I’ve been silent on here for the past few months. I won’t be so egotistical as to say my silence has been noticed by others, but I have certainly missed writing here. The reasons for the mini-hiatus include having to take my Oncology Board re-certification exam. On top of that, I have also just relocated to a new practice in North Carolina and therein hangs the tale.

I joined my first practice straight out of fellowship 20 years ago. I went to Medical School, did my Internal Medicine training, and finally Heme/Onc fellowship all at Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota. As a result, really all I knew, in terms of a practice, was a large multispecialty group in the Midwest. I did look at other places, but when I found a large multispecialty group in Illinois, it completely fit my level of comfort. Talking with people there and looking at the practice, I saw a group that was doing good things on a local level and could easily become much more than that. Over the span of my 20 years there, I was able to do much more than practice. I was involved as hospice medical director, hospital medical staff president, and a member of the clinic board of governors (including serving while we merged with our hospital partner).

Unfortunately, over time and with contributions of both me and the practice, it became clearer to me that the trajectory of the Oncology practice was going further out of alignment with my thoughts. As my son was finishing high school and getting ready to start into an adult life and college, I figured it was time to see if there were other ways different groups were handling things. I cast a pretty broad net as I took the initial leap of letting myself get out there.

One of the first questions I asked myself was “Is the grass really greener?” I had partners in Illinois who left out of frustration only to return in a couple of years asking for their old jobs back. I decided that the only way I was going to know was to look at everything with a cool, skeptical eye. The lessons I learned in Illinois allowed me to see problematic interactions that I would have missed when I looked at things 20 years earlier. I was also brutally honest with myself in terms of what I had to offer a new practice and what I would want a chance to do. In addition, I knew that it was easy enough for me to say I had a skill set but oftentimes more difficult to prove it.

It can be easy for docs of my generation to feel “trapped” in their practice. Graduates now really do think differently about the ability to move. I figured my first job would be my last. When things weren’t meshing as well with that practice, going to work each day became more of a trudge than a pleasure. The thought of another 15 years there started to become downright oppressive. Had I continued to stay there, I would have been at high risk of burn-out.

So the lessons learned from all of this for me would be…

-          If you are feeling “trapped” in your current position, start to at least look at what else is out there. You may decide that there is, in fact, nothing that fits you better. I would hope that lets you feel better where you are.

-          An interview is not a commitment. The interviews I went on did me a world of good. People wanted to meet me, wanted to take pains to impress me, and showed me a level of interest I had not seen in quite a while. You can interview without destroying your current practice.

-          Should you choose to relocate, be ready for paperwork and documentation you have not had to come up with for many years.

I was lucky to meet up with Dr. Derek Raghavan and for him to see a role I could play on the ongoing development of the Levine Cancer Center in Charlotte. Seeing his vision for the future and how it meshes so well with what I would want to be a part of has re-stoked my fire. It’s like I’m fresh out of fellowship and ready to roll. It feels great

Oh…and doing all this when you also have to re-certify yours boards?...not the best timing but oh well.