Leaving medicine | Changing careers and making a pivot at 30

PIVOT! (Any friends fans here?!) A pivot is an intentional and purposeful shift in the direction of where you envision your life. Sometimes you need to self-reflect and ask yourself the difficult questions. Am I living authentically? Am I being true to myself? What is the vision for my dream life, and what steps do I need to take to get there? In this video, I talk about my journey in medicine and how I made the not-so-easy decision to pivot my career at 30.

“Trust your inner intuition because it often points your career in a direction that truly honors who you are, even when it flies in the face of logic.”

#changingcareers #pivotingcareers #leavingmedicine #alternativecareerstomedicine #nontraditionalcareerpaths

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[ruggedtv]

I firmly believe that 50% of doctors would have left their profession if they were not trapped financially and had the 'stones' to be honest with themselves.

[noisette]

I am a doctor and I also want to change my career. I feel like I'm in a terrible relationship and that I have given so many chances to my career and now it's time to move forward. I don't recognise myself anymore, i have no joy whatsoever in showing up to work. After studying so much i thought that I should still try, so I moved to another country (in the idea that working in a better medical system would make me happy), I tried teaching (my current job is teaching medical students) but I still feel like it's a punishment to go to work. I admire doctors and teachers with all my heart but it is time to accept it's not for me. I've always been fascinated by numbers, that you can rely on them. At the moment I'm starting to consider a career in data analysis. I am terrified of the thought that I have to start all over again. But today, on my way to work, I tried to visualise myself outside the medical career and I felt happy and hopeful. That's when I knew that it's finally time to do something about it.

[alisonfines]

I was an internist and left medicine 5 years ago at age 30. I miss working with patients and their families sometimes, but do NOT regret for a second my decision. Doctors are put on pedestals often, and people call you crazy— but I find most people admire and respect my decision. I am healthy, happy, and actually love myself now. Living a very fulfilled, rewarding life while still helping others and contributing to this world. Lots of ways to do it. 👏👏👏 I applaud your courage, and wish you the best!

[sarahnewman]

Well done for making a decision that was right and healthy for you. I left my nursing career at 30 and currently studying a masters of teaching. It's all about living a life that is authentic to you. Sending good vibes x

[whiteroselmh]

Girl I left medicine too! The profession is changing and a lot of are frustrated with whats going on. I hope we both become happy and fulfilled

[babsie]

Time and money invested in anything should never be an obatruction for change. It's not wasted time but lessons that were meant for you. Wishing you well for the future and thank you for sharing.

[CeLiNa]

Im crying watching this video. I can relate to all you’re saying. Im still “trapped” but I’m starting the journey to get out Today. Thank you for sharing your story

[husnahussain]

Watching this video honestly brought tears to my eyes! I’m a recent med school graduate and honestly I still don’t know if being a doctor is for me. I was so passionate about fashion in highschool but life took me to med school lol. And overtime i lost my passion in fashion or anything artsy . Like you said i enjoy the part about making patients feel comfortable making them understand their situations, but I don’t feel well mentally and I don’t know if it’s a mistake for me to pivot to something else. At this point i really don’t know what to pursue anymore.

[CanadaMath]

I was a practicing family physician in the USA for 9 years (2005-2014). My story is very long, but the main reason I quit is because I hated the patients and their drug seeking behaviour. Almost 70% of my patients wanted some drug from me: Vicodin, Soma, Xanax, Promethazine with Codeine etc etc. I felt like I was a drug dealer rather than a physician. I am happy now with my own internet business.

[MelSpeaksMD]

Without a job lined up?! 😲 good for you for being bold and living authentically!

[Anonymous-xqcd]

Finding your truth as early as possible and acting on it immediately is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Life is short. Follow your heart and do the things that align with your values. Not a lot of people can do this because it takes a lot of courage to look at yourself on the mirror.

[f_hana]

I’m actually in my third year of medschool. Last year i was lucky enough to get a tutor who keeps reminding us that medicine is not everything and that we can always restart no matter how long we’ve been through this dark hole. I’ve been considering on stopping since last year but i gave it another try this year as they say clinical years is totally different from preclinical. However, the thoughts came lingering in my mind again this year. i’ve never felt like a complete failure before medschool. Medicine makes me look like a complete idiot that what makes me lose interest in it. Hopefully its not too late to start everything all over again when most of my friends are already graduating, starting a job and my cohort is entering year 4. So my advise to younger teenagers high schoolers please consider think again before applying to medical school.

[sanaa]

I’m also 30 and a Doctor, and I started to question my career path. Thank you for making this video. Can’t say that I know what to do. What advice could you give someone who’s just starting to have these thoughts?

[-optimist-]

Thanks for sharing! Your knowledge on medicine and treatment wont be wasted. It could be adapted to many technologies like an app for telemedecine. I'm sure the tech industry needs a person like you. Good luck :)

[mu.l.]

Currently in the same boat, I studied medicine under the influence that it would be fascinating and fulfilling as helping people is my thing, but I've been emotionally struggling to accept that in every setting both public and private there's limitations as to how much I can actually do for a patient, how much time I can spend with them, the meds we can give them due to the costs...getting called "innocent" by older colleagues and told "patients are lying to me" that have lost their spirit and treat patients like numbers...then the self doubt ..I'm tired, I'm soooo tired of all of it. I'm currently working at a health insurance company, and its been hell for me. I feel stuck here and Im at a point in which I don't care about helping people anymore, I just want to help myself for once and be happy. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. I signed myself up for a bootcamp course in programming, will be done in 6 months! Wish me luck!
Thank you for your video, I genuinely appreciate it, you are not alone ❤

[AmoreMiu]

I’m a month away from finishing my clinicals and I’m already looking for other career options. It’s tough coming this far only to realize this is not what I want my life to be like.

[wtvrhpndfrddyprnzjr]

American healthcare is fully diseased, rotten and on its way to dying. This sudden surge of medical professionals leaving during the pandemic is really stemming from a completely broken system that was getting by in recent times on the backs of compassionate people who didn’t know any better back then. American healthcare is expensive from the cost of training various professions to the costs in producing the drugs we utilize. But whereas other businesses can charge whatever they want and supply and demand would work out the cost, in medicine, especially given the nature of taking care of people’s health and government involvement, it is tightly regulated. The manufacturer of the medical supplies and drugs can charge whatever they want and yet the hospital and clinicians are capped (with rules such as no reimbursement if re hospitalized within a month, even if it isn’t the providers fault). But think of a plumber on the other hand who can charge extra for taking late night calls (doctors can’t do that). Private insurance companies are what led to the beginning of the end with their bogus coding requirements and reimbursement rates and dictating health care. Of course they’re going to try to hold on to as much of their money as they can. The entire healthcare model revolves around how we can get reimbursed by insurance or the government (think ICD coding and documentation) NOT patient care. Throw in all the middle men who are involved in health care who only add more expense and not value (PBMs, many of the business analysts, etc.), non centralized emrs leading to more waste (redundant work ups, labs, procedures)and equally burning physicians out, and a lack of responsibility by the patient in their preventative care, in part due to complex socioeconomic issues in this country. From the doctors’ perspective, we work so hard for many years thinking and training as if we’ll get to then manage independently but instead majority of us are employed by large health entities who treat us as if we’re some low level employees and continuing to micromanage our every decision. Most of our salaries are not competitive as they should be considering the liabilities, the years of training tagged along with the educational/training expense, and don’t account for the hours we actually work whether taking night calls, holiday calls, extended hours…again if you chose to run any other business you could charge a fee for the work you’re actually doing. (Look at any car related expense and you’ll see fees for lesser things!) Once many of us saw how a sizable portion of American society truly cares for us HCWs (with their refusals to hear our request to initially socially distance then mask then vaccinate) along with hospitals, who view us as simply expendable work horses starting back when we didn’t have enough PPEs, plus COVID itself taking people out the work force is when everything started falling apart …docs need to take the nurses lead and go prn and reclaim the leverage and drive the market to our perceived worth. Docs need to unionize; the current major organizations have failed us as have the older docs here that let things crumble this way. Society and government will only recognize when all that’s left is low quality professionals just how badly we need to redo American healthcare- taking out useless middle men including private insurance co., setting fair costs from professional education, to equipment, drugs, liability costs, patient responsibility (ie you smoke you pay much more, or you aren’t actively managing your lifestyle disease whether htn, t2dm, hld, obesity, etc.) and restoring a work life balance for the employees especially those of us who have already sacrificed many years to get here…kudos to anyone who read to the end of this rant 🙏🏾

[victoriaegedus]

Love your vulnerability. Thanks for speaking from the heart. I left my residency as well, which was a complicated situation too! You are doing much better things with your energy. Kudos in following your intuition!! 💖💖💖😚

[linglee]

Not even possible. Been an MD for 4 years but still have $640k of debt. Hate the job but no idea what else to do and need $$

[chickenlittle]

Dr. Dam, thank you for sharing!! very well spoken and genuine. I am a PGY1 who relates to every word you said- from the frustrations with the system to to the point about tech. It's always been a passion, every since trying to convince my father to buy apple stock some 13 years ago lol.. My main hinder is simply not having any actual tech experience. Regardless, I applaud you, and most realistically, will be following your footsteps. Best of luck on the rest of your journey!