Long hours, managed care, a litigious environment all contribute to discouragement and low morale. Some well-respected outstanding physicians have left the field in the past year. Some individuals realize that they just weren't cut out to be physicians. Because there is less stigma attached to career change today, they are more able to overcome barriers that existed previously. It is still one of the more wrenching decisions a physician can make, however.
Many physicians feel that there is little else they can do but practice medicine.
Often this is not the case. Physicians have found new careers related to medicine, in pharmaceutical companies and research environments. They have also opened small businesses, bed and breakfast inns and become writers of fiction and non-fiction. Change is possible and, with planning, can be less painful than the actual decision to pursue it. Career change for anyone involves taking stock of where you have been and where you think you may want to go.