The Oxford Dictionary defines conventional as “established by general agreement.” This suggests that convention is arbitrarily or artificially determined. What is conventional is not what is inherently right. It is not necessarily better than an alternative. Perhaps most importantly, it is not optimal for every individual.
This insight — that what is deemed conventional is not automatically the most effective or beneficial approach — has major implications for the work we do as doctors and the satisfaction we derive from our work. It challenges us to critically evaluate the standard practices and to consider other approaches that might better serve our individual needs and preferences.
What Makes a Physician’s Career Unconventional?
For doctors, conventional jobs entail being in private practice or employed by a hospital or healthcare system and delivering customary patient care within a specialty: A family doctor providing primary care at a local clinic, for example. A surgeon performing scheduled and emergent procedures in a hospital operating room. A dermatologist diagnosing and treating a range of skin conditions in a group specialty practice. These and other standard roles incorporate the archetypal doctor–patient interactions within the most established and visible parts of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure.
Physicians’ conventional jobs are the result of a long transformation in medical practice. Historically, doctors primarily had broad-based solo practices. They had few treatment options and relied more on opinion than science. Today, organization-based roles, specialization in medical disciplines, and adherence to established care standards care are the norm.
Advances in medical science, medical education, and societal needs have driven this evolution. Demographic shifts, patient expectations, new technologies, regulatory changes, financial incentives, and corporate interests have all been influential, as well. Changes to physician roles and the healthcare system over time have not only reshaped the “typical” job for a doctor, but also created new, less conventional possibilities.
There are many ways to deviate from conventional work in medicine. Jobs can involve practice settings beyond the hospital or outpatient medical office. They can concentrate on a discrete patient population brought together by a shared medical condition, location, interest, or other characteristic. They can have a unique clinical focus or set themselves apart by adopting cutting-edge medical technologies and treatments. Another source of deviation can be the way the physician works, such as employment type, schedule, or approach to patient care.
The terms job and career are used interchangeably, but they are distinct. A career encompasses the entirety of a person’s employment-related experiences, including various positions, roles, and professional activities over time. You can hold both conventional and unconventional jobs throughout your career or build a career entirely from unconventional jobs.
Labeling Unconventional Careers
The word unconventional offers a perspective that other labels don’t capture as well. Unconventional careers are not necessarily alternative careers. They are not alternatives to medicine; they are an integral part of it. Further, alternative implies a sense of last resort. For some, pursuing an unconventional path does feel like a last resort as they fight frustration and burnout from conventional medicine. Ideally, though, all physicians should consider unconventional jobs at all career stages.
Unconventional careers are not nontraditional either. This term does not acknowledge medicine’s changing nature and how what is typical today may not align with tradition.
Most unconventional careers are not unusual. Unusual conveys rarity, but many jobs are both available and attainable to many physicians, with a minority being truly rare.
Career transitions among doctors are sometimes equated with a switch to nonclinical work. Nonclinical careers like working for the pharmaceutical industry, a consulting firm, or a health insurer are an amazing option if your interests align with them. Yet, most students enter medicine with a primary aspiration to care for patients. Moreover, medical school and residency focus on equipping us with the skills and knowledge needed to do just that. The idea of transitioning to a nonclinical job is daunting for many physicians. Some fear they will miss seeing patients; others believe they will underutilize their medical degree.
In this context, an unconventional clinical career is a compelling choice.
Excerpted from 50 Unconventional Clinical Careers for Physicians: Unique Ways to Use Your Medical Degree Without Leaving Patient Care, by Sylvie Stacy, MD, MPH.