Lifestyle of Doctors Made Better with a Non-Clinical Career?

Enhanced focus on the lifestyle of doctors driving interest in non-clinical careers

The lifestyle of doctors is not considered eligible for the topic of prime time debate or editorials. But the conversation needs to start. Let’s begin. How many of you have often regretted placing professional advancement above your personal goals at the cost of a better lifestyle? Even worse, does your job title reflect your quality of earnings and lifestyle? Are your earnings proportionate to the hard work that you put in your education? With the current salary for MBBS doctors in India, the answer to all the above questions is known to everyone in the industry. Other graduate medical degrees have a similar scenario. Graduating from even the top medical colleges in India doesn’t make a difference in where you start your professional journey.

More than one lakh students graduating from top medical colleges in India every year, end up in clinical practice. These clinicians, more often than not, are stressed, overworked and underpaid mostly with little job satisfaction, and a next-to-nil work-life balance. Routine and tedious work occurs in all types of jobs but clinical roles are way worse on the lifestyle spectrum. In addition, there is always a risk of exposure to pathogens that could cause health complications. So, does it make sense for everyone to hold on to their clinical careers? Is it not lucrative to switch to a career outside the traditional clinical realm? Of course, they should explore.

But what if you are presented with a career option that promises you a rewarding professional life while enabling a lifestyle you would die for? Choosing a non-clinical career could be proportional to a better lifestyle for doctors.

Enhanced focus on lifestyle of doctors driving interest in non clinical careers

Many doctors are taking up non-clinical work roles. The reasons are many. A better lifestyle for doctors could offer scope to spend more time with family and friends, focus on health and fitness, take vacations, and concentrate on self-development apart from better compensation. A comparison of the salary of MBBS doctors in India to salaries in non-clinical roles is enough to drive this change. However, challenges with the lifestyle of doctors go beyond the remuneration part. In short, a non-clinical career presents a healthcare professional with the opportunity to enjoy a better lifestyle and achieve a work-life balance that eludes most healthcare professionals in clinical roles. Salaries are pretty lucrative for most of the young medical professionals too.

Most of the doctors graduating from the top medical colleges in India work for long hours with minimum personal and professional balance. Work schedules have limited or no flexibility. This impacts the lifestyle of doctors to a large extent. Moreover, in many cases, the salary of MBBS doctors in India is not compatible with the working hours and effort required.

A survey ‘Medscape National Physician Burnout and Suicide Report 2020’ revealed that 42% of physician-respondents said they were ‘burned out.’ Among the top three reasons for the burnout was the long hours they had put in, or seeing patients.

One-third of over 15,000 doctors surveyed across the United States, according to the 2018 Medscape Physician Lifestyle and Happiness Report, managed to take just two weeks of annual vacation or less.

‘Death by 1000 cuts’: Medscape National Physician Burnout and Suicide Report 2021

The brighter side of non-clinical jobs

A non-clinical job, on the other hand, can be quite the opposite. Fewer hours of work, flexibility to choose when to work and when to be off, and holidays on weekends and public holidays are what one can expect. This renewed lifestyle of doctors could lower stress levels – physicians often complain of their own emotional and physical exhaustion – which is a definite bonus and translate into better health and well-being. The students graduating from the top medical colleges in India look forward to an upgraded lifestyle.

It means more time to devote to family and friends, pursue personal endeavours like hobbies, and take vacations. In short, a drastically better work-life balance. Roles may change with new projects and mandates. Non-clinical jobs can be rewarding in terms of monetary and non-monetary aspects. Comparison with the salary of MBBS doctors in India could take us to the same conclusion.

No one job or field of work can indeed tick all the boxes. But surely for a doctor, a switch to the non-clinical side can be rewarding. This can be in terms of better pay packets and career advancement. It may also be in terms of achieving a better lifestyle of doctors and personal advancement. These can mean so much more than the amount of money they take home.