Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

10 signs to know when to quit your job

Pamela Wible, MD
Physician
March 26, 2017
Share
Tweet
Share

Attention all nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, doctors and anyone else in health care: Here are the top 10 warning signs that it is time to quit your job. The first three are mine. The rest are from colleagues. If you recognize anything on this list, please quit your job.

10. You feel nauseated when you see your clinic logo. You alter your commute to avoid streets with your clinic’s billboard.

9. Discouraged by the general despair among clinic staff, you try to be joyful. Then you’re reprimanded by the clinic manager for being “excessively happy.”

8. You dream of leaving medicine to work as a waitress.

7. You envy your sickest patients and/or you develop a perverse pleasure in your patients’ pain.

6. You pray you will be diagnosed with cancer so you can get some time to sleep.

5. You spend your nights trying to keep patients alive while you imagine ways to die by suicide.

4. You work 16 to 24 hour shifts and have not had sex with your spouse in months.

3. You are a top-rated doctor, yet you daydream about walking into traffic, jumping through the window, or just dying in the course of a normal day.

2. You are counting down the days until retirement during patient appointments.

1. You change your computer password to “f*ck [name of hospital where you work]!!!”

Pamela Wible pioneered the community-designed ideal medical clinic and blogs at Ideal Medical Care. She is the author of Physician Suicide Letters — Answered and Pet Goats and Pap Smears. Watch her TEDx talk, How to Get Naked with Your Doctor. She hosts the physician retreat, Live Your Dream, to help her colleagues heal from grief and reclaim their lives and careers.

Image credit: Pamela Wible

ADVERTISEMENT

Prev

The problem with price transparency

March 26, 2017 Kevin 7
…
Next

Digital tools should not adversely affect the doctor-patient relationship

March 27, 2017 Kevin 1
…

Tagged as: Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
The problem with price transparency
Next Post >
Digital tools should not adversely affect the doctor-patient relationship

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Pamela Wible, MD

  • When health care professionals lose everything

    Pamela Wible, MD
  • Surgeon suicides: Unveiling a silent crisis

    Pamela Wible, MD
  • 13 tips for depressed doctors who need confidential mental health care

    Pamela Wible, MD

Related Posts

  • A physician’s addiction to social media

    Amanda Xi, MD
  • It is our job to change the rhetoric on who physicians are

    Simran Kripalani
  • The one job robots can never take away from doctors

    Jeffrey Cannon
  • A teacher’s job is to show love first

    Catherine Cheng, MD
  • Trauma from my first anesthesia job

    Patrick Flaherty, CAA
  • Nurse practitioners! Tips for negotiating your first job

    Monica Elston, FNP-BC

More in Physician

  • The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief

    Dr. Damane Zehra
  • Why the physician shortage may be our last line of defense

    Yuri Aronov, MD
  • 5 years later: Doctors reveal the untold truths of COVID-19

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal

    Nivedita U. Jerath, MD
  • Why this doctor hid her story for a decade

    Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH
  • When errors of nature are treated as medical negligence

    Howard Smith, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
    • Why physicians deserve more than an oxygen mask

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Avarie’s story: Confronting the deadly gaps in food allergy education and emergency response [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why the physician shortage may be our last line of defense

      Yuri Aronov, MD | Physician
    • 5 years later: Doctors reveal the untold truths of COVID-19

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal

      Nivedita U. Jerath, MD | Physician
    • What one diagnosis can change: the movement to make dining safer

      Lianne Mandelbaum, PT | Conditions

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 25 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why medical students are trading empathy for publications

      Vijay Rajput, MD | Education
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
    • Why physicians deserve more than an oxygen mask

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • The child within: a grown woman’s quiet grief

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Avarie’s story: Confronting the deadly gaps in food allergy education and emergency response [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Why the physician shortage may be our last line of defense

      Yuri Aronov, MD | Physician
    • 5 years later: Doctors reveal the untold truths of COVID-19

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal

      Nivedita U. Jerath, MD | Physician
    • What one diagnosis can change: the movement to make dining safer

      Lianne Mandelbaum, PT | Conditions

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

10 signs to know when to quit your job
25 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...