How Am I Supposed to Know if a Private Practice Job Is Right for Me?

How Am I Supposed to Know if a Private Practice Job Is Right for Me?

In college, I volunteered at an academic hospital performing patient transport and I shadowed academic surgeons at a nearby teaching hospital. In medical school, I rotated at our affiliated academic hospitals. Now as a resident, I am surrounded by the academic attendings at Union Memorial Hospital. At this point in my life, I’ve spent time with dozens of academic orthopaedic surgeons and zero private attendings.

As residents, every “how to pick your first job” lecture starts with answering that looming question – private practice or academia? You are asked to evaluate your private practice role models and whether you have spent a day in a clinic to know what it’s like to not have to take time to teach between rooms. The question is not only rhetorical, but, inherently, paradoxical. As an orthopaedic trainee, simply being present in a situation turns my environment into an academic event.

Thankfully, residents have been successfully answering this question for themselves for decades. Although the choice seems intimidating, I’m sure I’ll find my way to the right place for me.

Andrew Trontis, MD
Union Memorial

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