges in my clinical day I realized that I couldn't wait around for the system to change, and I didn't have to. It was and is possible to create sustainable clinical medicine within the clinical environment that you work right now.

That's what sustainable clinical medicine means to me - helping Physicians choose to stay in medicine because they can contain it to the clinical hours,  and create a distinction between life and work.

Yes I still work my full 1300 Rural Family Physician panel, in addition to helping hundreds of Physicians create sustainable clinical medicine for themselves.

And there is still time for daily exercise, sleep, family dinners at the table, cooking supper and relaxed evenings with the family.