Tips for Your First Physician Job After Residency

Your first job out of residency is a freeing, yet terrifying experience. There is no longer a physician overseeing you – you’re on your own and making final healthcare decisions for patients. It’s easy to get lost in your heightened responsibility and miss opportunities to set yourself up for future successes.

I’ve compiled a list of tips below that I wish I knew when I was just starting out. They’re tips that will provide context to your work and help you to keep a healthy perspective. The goal is to master your craft without losing yourself in the process.

Develop financial literacy

Be able to put together a budget, retirement, and savings plan for your future goals. You don’t need to master finance, but you do need to know whether you’re on track for the life you want to live.

Finance is important both from a short and long-term perspective. For example, your current budget determines how much you actually need to work. This is important when you’re just starting out and recruiters are dangling large sums of money in front of you. You’re used to working resident hours for resident pay, and so these salaries are tempting but may require an excessive workload. Knowing your budget lets you be more strategic when taking your first job.

In the long term, your financial literacy will keep you on track for all of life’s expenses, so you’re not stuck working more than you want to later in life. An online search for physician personal finance will provide many helpful resources.

Get involved with the hospital

Residency is spent learning your specialty. When you graduate, you find yourself in a new world of politics and administration you were not previously engaged in. Learning how hospitals operate, how changes are made, or how hospitals are financed is a new set of skills.

Committee membership is a great way understand this new context. It generally has a minimal time obligation but will broaden your scope and provide a new level of education. You may also find that as time passes, you wish to have less clinical duties and more administrative functions. Being involved in the hospital provides a path to broader career opportunities should you wish to take on new roles.

Save all your documents in one place

If you are just starting out, you have just recently been through the credentialing process. The documents you were just asked to gather will be asked for again — for the rest of your career.

Get in the habit of scanning and filing all documents as you receive or renew them. It will make your future credentialing and job application much easier.

State licenses, certificate courses like ACLS or ATLS, DEA and controlled substance certificates, flu/COVID shots, TB tests, diplomas and certifications - most credentialing and re-credentialing processes require the same information.

Also, keep a record of any complaints or malpractice that you are subject to. Throughout your career, you will be asked for a summary of these cases: the date you saw the patient, the date the complaint/lawsuit was filed, the date the case closed, the outcome and if any monies were paid on your behalf and their amounts. Lawsuits can carry on for years after you saw the patient and trying to find the information again is very difficult.

I have a file on my computer for all documents and have it arranged by year so I can always find what I’m looking for.

Make continuing education a routine

You will be surprised how quickly your knowledge and skills erode when you are no longer in the academic environment. Find a Continuing Medical Education (CME) granting resource that you like - whether it's a podcast, online reading, or lectures and set aside time at least every month to complete it. Schedule it on your calendar and make it a part of your routine.

The goal is to make ongoing education a part of your medical practice. You will find that the more you know about your field, the more rewarding the job is. If you get rusty, you will find your job much less fulfilling.

It's also worthwhile to check if the resources you already use grant CME. You might be able to get credit for learning you're already doing. A few of the very popular educational resources for physicians grant CME if you create an account and log in when you use them.

When you're comfortable, mentor

Mentorship is a very rewarding experience that will keep your perspective fresh. It wasn’t long ago that you were pre-med and wanted a mentor to give you some insights into becoming a physician. Being a mentor allows you continue the process that you benefitted from.

The closer in age mentees are to their mentors, the more meaningful the mentorship, so let people shadow, ask questions, and gain from your insights. You will find that mentorship is a refreshing experience that allows you to continue to see your career through new eyes.