Key Points
- True satisfaction comes from the work itself, not the money you earn or the things you get.
- Identify the positive and negative elements in your work life and start eliminating the negative and expanding the positive.
- If your workday is so long that it is interfering with your private life, examine whether your practice is using resources
effectively.
- Focus on always learning and growing professionally as well as mentoring newer doctors.
After practicing medicine for seven years, Beth Hodges, MD, a family physician in Asheboro, North Carolina, was looking to
recapture the passions that attracted her to the profession. She succeeded—by becoming a medical director for hospice five
years ago.
Beth Hodges, MD (white coat, left of sign), has found joy in her work life from an unlikely source: working with hospice patients.
She says the work keeps her grounded and fresh.
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"I started with one county, then added another and yet another," Hodges says. "I now travel up to 200 miles every Friday.
It might sound odd that helping the dying makes me happy, but the work I do with hospice makes a huge difference—not just
for hospice patients, but for their loved ones, who see them comfortable and not suffering. Hospice work has a spiritual nature
to it that keeps me grounded and fresh."
She explains: "This has made the work I do in my practice seem more important and rewarding, and it helps me appreciate every
day I have with my husband and children."
Because the roads to capturing—or recapturing—professional fulfillment veer off in many directions, deciding which path to
pursue requires introspection, resolve, and a willingness to experiment. "Physicians, in general, enter the medical profession
for beneficent reasons, but then things that they were not anticipating—such as having to oversee a highly administrative
business—become part of their professional life," says organizational psychologist Charles L. Sodikoff, Ph.D., a consultant
with Corporate Performance Consultants of Hauppauge, New York. "True satisfaction," he says, "comes from the work itself, not the money you earn or the things you get. You need to figure
out what is satisfying and dissatisfying to you, then act accordingly."
See related sidebar article, "How to bring up the 'happiness quotient' by investing in your practice" for suggestions from
Sodikoff and others.
PINPOINT THE REASONS FOR JOB DISCONTENT
Jack Valancy, of Jack Valancy Consulting in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, cites four broad areas of physician satisfaction:
- The patients or cases that you handle. What kind of clinical work do you like to do? What types of patients do you like to see? What types of cases do you like
to treat? "Not surprisingly, doing work that you really enjoy elicits the most professional satisfaction," says Valancy.
- The culture of the practice. "Every medical practice has a culture. You might get a really good fit, a good-enough fit, or a bad fit," says Valancy. "Some
people, for example, thrive in a high-performance, high-pressure environment; others buckle under the stress."
Practice culture also encompasses relations with colleagues. According to Valancy, this can range from "I love working with
these doctors; we're a great team; I could be here for the rest of my career" to "We don't have much to do with each other"
to "The politics of this place is terrible; I don't like being around these people."
- Location and lifestyle. "Most folks want to live within reasonable proximity of family and friends," says Valancy. "In addition, if you're a country
kid in the city, or a northeasterner in the Southwest, you could feel culturally isolated."
- Compensation. "Remuneration is on the list, but it's number four, because in my experience it's the least important," says Valancy. "Compensation
tends to be more of a dissatisfier than a satisfier. You might be unhappy if you feel you're not making enough money. But
if you have a lousy job and make more money, you still have a lousy job. You're just getting paid a little bit better."
(GETTY IMAGES / Thomas Northcut)
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To identify how you might boost job satisfaction, Valancy recommends starting by imagining that you have had a great day at
work. "Identify what made the day great," he says. "Was it the presence of interesting or challenging cases? Appreciative
patients? Working alongside good colleagues? A day that flowed smoothly? Now recall a terrible day at work. What made it terrible?
Routine or boring cases? Hostile or otherwise difficult patients? Conflicts with coworkers? Severe time pressure?"
Next, think about what you can do to increase the positive elements and reduce—or eliminate—the negative elements. "If you're
unhappy with your patient panel, what can you do to cultivate the types of cases you enjoy?" Valancy says. "You might trade
assignments with another physician, or reach out to community groups in an effort to attract more interesting clinical cases."
Practice Tools
Posted 2010-07-16 08:34:28.0
