Exploring Diverse Career Paths: Best Job Options For Medical Residents

At long last, you’re nearing the end of your medical residency. For anywhere from three to seven years, depending on your program and specialty, you’ve been working virtually nonstop, enduring impossibly long hours and heavy workloads. Like many medical residents, you may have been dealing with stringent demands and restrictions from the medical facility you’ve been assigned to along the way. On top of that, you’ve potentially been receiving relatively little pay in exchange for all your hard work. 

Now, it’s time to branch out and move forward with your medical career. For many doctors, the next logical move is to find a job with a hospital, join a private practice, or open their own clinic. Those are certainly great choices, but they’re not the only options available to you. If you’d like to venture outside the box a bit, consider some alternative career options for residents.

Become a Locum Tenens Provider

Immediately transitioning from residency to a dedicated full-time position isn’t right for everyone. Maybe you’d like to see more of the country and experience a variety of healthcare settings before settling into something more permanent and less flexible. If so, becoming a locum tenens provider could be the solution you’re looking for. Locum tenens work allows you to essentially test drive different jobs so you can find one that best meets your needs and expectations. It also allows you to set your own terms and only accept assignments that mesh with them, which is certainly a refreshing change from residency. 

Telehealth

Another possibility is to become a telehealth provider. That, alone, places several options at your disposal. You can take the conventional route and work for a clinic, hospital, or health system that offers telehealth services. On the other hand, you could open your own private practice and offer telehealth as part of your services to patients. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to work in a clinic or hospital to be a telehealth provider at this point. In fact, you can provide those services from your own home if you want. If you choose that route, you could set your own schedule and caseload and create a nice work-life balance. 

Medical Consulting

Becoming a medical consultant could open up an endless array of possibilities as well. You could work with businesses, law firms, pharmaceutical companies, and a variety of other clients, using your medical knowledge and experience to their benefit. You might help attorneys on personal injury cases, aid clinics in improving their patient care, or help insurance companies refine their health coverage. You might even end up working with hospitals or government agencies to help improve programs and working conditions for future medical residents. 

Medical Writing

If you enjoy writing and have a gift for words, you could become a medical writer. You could write for medical journals or websites or provide fact-checking services to help them ensure their content is accurate and informative. You might be able to use your medical knowledge and writing skills in marketing for clinics, pharmaceutical companies, or other members of the medical field. As a medical writer, you could develop patient education materials as well. Any number of companies and publications are out there waiting for the insight and talent you have to offer. 

Finding Your Career Path

Those are only a few of the possibilities available to you after residency. Regardless of the path you choose, you’ll be using your knowledge and experience to help people. Whether you want to travel the country, work from the comfort of your own home, or create a unique hybrid situation, there are multiple options to choose from.