Disillusioned with the Healthcare System? Here’s how to design a flexible and fulfilling career after burnout without throwing away your medical training

Have you ever felt like your 'dream job' is falling short, leaving you unfulfilled and yearning for more?

Many healthcare professionals have achieved their career goals only to find themselves drained and questioning their path. But does that mean you have to throw away all the medical training that you worked so hard for?

In this episode, Dana shares her journey from a seemingly perfect NP job to finding fulfillment by tapping into her creativity and aligning with her true values.

You’ll discover:

• the simple exercise for clarifying your path forward when you feel stuck or disillusioned
• practical methods for aligning your career with your values
• the perfect side gig opportunity for health care professionals who value creativity and flexibility.

Tune in now to learn how you can start designing a career that aligns with your deepest values and brings you true fulfillment!

If you want to create a viable exit strategy and find work you enjoy that doesn't burn you out. You can grab this free training, go to coachchelsmd.com/pivot so that I can help you plan your pivot.

GUEST LINKS:
https://academy.persimmon.life/landing

Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

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Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

Transcript

0:00

I didn't even want to help people anymore. I was like, what happened to me? Who is this person? I don't even know her And there was a lot of conflict between my head and my heart. My head's like, F the healthcare system, I'm outta here, and then my heart was like, there's still some good I can do here, Welcome to Life After Medicine, the podcast helping millennial health professionals leave the system, find their purpose, and turn it into their paycheck. I'm your host, Chelsea Terjan. In 2019, I quit my OBGYN residency. I had this gut feeling there was something more for me than 15 minute patient visits under fluorescent lights. Now, I'm a six figure entrepreneur, podcaster, and career coach. I get to do work I love. On my own terms, all while traveling the world. My mission is to help you follow your pull towards something more so you can find work you enjoy that doesn't burn you out. Don't worry. It's not a pipe dream. I'm here to show you exactly how it's done. And this episode, I interview Dana Conley, a nurse practitioner who works in the ER three shifts a week and has also spent the last year building up this side gig that has helped her recover from burnout express herself creatively and earn an extra two to$3,000 a month. In this episode, you'll discover the simple exercise for clarifying your path forward when you feel stuck or disillusioned practical methods for aligning your career with your values you'll also learn this perfect side gig opportunity for healthcare professionals who really value creativity and flexibility. So let's get into the show. dana, thank you so much for joining us. Can you give us a quick overview of what your clinical background is? my clinical background is a windy road. I started in adult transplant ICU and then moved to the emergency department, which was always like my childhood, if you will, dream to work in that hectic setting. I do work in California. So being a nurse is actually like a pretty good gig here. We have like mandatory breaks and we get. Pretty decent pay compared to a lot of other states. Even though it was everything I hoped it would be in terms of the excitement and like feeling bad ass when I was there, like I was really good at what I did. I still always have this lingering like sense of I want to do something more. I don't want to work in the ER forever. I think a lot of people in the ER have that feeling that, the encounters with patients are very brief and you never really find out what happens to them. There's definitely lots of interesting stories and the team fun, but. At some point, you're like, is there something more out there? You feel like you're just thrown all of the BS that isn't dealt with properly in the rest of our healthcare system and the rest of our society. And you're like, I this isn't really something I can do to fix. It's a bigger problem. And I think that frustration grates on you. That's like one of the reasons why I ended up being an np. I fell into this really cool Pete's ortho job, which ended up being everything I wanted in an NP job. Even though I had this kind of like seemingly perfect job on the clinical end of what I really like to do, there was a lot of tumultuousness from like the leadership and a lot of providers leaving who weren't happy, they felt overwhelmed and Because people leave, then instead of replacing them, as is common in healthcare, they just gotta put more work onto you, expect you to see double the patients, and work overtime. And then of course the final straw for me was when they stopped approving my PTO and told me I had to work mandatory overtime when I was already at the edge of my rope. And I was like, I can't do this anymore. I luckily stumbled upon Chelsea's content, I think on like Instagram. And I was like, she's speaking to me like she sees me. I was so out of touch with my emotions and intuition. I don't even know how I feel. I've been like ignoring it for so long. And she was just calling out all of the frustrations that had been simmering for years through many different healthcare settings that I could definitely relate to. And so I ended up actually quitting my job before I started working with her, but yeah, that's the moment when I was like, I need to change. So going through the program, what was it that like you gained from that? What did you sort of learn about yourself? The big things that like I still think about like remembering today are like being in touch with my values and kind of grounding myself in that. And then just creating the time and space to actually be in touch with my emotions and how I was feeling. kind of going through a lot of different modules that are like different ways to get in touch with yourself I did so much journaling during that time and hearing a lot of other healthcare professionals who like validated the experience that I went through was really helpful. So yeah, that's what I took away. And how did you start to figure out what was next for you? Cause you're at this point where you left your job. You're like a little disillusioned with the healthcare system feeling like. You don't even want to help people anymore. Like Don't recognize yourself. How did you start figuring out like what was going to be next for you? it was challenging because I did feel so disillusioned. And I think when you start to pay attention to your feelings, it's like an onion, you're like, okay, I feel this. And then you go a little deeper. You're like, okay, but wait, but I feel this. And there was a lot of conflict between my head and my heart. My head's like, F the healthcare system, I'm outta here, and then my heart was like, there's still some good I can do here, and there's still some really cool parts about the nursing profession and the NP profession that just wasn't quite ready to fully leave it I really did a lot of exploration. I was like, I'm not gonna say I have to work this job for the rest of my life. I was like, I'm just gonna talk to a lot of different people and do those informational interviews and see okay, is there something about this job that I like that might be worth trying out for a bit? And that kind of taking the pressure off was really helpful ultimately I decided to go back to the emergency department, but as an MP, because I found a job that kind of met enough of my criteria and offered me a lot more flexibility and time away from work where I could focus on other things in my life, instead of throwing my whole self into this job. And I was like, okay, it's not perfect. But this is gonna give me that time and space to see what else is out there and just develop myself as a person more. so once I started that job, I started to feel those same feelings of the ER as well. Like you just feel like you're not really doing anything. You're on this treadmill of telling people they're fine or referring them to someone else or. Putting a bandaid on it and saying follow up with a specialty like a lot of kind of like just a limbo as I call it. It didn't really fulfill a lot of things that still felt missing after I really started to get in touch with what I truly wanted. And one of the things I identified was that I really wanted to be more creative. That was something that kind of came up during the process. but like the world never told me like I was good at like traditional creative things like art and drawing. I never really got that validation, but I was like, I just like it. It's interesting to me. And creativity doesn't necessarily mean painting a picture. It means a lot of different things. So that is what made me end up going into aesthetics. I heard about this company That allowed you to basically run your own business, but they were like the backup support provided your medical director and then they also provided all my supplies. So it took out a lot of the like annoying parts of running your own business and just focus on the actual practice of aesthetics. And then of course, the marketing and creative side, which really spoke to me. How did you move from feeling like, okay, you're in the ER, there's still some frustrations. You want something a little bit more. You have this creative side you want to express. How did you get from that to like finding this aesthetic company? I was still doing a lot of journaling and I definitely used like that values based like self exploration. As I was working in the ER, it really brought up a lot of new things because I was testing my values in person now that I was actually working in the ER and Asking myself at the end of the shift, like, how do I feel like what feels like it's missing for me? And that's when that kind of stuff came up. I'm still like aligned with my values to work in the emergency department. There's still some values that are being met here, but let me just see what else is out there. Like I have time outside of work now. I'm not. Overworking myself, like where else can I get these these creative outlets and this other kind of values that are not being met? And I had actually had exposure to aesthetics before, I remember like how I really liked working with an individual client so I just kept my eyes open until this opportunity popped up. How did you find the company that you work for now? I worked for a company called persimmon. It's a pretty new health tech startup. So their goal is really to allow PAs versus and NPs to have our own aesthetics practice and have the hours we want and be able to fit that into our other jobs but also have this kind of supplement our income and empower us. So I really liked their kind of business model and they're mission as opposed to working at a med spa. They're very strict with you have to work a certain number of hours. We want you on Mondays for eight hours. And I was like, that's not what I want to do. I don't want another job telling me I got to be somewhere at a certain time. Honestly, I just Google searched. Was a lot more honed in as opposed to just creative jobs for nurses. Once I identified like I'm interested in doing aesthetics, I started to research the options for aesthetics businesses. How long have you been doing your aesthetic practice? I've been with Persemin for almost a year now. What is an average week like for you I have my like three ish, eight hour ER shifts. And then around that, Since they're like random hours, random days I just get to plug in aesthetics wherever I want, which I love. And if I'm like tired after an ER shift, I just don't do it. Like a lot of it is like working on my own, like checking in with clients and making the marketing materials and working on my own business strategy. It's like a lot of independent work for me. I usually like to spend ideally like maybe A couple hours a day working on some kind of business strategy, whether that's like reaching out to clients or reaching out to local businesses for collaborations and pop ups. So like lots of emailing and, writing and tweaking my emails that I reach out to people. And then I also do some social media, which has been like a really big learning curve for me. I. Like to write my own script and I really care a lot about what I say. I There's a lot of cringy marketing out there for aesthetics I don't want to be that I want to Show who I really am as a person and what like aesthetics means to me So that people can look at my social media and be like, oh this person is like down to earth She is not gonna make me look fake, and she cares about me as a person. I like to take a little bit more of a nuanced look at aesthetics. It is representing patriarchy, if you look at it from that angle, but then it can also be woman empowerment, if you look at it from another angle. I like to walk that line, and it's just gray, like so many things in life, and so I like to explore those topics. In my script and then just provide education to people about what's out there. And then of course I have my actual clients. So my clients, I do work with both their schedule and my schedule. So I'll create openings with what feels good to me. Like I make sure I don't work after a overnight shift in the ER. Like I want to. be happy and feeling good when I see them. So I block my schedule if I'm post overnight. I don't try to cram too much in one day. I just make sure okay, I have plenty of time that day to be present with that person. Some weeks I'll have four or five clients. Some weeks I have one, it's really variable. Which I love that. I mostly go to their house, which is really fun and interesting. And then I do have sometimes host events, but like mostly just for my friends, so I'll host like a dinner party and we'll do their treatment and then just hang out and eat dinner. How is this like meeting your value of creativity? Yeah, that's a great question. I am in complete control of myself as a business and the way I operate it. In terms of the vibe that I put out on social media and the way I talk to my clients, I get to be in charge of that. And then there is a lot of creativity in a certain people think certain looks are prettier than others. And for me, I personally really like a natural aesthetic. I want people to just look and feel their best. And there's a lot of creativity and the assessment and the way that I get into people's heads of Oh, what did they actually want? What's going to make them love this treatment? Do you mind sharing How much you make through this process? Lately I've been making about two to 3, 000 a month from the business. My goal is to work with some local aestheticians and business partnerships to have like maybe a day where it's like a little bit more efficient. I see more clients in one day, but for the most part in the past couple of months, I've really been focusing on myself and making sure I'm providing like the best treatment for my patients instead of trying to hustle and make more money, which fortunately my career setup has been able to allow me to do that, which is nice. I love that. You're like taking your time and building it. Yeah, I'm proud of what I've accomplished starting from zero and not knowing anything about marketing, really minimal about business. So I've learned so much about a lot of different things, the social media, the marketing, the like business strategy, I would say I've really learned a lot in exchange for some money, but the learning has been like exponential. So what advice would you give someone who is feeling a pull towards something more who feels like, just working in the traditional system isn't quite cutting it for them, but they don't really know what to do? I would say journaling. I'm like a huge journaling fan. And I think you're the one who taught me this, in the morning, I just sit down. I'm like, how am I feeling? Because for so long, I like, didn't ask myself that I just tried to ignore it and pretend like I felt fine. Just start with asking yourself, how are you feeling each day? And maybe how you're feeling at the end of the day. And then maybe ask yourself, like, why do I think I'm feeling that? And that's just like a great place to start with where you want to go next I love it, Dana. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. So there you have it. My loves it's absolutely possible to. Design a flexible career that fulfills your values without having to throw away your medical training. And from Dana's story, you can see that when you spend time connecting to your feelings, connecting to your intuition, the path ahead of you is illuminated with so much clarity. So just starting the day with a simple check-in of. How am I feeling? It can make all the difference. And if you're feeling burnt out and disillusioned like Dana was and want help planning out your next steps, I have a free training called plan. Your pivot. This training teaches you how to create a viable exit strategy and find work. You enjoy that. Doesn't burn you out. You can grab this training totally for free. I go to coach Chels, md.com/pivot. So that I can help you plan your pivot