One-Third of Physicians Intend to Leave Academia Save

I have to say it’s somewhat frightening, but not terribly surprising, where rheumatologists land on professional fulfillment in Figure 2. i believe it speaks to the lack of respect we feel from our institutions.

As someone who just left academia, I think the biggest issue is that we’ve become hospital employed physicians with RVU goals higher than some of my private practice colleagues, but lacking a commiserate salary. Academic endeavors are minimally supported and essentially done on personal time given the clinical burden. This was not feasible with a family at home.

It's getting harder to practice medicine. The cause of physician burnout is multifactorial: loss of autonomy, flexibility, and authority to manage their patients are huge factors and impacted by work and family demands. When physicians are asked if they want more money or time off, the majority would choose time off. While the authors did not show the analysis, I suspect there are gender disparities in the results as well.

Keep in mind that some young academic physicians see their employment only as a temporary stepping stone to a permanent position in the private sector. The poor reimbursement in academic institution compared to non-academic positions in the same community adds to the sense of not being appreciated. Furthermore, academic physicians involved in basic science have the enormous burden of applying for outside funding which is often unsuccessful.

I agree with everything said. When in academia, there was also less support infrastructure to do the work than there is in the private sector, so I was prepping injections, checking in my own patients at times, typing all my consulting letters (when we did things on paper), all valuable time that could be put towards other endeavors. I also personally would say that I have achieved levels of ‘academic’ fulfillment in industry while still being able to contribute to my academic institution and trainees in my adjunct position. Lastly, teaching is not really remunerated and doesn’t satisfy the bean counters that have also invaded the academic space. Physicians in academia are always being asked to accomplish more and more with less and less. For rheumatologists too, the number of patients out there that need to be seen just once leads to packed clinic schedules and burnout. Those that are successful getting research funding increasingly leave the clinical duties behind such that the few left in the clinic are even more burdened. Lastly rheumatology has become an incredibly competitive specialty and yet we are not training enough rheumatologists.

I agree with everything that's been said. But even for academics that stayed for the long haul - just be aware you are just another (for profit or non profit) corporate employee & are subject to the whims of people in the C Suite, the higher ups in division/department, or the board of the faculty medical group. Don't get me wrong, I've had a very successful career in academia. But I lived by the mantra for the last 14-15. years that No One Is Indispensible - that goes for any career/job that you take. I made the most of my time in whatever role I established or was assigned to do be it fellowship PD, div chief, clinical trials head, etc. I was lucky to have a Dept chair who understood our needs & with evidence based negotiation gave me almost everything I wanted for my faculty including higher salaries c/w the rest of the country. Pay attention to who your direct bosses are - don't rely on titles. See/Ask how they work with & value people and if they advocate for their people - if they score low, don't waste any more time where you are at or applying for that job. Get mentors who are in tune with the times - you will need different mentors at different times of your career.