Achieving goals and achievements is everyone’s desire, but with the speed of days and the many preoccupations, especially for a doctor, achieving his professional goals may take longer than it should. Due to the lack of planning for his professional life, no matter how advanced a doctor’s career is, he needs to plan for his professional future, especially with the extreme precision that has become in health systems.
Why does a doctor need to plan his career?
Randomness has never been a path to success, neither in the past nor in the future. Planning saves time and brings you to results with the least possible effort, even if you imagine the opposite. A doctor needs to plan his career for several reasons:
1. Satisfaction with your work
A doctor’s work is easier when his goals are clear, and one of the most important concerns of doctors is caring for patients, but this may turn into a boring routine, especially when dealing with the same health problems every day. Planning one’s professional life and setting future goals helps expand ambition, and consistently achieving these goals encourages the doctor to give his best in his work, and his experience becomes satisfactory to him and his patients at the same time.
As the doctor deepens his specialty, he becomes able to treat a larger number of patients, and he is even able to deal with rare diseases, which other doctors may be unable to treat. This is not possible for a doctor who does not plan his career.
2. Skills development
Your journey to becoming a top-notch medical professional is not easy, and you have invested a lot of money and time in your credentials for this profession, so maintaining and developing your skills is important to advance your career. This can be done by teaching other doctors what you have learned, as this is a means of continuous learning for you in conjunction with your medical practice.
Many professional development programs offered by competent medical bodies also allow you to expand your medical skills, or enhance your current skills, in all medical specialties. The more skilled the doctor is, and committed to a clear professional plan, the better his care for the patient will be, and the more he will gain a good reputation among the people .
3. Expand your options in the labor market
Planning a doctor’s career includes many aspects, from setting goals to continuous learning. A career plan should help you move from your current level of medical practice to a higher level. This may come with additional responsibilities, or the need for more specialized knowledge, but ultimately, the skills you gain expand your options in the labor market and make your employment non-rejectable. By hospital and clinic managers.
4. Achieving professional goals
It is difficult to reach goals without a plan first. It is preferable for goals to be realistic, achievable, and have a specific time frame that specifies the time required to achieve the goal. Goals may be long-term, such as: acquiring a medical specialty, having your own practice, or holding a management position.
Goals may be short-term, such as: being able to care for a large number of patients, attending professional development courses, or others.
As you can see, these are goals that a doctor cannot do without, whether they are long or short-term. The best way to achieve these goals is to plan your professional life well, balance long-term and short-term goals, and arrange priorities, not proceed randomly.
5. Acquire ideal habits
Maybe you’re not used to planning something, and when you’re working toward your goals, for example, it’s easy to find your passion burning to achieve them instead of just coming to the office, seeing patients, and going home, like you always used to.
For example, if one of your goals is to be able to deal with a greater number of patients, or to take on additional responsibilities in your medical practice, you will try to organize your time, stay away from distractions, or reduce unnecessary tasks. These are great habits for your personal life, not just your professional life. They also make room for planning not only your professional life, but also for planning anything you want to achieve later.
How does a doctor plan a successful career?
Whatever stage you have reached in your professional life, you are not yet late in planning for your professional future. One of the biggest mistakes a doctor may make against himself is not planning for his professional life, and this may lead him to be satisfied with what he has achieved and not advance in his field. In this context, the most important tips that a doctor needs to create a successful career include the following:
1. Clear your mind and set priorities in the plan
You certainly have a general outline of your future professional life throughout your years of study and practice, but without drawing up a clear plan , your goals may become a mirage that you cannot reach. Now that you have become a practicing doctor, or have practiced many years in your specialty, you are certain that you need some time to draw up a clear plan for your professional advancement, and the estimated time to achieve this progress.
Whether you are happy with what you have achieved now, or dissatisfied with it, the demand is still continuing in various medical specialties, and the opportunities available to you are still many. By staying away from distractions, and with a clear mind, you can plan your career to suit you and make you happy now and later, whether you want to open your own clinic, or work as a doctor abroad.
2. Take the initiative to learn after planning
Depending on the plan you have for your career, your next step may be to prepare to move into a leadership role, or look for a new opportunity at work. For example, if you want a leadership role, you have a specific path and additional education, in addition to the medical skills you master, which you will definitely need to climb the ladder before reaching the leadership role.
Some doctors may want to manage hospitals, for example, and this specialty requires obtaining a master’s degree in hospital administration . Medical skills alone are not enough to manage hospitals. But if you are looking for a new opportunity outside the country, for example, do not let time pass without planning or starting to take a new path. To seize the job opportunity you are looking for.
Some doctors prefer to plan travel to Germany, and this takes many steps. This is an example of a plan for a doctor who wants to travel to Germany and puts this goal at the top of his priorities:
- Learn the German language and pass at least the first level A1.
- Correspondence to the amendment bodies in Germany according to the state in which he wishes to work.
- Prepare the required papers and fill out the forms, then send them by mail to the Amendment Authority.
- Continue to study the German language until the procedures are completed and the linguistic level is advanced.
- Preparing the required documents for the embassy, which may include a CV and a visa application.
- After obtaining the Schengen visa, the doctor travels to Germany, then takes the German language exam at one of the country’s institutes.
This is an example of the first steps in preparing to travel to a European country. To obtain a better opportunity in the medical field, as you can see, the steps are not consecutive, but rather the doctor proceeds at all levels as much as he can, and continues to study the foreign language, while he corresponds with the amendment bodies, and this requires good planning and high organization of time.
3. Pass obstacles without worry
Doctors go through many obstacles during their career path after graduation. They may spend a lot of money and valuable time on professional advancement, with no sure guarantees of success. Some training programs, for example, allow 3 attempts at admission, one attempt each year.
But these obstacles are not a barrier; Most doctors succeed and pass these tests, and are eventually accepted into the path they choose for their career. If a doctor plans well to obtain a master’s degree and doctorate, starting with organizing time and arranging priorities between working in hospitals or spending some time studying, he will pass exams and discussions easily and obtain a prestigious academic degree.
By neglecting to plan for such matters, it becomes difficult to achieve the professional advancement that a doctor desires, especially if he has many preoccupations, or multiple shifts in hospitals.
4. Understand yourself well before planning
In order to find what you want in your future career, you must understand yourself first, and you can make a list of your strengths, skills, and passions, then you can think about what will increase your skills and develop your career according to the approach you want.
You should be realistic in your aspirations for the career paths available ; Because some of them may involve fierce competition, and you may not have strengths that qualify you to participate in such competitions, what is more important than developing a plan for your career is that the plan be appropriate for you, your strengths, and your needs.
And do not just look at yourself, but take a tour and look around you , and attend whatever medical professions conferences and workshops you can. To get ideas about the professional development you want, talk to other colleagues as well, as they may have something useful for you to plan your career successfully. It is also important that you do not neglect planning your professional life and wait until the last minute, as the decision must be taken early, and the plan must be started without delay.
Do not let your point of view be guided by the biases of others, who may have negative ideas about certain areas, or try to alienate you from them, and in the end do not forget to choose what suits your skills and desires. Finally , do not reject professional options because of a personal clash with a consultant or another doctor in the same specialty, as professional specialization has nothing to do with personal matters.
