I’m in Joliet, Illinois (nope, not in prison!) preparing to give a presentation today on physician career change to a group of doctors at Provena St. Joseph Medical Center . The title is “Is It Change or Transformation You’re Seeking? – How to Move On Gracefully”.

I feel a little strange walking into a hospital-sponsored event, planning to give physicians a strategy for quitting their medical practices – but hey, that is the power of free speech. And they invited me!

Did you know that:

   • Almost 60% of physicians would leave medicine if they could
   • 77% of physicians experience fatigue as a result of their work
   • 67% of physicians have experienced emotional burnout
   • 70% of physicians know other doctors who have left medical practice because of low morale?

(from The ACPE Physician Morale Study of 2006)

My presentation message for the largely physician audience arises from personal familiarity, and my observation that transforming one's existence from a life in clinical medicine to one in a different career is a progressive journey. A somewhat challenging one, despite our easy escapist fantasies, and riddled with normal, commonly held feelings and experiences that characterize each step of the journey.

In fact, I have defined seven stages to this process:

   1. Being a physician
   2. Feeling restless and dissatisfied
   3. Indecision
   4. Identity crisis
   5. Choice
   6. Transition
   7. New non-MD or non-practice or changed practice role

Having personally journeyed through them all, I’m inviting the tough questions from the audience. Unless 77% of them are catching up on their sleep!