About two years ago, I made a big career move — I took a leap of faith. I left full-time clinical practice as a neonatologist to become a national medical director for a neonatal resource team. The job was appealing because it was a new challenge for me. I had the opportunity to use my skill set as a neonatologist while learning the business aspect of medicine.
The job also provided a consistent schedule. This would allow me to better attend to my family. I’m going to be honest with you — we were struggling. My husband is a busy child psychiatrist, I was working 24-hour shifts, and our girls were 18 months and 4-years-old at the time. Needless to say, we required a lot of help and careful planning to make our life work.
Like most health care professionals, I missed weekends, holidays, first days of school, plays, parties, muffins for mom and the list goes on. I was missing my girls grow. My husband and I were coexisting. I was beginning to burn out. I knew I needed a change. But how do I justify giving up a career that took me 14 years to achieve?
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