Wed. Apr 24th, 2024

I found this article in Emergency Medical News. Dr. Edwin Leap writes Life in Emergistan pretty regularly. I highly recommend this piece for those thinking about changing jobs. Here are some highlights:

  • I made some good career decisions and some very bad ones. Sometimes, however, my bad decisions came from forgetting the old maxim that perfect is the enemy of good. I didn’t always think things through. I had jobs where I could have powered through minor inconveniences, but instead, thinking there was always something better, I changed situations. Mostly it worked out. Occasionally not so much
  • I urge you to be the opossum. Embrace your work as much as you can even if your dream job in emergency medicine doesn’t materialize. If there isn’t a full-time position nearby, offer to be credentialed to cover vacations or illnesses. Practice locums, domestic or international. If there isn’t an ED job, work in an urgent care. If there isn’t one of those, learn to do telemedicine. Consider direct primary care. Become a media personality. Read and keep your skills up as best as you can along the way.

DPC continues to get its tentacles out there. Even more and more ER docs are looking into it. Why? Because it breaks the insurance model and may even cure the physician burnout issue. Isn’t it time you thought about it?

15430cookie-checkSurviving the Job Market with Opossum-like Tenacity by Doing DPC
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By Douglas Farrago, MD

Douglas Farrago MD is board certified in the specialty of Family Practice. He is the inventor of a product called the Knee Saver which is currently in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Knee Saver and its knock-offs are worn by many major league baseball catchers. He is also the inventor of the CryoHelmet used by athletes for head injuries as well as migraine sufferers. From 2001 – 2011, Dr. Farrago was the editor and creator of the Placebo Journal which ran for 10 full years. Described as the Mad Magazine for doctors, he and the Placebo Journal were featured in the Washington Post, US News and World Report, the AP, and the NY Times. Douglas Farrago, MD received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia in 1987, his Masters of Education degree in the area of Exercise Science from the University of Houston in 1990, and his Medical Degree from the University of Texas at Houston in 1994. His residency training occurred way up north at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. In his final year, he was elected Chief Resident by his peers. Dr. Farrago has practiced family medicine for twenty-three years, first in Auburn, Maine and now in Forest, Virginia. He founded Forest Direct Primary Care in 2014, which quickly filled in 18 months. Dr. Farrago still blogs every day on his website Authenticmedicine.com and lectures worldwide about the present crisis in our healthcare system and the effect it has on the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Farrago’s has written three books on direct primary care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice, The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal and Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) are all best sellers in this genre. He is a leading expert in direct primary care model and lectures medical students, residents, and doctors on how to start their own DPC practice. He retired from clinical medicine in October, 2020.

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