An excerpt from The Savvy Physician: A Financial Wellness Handbook for Physicians and Professionals.
As a physician, helping people in need is among the greatest honors and privileges in the world. In the complex world of medicine, physicians and health care professionals have the opportunity and privilege to enormously contribute to patient well-being at a time of significant personal and/or family health crisis.
In addition, many physicians and health care professionals have academic profiles that significantly contribute to education, research, administration, and leadership. For instance, currently, we have over 90,000 physicians in Canada serving almost 40 million Canadians. In the United States, there are over 1 million physicians serving over 340 million people. The growing number of applicants to our medical schools and ever-increasing competitive entry are a testament to the amazing promise and prospects of a medical career.
Furthermore, an engaged and healthy workforce is essential to meet the ever-increasing complexity of our patients and to provide excellent care. This is especially true today with high acuity and complexity of care, ever-changing standards of care, novel therapies, academia, management of patient morbidity and mortality and the long work hours that the majority of physicians face.
However, global and North American data suggest that over fifty percent of physicians, irrespective of the stage of their career or specialty, are either burnt out or burning out. Furthermore, data are similar for other health care professionals. For instance, studies on nursing colleagues have reported over ninety percent rate of burnout. Professional well-being is at the forefront of our health care challenges today.
Financial awareness and well-being are crucial to personal and professional wellness. This is particularly relevant to physicians, as they have very long years of training (often more than a decade). Many physicians, for instance, carry multiple six-figure debts and experience delayed professional earnings, due to their increasing age of entry at medical school and training years. Many specialties have demanding hours of work and responsibilities throughout their professional careers, making professional wellness very much needed for stable career longevity.
Financial wellness refers to the fundamental understanding and management of one’s finances and the capacity to meet financial needs. It encompasses the ability to meet one’s current financial needs, to craft and plan a positive outlook about one’s financial future, and to earn the freedom to make one’s choices in alignment with personal goals, rather than solely focusing on money management. This also underscores the need to understand one’s economic and tax systems to develop the skill to navigate them effectively.
Increased financial literacy and having more autonomy over one’s money through saving, investing, and living within one’s means can jump-start the pathway to financial wellness. Different perspectives and societal pressure surrounding finances and wealth can impact what financial wellness means to you. However, once you achieve clarity on what financial well-being means to you, there is a positive ripple effect. The net effect is improvement in anxiety, stress, relationships, energy levels, and mental and emotional health. These improvements also translate into work performance, facilitating higher productivity.
However, data suggest that many physicians and professionals are often not well-versed in financial literacy. Financial decisions are often emotional and later justified! Key financial decisions can truly impact one’s life and its many aspects, both in the short and long term. We believe it is essential to have authentic, evidence-based, and unbiased advice starting from the early stages of training. The ever-increasing complexity of the financial world further adds to each medical professional’s challenges.
As ardent advocates of physician and professional wellness as well as of financial mastery, we truly believe that evidence-based educational resources can serve as a catalyst in our own personal financial journey and can assist us in enhancing our financial awareness. This is indeed critical to maintaining an engaged and sustainable physician workforce.
Ketan Kulkarni is a physician entrepreneur. Hayley Gates is a medical student.
