Professional growth - things just come back around

In 2019 I decided to change the way I worked in the US. As I've described in previous posts, the life of an OBGYN working in private practice in the US as an employed physician, meant often seeing 30+ patients in clinic a day, hustling between the OR and clinic in the same day, covering one or multiple hospitals for 24 to over 72hrs at a time and spending time that is unpaid, to review lab results and contact patients etc. That and the increasing epidemic of anti science and entitlement amongst patients as well as the unwillingness of practice owners and hospital administration to consider the health and wellbeing of the physician were all sucking the joy out of practicing medicine for me and I know that I was not alone in this sentiment. And, let's not forget the fact that I was a Black woman working in a racist country, so regular interactions with some patients, staff and collegues weren't always healthy, which also threatened the safety of my patients.

I was willing to give up performing certain gynaecologic surgeries just so I could get a break from the clinic load. I was willing to remove myself as one of less than a handful of Black women providing obstetrics and gynaecology care in our entire metro and surrounding areas, essentially at least 4 large cities. I was willing to walk away from that in order to feel like I had more control over my schedule and my life. For a year, a worked as a hospitalist instead of providing full gynecologic care.

I have been in New Zealand for 2 years and have been back to doing everything that I was doing in the US but no longer am I seeing 33 patients crammed into a clinic day. I am given time to check on lab results and time to respond to patient concerns. I am now excited again to be back in the OR, doing surgeries and have been upskilling. I am treated with respect by my peers and my patients. I finally feel safe to go back to one of the things I do best and that is private practice care

Recently, I have decided to get back to a private office setting, this time with more time to see each patient. Back to having patients I can follow for years, with a connection that I can't always establish working through the public hospital system. I still get to work at one of the busiest hospitals in New Zealand but now I get to have my own venture, and build a practice the way I want to. It's been about a month and going well so far. I am so thankful to be in this space in my life.

One recurring theme that I have seen in life is that it is not always what you do, but how you do it that makes all the impact on how much you can love what you do