Too many doctors today are disillusioned by a life in medicine that has stripped them of an expected identity built around a revered profession in our society.
The numbers vacillate but a recent Forbes article notes that 9 out of 10 doctors would be unwilling to recommend healthcare to their children.
We are now labeled as workers—for corporations— and our once highly esteemed profession has been stripped of the autonomy and altruism that were age-old pillars.
Trained To Conform
The pressures of medical training lead us all towards conformity and away from individuation. Basically, our identity is forced to be subservient to the institutionally defined “doctor”—. While there are some benefits to the standardized process of medical education that was framed around the Flexner Report more than a century ago.
But, unlike the era surrounding the likes of the father of modern medicine-Sir Willliam Osler, doctors are no longer trained to independently practice.
Dutiful Employee
Now you are trained to be a dutiful employee.
Worse yet, you are brained-washed into thinking that soul-sucking constraints of employment are normal, and our unavoidable lot in life. The mindset is one of acceptance of the pain in exchange for a predictable hefty paycheck that fuels your life outside of medicine.
As an attending physician, when you are likely to accept a traditional employment job—your dream of individuation is once again sidelined—and the vice grip of conformity is further tightened down on you.
The control and forced corporate conformity gradually result in a shell of the life of a doctor that we always dreamed of— a life filled with the professional autonomy to do good and help patients while earning a good living–not filthy rich-just comfortably secure with a nice lifestyle.
Your Non-Work Life Is Your Refuge
Now your individuation process is relegated to what you do when you are not working. That is where your true pleasure and well-being resides.
Your life outside of medicine has become your workaround to the pain of employment—because outside of medicine is where your individuation thrives—and it’s where you dream of spending your time.
You dutifully complete your work at the hospital or clinic—half engaged, not fully present—because you are dreaming about what you are gonna do when your freedom is restored to your control-as you walk out that door—away from the long arms of your employer.
Your Forgotten Identity As A Doctor
Eventually, you forget who you really are as a trained professional.
Rather than identifying as professionals with control over your life, you are now workers who identify with masses of citizens who are punching the clock every week–codependent and compelled to conform to the big businesses that pay you.
You are controlled by those in management.
Suddenly you understand why unions were formed for workers over the centuries—to help collectively fight management—but then you are reminded—doctors can’t unionize—or collectively join to fight big business.
Forced to make it an individual fight with bug business-you are no match and eventually give up.
Whipped, tired, and hardly lift your head when you are disparaged as a “provider”
You have come to accept your role as a commoditized “provider” -even though there was a time when you would negatively react to being equally viewed as an NP or PA. Now you are weary from the beat-down and just accept it—knowing deep down inside that you are undervalued and under-appreciated as a professional with 20x the training of those other healthcare professionals. You feel helpless, maybe even frustrated.
Your corporate employers call all this branding, culture, and mission–and it forces the employees to leave their individual identity at the door–as conformity reigns and you are re-labeled as being a good corporate citizen—when you embrace the slow conditioning process to not resist their power over your identity.
Doctor, awaken from this trance! Remember that you were made for more than this!
Your first step to regain your professional identity involves incorporating your unique self and then using that corporation to navigate the healthcare landscape.
I wrote an entire book about this—Doctor Incorporated; Stop The Insanity of Traditional Employment and Preserve Your Professional Autonomy—as a reminder that you don’t have to blindly accept traditional employment.
Just like no two doctors are exactly the same, so no two professional micro-corporations at the same.
You are special, you are unique, and you’re a highly trained professional.
Start A Non-conformist Revolution
It’s time to use your skill and power to incorporate as your fundamental move to be a nonconformist.
Let individuation reign over conformity and I encourage you to embrace your best life as a doctor by starting your professional corporation.
Looking for some free business coaching about this, reach out to me at https://calendly.com/drinc/45min
Let’s lock arms and start a non-conformist revolution in medicine that re-establishes and preserves our professional identity and autonomy!
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