When I decided to attend medical school, I was so passionate about all the good I could do as a physician. While I considered the sacrifices I would be making, I just didn’t grasp the impact it would have on my physical and mental well-being. So I wondered if I should quit medicine numerous times over several years until I finally figured out how to make this important decision. If this sound like you, I can help you reach a decision way faster than I did.
There are 7 steps to effective decision making that take you from properly outlining the problem at hand to taking action. It’s a lot to unpack, but I will walk you through my process step by step so you can make up your mind quickly.
7 Steps to Effective Decision Making
- Identify the problem
- Gather information
- Identify alternatives
- Weigh the evidence
- Choose among evidence
- Take action
- Review your decision
Step 1: Identify the Problem
Why do I want to quit medicine?
The first thing you will want to do is ask yourself some questions to fully comprehend what is driving your discontent. Start by thinking about what brought you into the medical field. What were the goals that you hoped to accomplish, and why? Write these answers down so that you can reflect on them later. As a cheat, you can always pull out your old admission essay and review what you wrote as your motivators.
Next, really think about what you do not like about the field of medicine? This is an equally important step because you must be able to take a step back and see whether the problem is temporary or permanent, fixable or unfixable. If temporary, perhaps you can grit your teeth and bear it. If fixable, then set about doing that. Permanent and unfixable? Then you need to decide if you can make the adjustments in yourself to be able to function in medicine.
A word of caution: Many medical professions are suffering from burnout and it clouds their judgment. Take my Burnout Battle Plan Assessment to find out if you are at-risk or suffering from burnout.
The last question is really assessing what is your life purpose. What is it that you feel like you are called to do? And if you stay in medicine, are you then fulfilling that calling? Are you helping people in the way that you want to be helping them? For me, I wanted to be a surgeon, but being a surgeon did not match with the way in which I wanted to heal others. I was much more interested in prevention and relying on natural ways to heal.
Remember not to rush this process as the answers will help you make up your mind. Personal reflection is required to truly decide your next steps. It will be crucial to flush out any areas where there is room for personal growth as that may be contributing to your dissatisfaction and quitting medicine may be running away from the challenge to grow as a person. You will regret leaving medicine if it is simply due to a failure to grow as an individual because wherever you go, there you are.
Step 2: Gather Information
If after some introspection, you are still not convinced medicine is the right fit for you, proceed with step 2 by finding answers outside of yourself. Mainly, you want to know if there is another career that you could pursue that fits more of your requirements for longevity and fulfillment. I will provide a list of some common careers for doctors below, so keep reading or scroll right down to take a look.
If you need more ideas, google is your friend here.
Then, find people who are doing what you may be interested in doing. Send them an email. Give them a call. There is a sense of camaraderie amongst physicians as we have all been tried by the medical education system and been found wanting in some way, shape or form. When it comes to this, do not hesitate to ask for help.
Make sure you have spent enough time on step 1 so that you can have a real discussion about what you are thinking of doing. Do not waste their already limited time. No one can answer the aforementioned questions for you. And if you need help really getting to the bottom of it all, then seek out a trusted colleague, school counselor, or coach like myself who can assist you.
Step 3: Identify Alternatives
If I quit medicine, what will I do?
Say you have spoken to specialists in you alternative career choices. The next step is to get some experience in the fields that you are curious about. This is the tricky part, but leaving medicine to become, say, a cybersecurity specialist when you have no idea all that goes into this highly skilled profession is doable, but not the best idea.
For example, if you are thinking of becoming a medical writer, then see if you can submit work to your school magazine or hospital website. Take an online course on the subject, such as Medical Writing for the Healthcare Professional. Udemy has plenty of courses that are cheap so you can try your hand without a major investment.
Another popular choice is consulting for major companies like BCG, Bain, and McKinsey. If that’s your interest, you can typically find clubs on campus that focus on prepping for interviews. If you are a post grad, Management Consulted is an excellent resource. And the top consulting companies often have workshops so that you can practice and get to know the company, so check out their sites! I have some firsthand experience with this, so if you are curious, do not hesitate to contact me.
Step 4: Weigh the Evidence
This is where I recommend you make a table. Something like what’s pictures below. Fill in the columns for Medicine, Career A, Career B etc. Then give it a score, i.e 10 being the best, 5 being okay, and 1 being the worst. You can even throw in weights based on what is most important to you, but I will keep it simple in this example.
| Medicine | Medical Writing | Consulting | |
| Lifestyle | 1 | 10 | 5 |
| Interesting Subject Matter | 10 | 1 | 5 |
| Upward Mobility | 5 | 1 | 10 |
| Longevity | 5 | 10 | 1 |
| Total | 21 | 22 | 21 |
In the above scenario, medical writing would be the winner because of its great lifestyle and ability to have a long career in the field. I created this table for my data-driven colleagues out there, but also for all my intuitives. If the career that wins doesn’t provide you with a sense of relief or happiness and you find yourself rescoring again and again, then you already know what you want to do. You are just trying to make it make sense on paper when it only has to make sense in your heart. (Mushy, I know. But it’s so true).
Step 5: Choose Among the Evidence
So now you have thought about the problem, you have chosen possible career alternatives, you’ve gained some experience in those fields, and weighed the evidence. Now, it’s time to decide.
If you have made it this far, it is safe to say, you do NOT want to be in medicine any more, but you have financial obligations or do not want to let anyone down or it’s scary to quit medicine or you feel you’ve invested a lot of time and effort to become a doctor. The reasons to stay are endless.
With the last reason, here is a word of caution. You could be falling into the sunk cost fallacy trap. The time you have spent in medicine is not wasted. You have invaluable skills that you can use to move forward.
You were unhappy in medicine, so choose the field that you believe will help you regain that happiness. I do not recommend focusing on income; however, I understand that there are situations where that has to be the deciding factor. And that’s okay. Make your decision and be at peace with it. You can ALWAYS change your mind.
Step 6: Take Action
Remember this whenever you are afraid to take action. You are a medical student or doctor. Few careers require the amount of hard work and sacrifice of a physician. This means you have what it takes to do anything you set your mind to. So just do it. Have no doubt that you will succeed. Any set back is just a lesson learned on the way to your dream career.
Step 7: Review the Decision
Now that you have made your decision and have begun taking steps to help realize your new career, don’t forget to pencil in time to reflect on your life. Keeping in tune with who you are and what you want out of life will prevent you from feeling stuck again.
What do doctors do after medicine?
If after everything, you have come to the decision that you have to leave medicine, do it.
Here is the list of careers that doctors can do after leaving clinical medicine.
- Medical Expert Witnessing
- Disability & Utilization Review
- Real estate
- Medical spa
- Coaching
- Writing – fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, freelance, medical etc
- IME
- Consulting
- Medical equipment development
- Investment analyst
- Pharmaceuticals
- Insurance
- Physician/medical school education
- Influencer, especially on Youtube
- Civil Servant
- Hospital Leadership
- International health administration
- Medical/health statistics
- Medical research
- Biomedical device sales
- Pharmaceutical marketing
- Politics, especially as it relates to healthcare regulation
- Healthcare technology software developer
- Pharmaceutical/research writer
- Specialty guideline development/certification oversight
- Franchise owner and more!
If you are unable to settle on an alternative career but you know medicine is not for you, check out the SEAK conference. It can be so helpful in seeing what possibilities are out there. I attended this conference and was met some colleagues that I am still in touch with to this day. AND I met an amazing life coach there who influenced my decision to become a coach as well.
How Do You Know When It’s Time to Quit Medicine
There are 5 signs that tell you when it is time to quit medicine. The most important sign that it is time to leave medicine is when your gut says it is time to walk away. I am a huge believer in intuition, and I believe we should all learn to trust ourselves more. Here are some other ways to know it’s time to walk away:
- You fundamentally disagree with the current practice of medicine.
- Your mental and physical health has been compromised. (At the very least, you need to figure out a way to take a leave of absence to recover.)
- You have weighed all your options and only see yourself happy outside of medicine.
- Your unhappiness is affecting your professionalism, which is weighing on the medical team and putting patients at risk.
You will regret leaving medicine if it is simply due to a failure to grow as an individual because wherever you go, there you are.
Do Not Make These 5 Mistake When Deciding to Quit Medicine
Do not make these 5 mistakes when deciding to quit medicine. First, be absolutely sure that you have identified why you are dissatisfied in the field. If you misidentify the issue, then all your decisions thereafter will obviously be flawed.
For the longest time, I thought the issue was that I did not like constantly being told what to do and how to do it. However, once I graduated from residency and began to practice on my own, I realized I still wasn’t able to practice in the way I felt would be most helpful to the patient.
The second and third potential pitfalls are related: relying on too little information or too much information to make your decision. This is similar to asking for one person’s advice on the matter versus 10 people’s advice. One viewpoint is too narrow. But be careful about having too many inputs. It will make reaching a conclusion that much harder.
The fourth mistake to avoid is assuming the worst from leaving. Do not assume that your departure from medicine will be so detrimental to your team or your patients. If you do, it may stifle your ability to do what needs to be done for your own happiness.
Finally, do consider when is the best time to leave medicine. Do not leave before you have gotten something from your efforts. I know I mentioned sunk cost fallacy; however, it is still worth it for a 4th year medical student to hang on and get their MD or a third year IM resident to finish residency. If you are close to the finish line, that extra accomplishment will be invaluable for the rest of your life.
Even if you are no longer in the field, you have achieved what others have only dreamt of doing. Be proud of that.
If You Quit Medicine, Will You Regret It?
If you quit medicine after much introspection and researching your options, you will have no regrets. You have this one life to live. Why would you spend any more time than you have to doing something that makes you miserable? My wish for you is that you find what you love doing so much so you hop out of bed every morning excited to start a new day.
But wait, there’s more!
If you happened across this article first, please check out So You Want to Quit Medicine NOW and So You Want to Quit Medicine II
And if you have tried everything, but you are still just stuck. Read why you may need extra help in Indecisive Medical Students Need an Excellent Life Coach.
Good luck on your journey!