THEY ALSO LIVED IT

When navigating a transition, it’s helpful to have people around who get it and get you. Most people know having people who genuinely get you and love you is absolutely essential to thrive in life. If you are like I was, you may underestimate the importance of having people who get it.

In retrospect, I realize I didn’t appreciate in the moment what a blessing it was to have people who got it at every step of my academic journey. From college through residency, I always had friends who could relate to my experience inside and outside of the classroom or the hospital because they also lived it.

After residency, my daily experience as an ob/gyn was very distinct from that of my local friends and family. I thought being back home near people who had known me and loved me since childhood was sufficient. It was not. People can love you and absolutely not get it.

For the sake of emotional support when work got trying, I needed to be more intentional about having people in my network who understood the nuances of physician life. This is why I encourage early career physicians to have a group of folks in your world who get it and get you. There are a few different groups in which it can be useful to start the search for people who fit both those criteria.

Your medical school and residency colleagues.

I’m a big proponent of staying in touch with people with whom you trained. Hopefully, you were already friendly with some of those individuals while you were at the same institution. When you are scattered across the country, there remains a common bond from how you were trained. As you transition into attending life, you can share what you’ve continued to learn after training about life and practice.

Local medical organizations.

It’s nice to have some people in your area who understand the particular professional idiosyncrasies that come with practicing medicine. There will likely be physicians within those organizations at a similar stage of life and career as you. They might get it and get you better than your more veteran work colleagues.

Physician coaches.

I acknowledge this suggestion seems self-serving. It’s still true. Physician coaches have transitioned from trainee to attending, so we get it. There is also enough diversity among us in terms of specialties (medical and coaching) and individual personalities for there to be a very good chance of finding one who gets you. The added bonus is our whole deal is to help you be successful in achieving your goals.

Basically, when starting something new, don’t assume others will get it and you. Instead, assemble those who do.

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