Not knowing what else to do after finishing my pediatric residency 15 years ago, I became a general pediatrician. Not knowing how to find a job halfway across the country and closer to home, I relied on a recruiter from a smallish town in South Dakota to woo me into private practice. Not knowing how to choose my future partners, I let them choose me.
Despite my unbelievably naive approach to finding my first job as a physician, I think I was pretty lucky. I joined a physician-owned multi-specialty practice that had been founded by the father and uncle of one of the general surgeons. I joined two well-established pediatricians who were kind and welcoming.
I still keep in touch with that general surgeon whose father founded the clinic and think of him as one of my mentors. As tempting as it is to a now-hospitalist to stereotype surgeons, he was a very insightful and humanistic physician. He met with each new doc and told us to “remember what your address is.” He invited me to a book club that met monthly and discussed the writings of Atul Gawande et al.
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