Work-iversary

Is your anniversary at work something that should be celebrated? Well, for me it is. I see it as kind of a landmark or a benchmark. I've been working at the same place for six years now. (image credit) For those Family Medicine docs out there, you've probably already done the math and see that I need to take my Boards next year to remain Board certified. That will be a fun process next year.

Big shout out to those newly graduated Family Medicine residents and other newly minted residents who may be starting new jobs today. For the great majority of people (in the US), residency ended June 30th. and the new graduates usually take July off to take their Boards and/or vacation, and then join the real world on August 1st with their new jobs. At least that's how I started.

Of course, the practice I'm at right now placed me on call overnight on August 1st. That was quite a joy. I remember that night on call. It's not like it was that busy, but it was like I was a first year resident all over again. I couldn't find my way around the hospital. I didn't know how to work the computers or the dictation machine. Looking back it was quite comical.

But, I got through it and not it's six years later. Every so often I get the "business" talk from the senior partners about how well or not well I'm doing from a business standpoint for the practice. "The numbers" as they call them always could be better. Industry in the part of the state is not exactly growing, even maybe getting more economically challenging.

With decreasing jobs around here means decreasing people with health insurance. Of course it's not great for patients, but from a business standpoint, that makes things challenging for me as well in trying to improve my business standpoint. Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining. It's just when I reach a work anniversary like this, it doesn't hurt to re-evaluate things.

When I look at my peers whom I graduated residency with a few years ago, some of them have had six different jobs in these six years - some even more than that. The medicine industry is not immune to the turbulent business cycle that's taking place in this part of the state and region.

So, all in all, I'm happy where I'm working. Yes, it's an economically deprived area of the state. Yes, young people and young families are leaving the area for success elsewhere in the country. And, yes, I myself could probably move down south or out west somewhere to make more money and have a better lifestyle with less on-call hours.

But, this is home for me. I was born in this area. I grew up in this area. My family is still in this area. I could not see myself living or working anywhere else. This post is probably one huge rationalization of why I'm still here. But, I don't care. I still love what I do and I have no regrets on my career choice. How many docs can say that these days?