Self-actualization in Medicine Part 2: Identifying Potential Complications

Doctors, especially long-established doctors, are tempted to treat their junior partners like children. It’s a variation on the “what do you want to be when you grow up?” and senior physicians are self-appointed gurus for how you should practice medicine. It’s not dictatorial or mean-spirited, however. You must remember an established practice has a good reputation for good reasons. Nevertheless, senior physicians expect their subordinates to be obedient and productive and not upset the course of the practice.

When intolerable limitations aren’t known before committing to a practice, they can brew like an ugly abscess, inflamed and painful. It’s no fun being the foreign body that initiates a practice’s innate immune system against you. This is a psychological burden that is unexpected while you’re trying balance risks vs benefits, follow a therapeutic flow sheet, or even concoct an empiric regimen. Can this burden be avoided? Just what are the warning signals?

Self-actualization in Medicine Part 1: Your Hierarchy of Needs

When you are a new doctor jumping on board an established practice, it is expected that you subscribe to a way of doing things. Maybe these ways are right or maybe they’re wrong. Can you abide them or can the practice abide your not abiding them? You’ve always dreamed of how you would treat, educate, and relate to patients, and a well-oiled machine (i.e., an established practice) invites no torpedoes. Sometimes you must draw the line right away if you think there are dangers to patients or unethical practices. When your moral compass points south, it takes no time before you walk out the door. Other times you assimilate without difficulty; at some point, however, you will want to be your own person, your own doctor. Will you be a torpedo or an additional gear in the well-oiled machine?

Four Reasons Your Medical Practice Should Embrace CAM

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) refers to any therapy that is not a part of standard Western medicine. Despite increasing interest from patients – up to a third of Americans use some form of CAM – western medicine has historically vilified these practices as not evidenced based and without much merit. Despite this, many CAM practices are beneficial to patients and can safely be integrated into your medical practice.

Read on to see why your practice should start incorporating CAM…

This is How to Start a Healthcare Job Search

Assuming you have a particular direction in mind, you might be surprised to learn that labor markets are incredibly diverse, and advice is somewhat difficult to generalize. That being said, we’ll discuss a few tips that should be helpful, no matter where you are or what field of medicine you are looking to get in to.

6 Tips for Finding a Healthcare Job in Another State

Do you dream of looking out your window and seeing the Rocky Mountains? Do you envision going to a warm, sandy beach after your shift at the hospital instead of driving home in the snow? One big hurdle stands in the way of making your fantasy a reality, the difficulty of finding a job in another state.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Choose My Medical Specialty

Choosing the right medical career is, like any other form of employment, filled with philosophically wondrous but functionally useless platitudes. The adage “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” decorates countless commencement speeches and career day addresses. Maybe that works for some jobs. In medicine, that strikes me as a bit backwards.

6 Best Practices for Building Patient Loyalty

Consumers today have high expectations when it comes to service. Companies such as Amazon, Netflix, and Google have thrived on providing consumers what they want, when they want it. As a result, we are living in an “on-demand” era that has increasingly infiltrated almost every industry, with healthcare being no exception. One may argue that medicine is hardly the same as ordering a video or a new set of bath towels online. However, the reality is that patients are consumers and they are living in an “on-demand” world.  To gain their business and win their loyalty, healthcare organizations and practices must recognize this shift and implement strategies to improve access, convenience, and personalization.

The following are six best practices for building and maintaining patient loyalty…

Top 9 Tips to Pick the Best Answers for USMLE Questions

The USMLE Step 1 has multiple questions, each requiring a unique strategy to arrive at the best answer. Here are 9 tips to help you finish your USMLE test on time, if not early, and get maximum answers right.

Physicians, Don’t Let These Excuses Stop Your Salary Negotiations 

Yes! No! Definitely! Definitely not! Maybe. Yes, it’s a definite maybe! Early, late, half-time, never?  You first. NEVER you first. When? How? Where? You changed your mind. Paper, email, text, a singing telegram? Get in their face; be demure. NEVER use these words; ALWAYS use these words. Is the market up or down? Wear blue. Wear black. Wear scrubs.

Such are the agonies, uncertainties, and the perseveration of negotiating a salary. You shouldn’t have to suffer so much – you did enough of that during your training. I’m providing some excuses you can use to avoid the discomfort of salary negotiation. Try them on before your interview. You’ll find something. If you don’t find a good fit, don’t worry. The universe never runs out of excuses.

How One Doctor Lost $67,500 in Less Than a Minute

…I was not fully vested and would have to forfeit over $67,000.

Poof…Gone forever.

Holy shit. Seriously?!?

What a painful lesson. One I never want to repeat, and one I hope you never have to face. If only I would have used a financial advisor at the start, this painful lesson could have been avoided, before plowing blindly ahead into investments I didn’t fully understand…