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“Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”
—Viktor Frankl, MD
When my father was in the prime of his medical career, the idea of quitting never occurred to him. Despite the trials and tribulations of a busy medical practice, I know dad loved his job. Oh sure, he had his moments.
A nurse who worked with dad for years (and she really liked the guy) once told me that the hospital night duty nurses would flip a coin to see who got to call Dr. Kelly and awaken him for a patient care question. The good doctor wasn’t always a sweetheart.
The fact that he had a wife, eight kids, a drafty old seashore mansion, and two dozen in-laws might also have spurred him onto more work. Anyway, he liked the challenge of being a physician—liked helping people.
A recent survey of America’s doctors between the ages of 50 and 65—those in the prime of their diagnostic and treatment abilities—found that the work life of today’s healers isn’t so peachy. In short, they’re fed up with things in healthcare. Who can blame them?
Merritt Hawkins , a national physician search and consulting firm, surveyed 1,175 practicing doctors and found that nearly half (44%) would not choose a medical career if they were starting out today. That’s both sad and frightening. Still, about 55% do believe that the quality of US healthcare has “improved” over the past 20 years. Thus, doctors can take some level of satisfaction.
Here are some other troubling findings:
• 68% say that newer physicians are less dedicated and hard-working.
• 57% would not encourage a medical career for their own children or other young people.
• 52% say the practice of medicine has grown less satisfying over the past five years.
• 49% say they plan to make practice changes (eg, retire, work part-time, find a nonclinical setting) over the next three years.
• 33% say reimbursement issues are their greatest source of professional frustration.
There’s little question that today’s doctors are gloomy. However, if doctors truly care about people (as the vast majority do), then I have confidence that the profession will endure. In the survey’s lone bright spot, a large majority of doctors said that “patient relationships” are their single greatest source of professional satisfaction (only about 5% indicated “financial rewards”).
Dad always told me that medicine was “a very rewarding profession, but hard work. You have to want to be a doctor.” And since there’s no knight on a white horse coming to the rescue of the medical profession, I trust that doctors will eventually find their way to happiness—it’s a choice, after all, regardless of the circumstances. Good luck
67%—Percentage of physicians (age 50 and 65) who say they devote at least one day per work week to administrative duties.
(Merritt Hawkins, 2007)
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