A ‘pivot’-al moment: Don’t leave healthcare, just pivot

This year has been a tough year for everyone in health care. In fact,many of you have had time to reflect on the future of your career choice; there are doctors in this group who have been questioning if they should continue. Over a year into the pandemic, we’ve seen the true economic struggle to grow a clinic practice, which has been financially nerve-wracking for some.

The timing of the entire situation has left many of us stressed about the fundamental relationship between business and healthcare. We are treating patients with more complicated cases and conditions that are demanding more of our time, and for many of us, we have put so much effort only to see a loss or no business growth at all. As we experience this, we are left wondering if continuing in healthcare is a viable option for the future of our own personal and professional growth. I am seeing many leaving healthcare and others are feeling lost.

But wait – and hear me out. This is a pivotal moment in your life (and in history as a whole). I recommend you hit the pause button and do some deep soul searching – it’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of months. I took the time during long walks in nature, in my journal and in meditative states to ask myself and the universe what I want the next 5-10 years in my career, my profession and business to look like. Finally, I reflected on what I wanted my life in general to look like. Here’s what I came up with:

Tough to change careers, easy to re-invent
Many of us in the health industry have had the idea once in our career that “I should leave completely and do something else.” Stop that nonsense right now. The first thing I ask you to do is to look at the career landscape and tell me where you will find a new career that pays you your current hourly rate? Many of you on average charge between $150 to $200 an hour, you would have to take on another two to four years in professional education and invest in the cost associated to get that degree or training to match this income. That sounds like a waste of time and money. Unless this is your passion and dream to become a lawyer or an engineer then I would say please reconsider. 

Re-invent your career in healthcare, open up an online business to compliment your brick-and-mortar clinic. Try to add in new a new skill-set or services to your already existing list of things you and your team do for your clients. Maybe the stress of running your own clinic has not paid off and you can sell it all and join a team as an associate or a partner in another business. Often our lives are drastically changing and our careers do not reflect or match our personal desires. If this is the case, I recommend to take some time to modify your chiropractic or naturopathic practice. You have an opportunity to make a dramatic impact on your life and the lives you serve, so do it.

Move away from health care and move towards intellectual care
If the daily grind of seeing patients has burned you out, consider pivoting your practice. You are a wealth of health information and many people would do anything to have you manage their health. Migrate from hands on care to what I call “ intellectual care.” Intellectual care has actually always been something in the industry, but many have not pursued this type of business. Offering online services, online course and consulting via virtual meetings to help people with health has become more normal in the last year of the pandemic. Start slow and ramp up this business, you may just surprise yourself.

DR. ELIAS MARKOU, RHN, R.ACU, ND is one very busy naturopathic doctor. He is in private practice in Mississauga, Ontario and is the clinic director of pureBalance Wellness. Dr. Markou (ND) has been a naturopathic doctor for 18 years and has conducted over 100,000 patient visits during this period. Dr. Markou is a writer and blogger who is regularly featured in the media. Contact him at drmarkou@mypurebalance.ca