the safe choice isn't so safe anymore
One of my coworkers told me to just focus on medicine this past week. Apparently, he thinks that I’m spreading myself too thin. I can’t help it though, I realized very early in my career something very frightening.
We’re all replaceable.
Especially at work. I’ve felt this throughout training which has always felt more like a pressure cooker. It’s taken me a long time to accept. But one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned during this pandemic is that even physicians are as disposable as the face masks we use. Salary cuts, poor protective equipment, and throwing caregivers in the face of a life-threatening disease were commonplace. Even physicians required care in the ICU.
As an Indian kid, the culture taught me that a career in medicine is a very safe job. But the more I learn, the more I realize medicine is not stable. Most hospitals will not take care of us.
We work so hard throughout college, medical school, and residency. We’ve jumped through so many hoops, ignored so many distractions, and put our lives on the line. At the end of it all, I think few healthcare professionals realize how tenuous all this is.
Yuval Noah Harari argues machine learning will act as physicians in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Algorithms replacing physicians sounds like science fiction. Yet, many people get most of their healthcare information from Google, Facebook, or Instagram — not physicians.
“Most patients don’t even know the difference between a doctor and a non-physician.”
More and more physicians are being replaced by non-physicians. Despite a physician shortage. Most patients don’t even know the difference between a doctor and a non-physician. Money is tight so hospitals are looking to non-physicians to fill the roles of physicians.
Lawsuits, licensing issues, hospital administration, disability, and pandemics threaten a physician’s career. No one teaches us about any of these things in residency. In residency, all that matters is learning medicine.
This leaves physicians in a vulnerable position. With a skillset limited to the hospital, what is a physician without a practice? Mom always encouraged me to learn from other people’s examples. As sad as this story is, I’d rather take steps now to avoid this physician’s fate.
So what can physicians do?
Build skills. Spend time learning things other than medicine. Have a hobby. Become a well-rounded person. The medical school pressure cooker makes us all similar people with similar resumes.
My problem is that I’m a naturally curious person and I want to learn as much as I can. As of right now, I’ve got 20 books on my reading list for 2022 that do not have to do with medicine. I keep up with my medical reading and I have a system for studying. But medicine is not the only thing that I know, nor is it the only thing I want to know in life.
At some point, my time in medicine will end. Either because I get replaced or because I want to move on. Seems like there are a lot on KevinMD.com. When that happens I want to be ready and well-rounded for the next phase of my life, whatever that may be.
Passive Income MD would say that working on your financial health is critically important. We were never taught about money or how money works. This creates a group of people that shoulder six figures of debt on average without any real financial planning.
I’d prefer a system-wide change with some robust financial training, but that is not a viable solution. The best current solution is to learn as much about money as you can on your own. The internet is full of resources to learn personal finance. My shortlist of financial books is here.
Building other sources of income is critical. Any financial advisor will tell you to diversify your investments. The same principle applies to your income streams. I believe the technical term is hedging against your downside risk.
Passive income is a term that gets kicked around these days. There is no such thing as truly passive income. Having other sources of income can prevent you from relying on one source. Having streams of income that are semi-automated allows you to continue a full-time job.
Here are some side hustle ideas to get your wheels turning:
dividend investing
day trading
medical writing
tutoring
real estate crowdfunding
hosting an AirBnB
getting a real estate license
starting a blog
affiliate marketing
patenting a medical device
youtube channel
podcasting
It’s a lot to take in and a lot to learn. And to be honest, medicine is a lot on it's own. I can’t say that I’ve been successful in anything quite yet, but the plan is to be financially free in the future.
What do you think? Is being financially free a viable option? Is studying more than just medicine too much? Hit up the comments below!