My Change of Jobs

In the summer of 2007, I was approached by individuals from the hospital where I had done my residency. The main faculty that supervised and ran the Family Practice Residency were having some changes in their situation, and were going to be unable to maintain that relationship. My former program director knew that I had an interest in medical education, and so convinced the hospital to recruit me to maintain the program.

I was not unhappy at my job at the Arrowhead Clinic. In fact, I loved it, and to this day think it is one of the best places to work as a Family Physician. But opportunities to enter medical education, especially after only two years of practice, and even more as an assistant program director, come by very rarely, and it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.

The negotiations resulted in significant sacrifices on both sides, but at the time, the financial sacrifices seemed worth it to me to get my foot in the door of medical education. Unfortunately, the specifics of the contract, the promises and visions of the original discussions, and the realities of the hospital and practice situation on the ground never quite aligned.

The hospital is going through another consolidation, and although I firmly feel that the hospital is now firmly on the path of stability and growth, the uncertainty, combined with a general decreased interest in Family Practice and questions over faculty staffing, resulted in there being no new residents.

In September of 2007, I became the sole attending physician of the residency clinic, thus providing temporary stability to allow the current residents to complete the year. At the end of June, the senior resident graduated, and the second year resident decided to complete her last year under the supervision of the original faculty that she had signed on with in their private practice. Thus, right now I am the only physician seeing patients at the residency clinic. Occasionally there are students or first year surgical residents, but no family practice residents. Not exactly what I left a great practice in Newcomerstown for.

The intensity of a clinic population, that is very heavy laden with complex internal medicine patients, non-compliance, and economic barriers to the care I have been trained to offer, is taking its toll on me. Ideally, I would like to have my own private practice part time, and rotate with other teaching faculty into the teaching clinic. I think the stability of the hospital combined with a diverse and committed teaching faculty would allow the hospital to successfully recruit new residents.

The practice has a new Practice Manager, and the consolidation will be completed early this month. The administration is working on making the necessary investments, recruitment, and changes necessary to successfully rebuild the residency program. I remain hopeful that my move to my current job will bring forth great fruit.