Completing a medical residency is a huge achievement. You’ve grafted for a good few years now, and come away with a fully realized medical degree; you deserve to take some time to celebrate. After that, it’s time to focus on your future. This means you’ll want to come up with a plan, if you haven’t already, and think about the best ways to make use of your degree now you’ve got the freedom. So once you’re through your residency, where do you go next? Let’s think about it.
Continue Your Education
If you want to continue training, you’re well within your rights to do so. Maybe you want to specialize in something now you’ve completed your physician degree? Or maybe you want to work your way up through both learning and experience, right to the point of becoming a consultant? This is a long term goal you could get started with right now. Once your residency is over, you’ve got the chance to ‘go back to school’ - you just need to make sure you’re ready for this kind of commitment.
Join a Practice
It’s most common for recent medical graduates to immediately join a practice. Indeed, you’ve probably been headhunted by a couple local or national groups already. Bigger practices like to keep on eye on the talent that’s ready to join the workforce, and this could be your time to shine. Consider the job offers carefully; you need to be happy with the salary. Get a good look around/feel for the practice you’re going to work in as well; you could even ask for a trial period, if the company itself is keen to bring you on board.
Start a Clinic
Yes, you can even think about starting your own clinic. A complete medical degree puts you in prime standing for opening up a practice of your own, especially if you’re not interested in working for anyone else. After all, you’ll get to decide what happens and how many hours you work when you’re the one in charge!
Make sure you’ve understood the financial implications of such a decision; you’ll have to buy your practice, outfit it at stores like ProHealthcareProducts.com, and then market it to build up a client list. In the end, that could cost you well over $500,000, and that's not a number a recently ex-medical student is going to be happy about!
Become a Locum
If you’ve decided you’d like to experience a mix of the positions listed above, it’s time to think about becoming a locum. This way you can go where you’re needed when you’re needed, and have plenty of time in between for other things in life. If your residency showed you the true meaning of hard work and long hours, and you’re sure that’s not quite the thing for you, this is where you test your mettle and find out what you really want.
Your medical residency is all done with, but what’s next?
