If you’re thinking about leaving clinical medicine, are you concerned about regret?

What if you miss patients? What if you get bored? What if you’re unhappy in the new role?

Yes, you might regret it! Or, you might regret not leaving sooner!

But you can’t know for sure when you’re at the decision point.

Here are ways to help you think through the fear of regret:

Do An Outcome Probability Estimate.

In general, adults have a bias against quitting anything. We stay in unhappy careers and relationships for longer than is healthy because quitting is hard and brings us up against uncertainty.

Here’s one way to estimate the probability of regret:

1.   Imagine it’s one year from now and you stayed in your current job. Nothing’s changed.

What are the chances you’re fulfilled or happy? 50%, 10%, maybe 0%?

2.   Next, imagine it’s one year from now and you’re in the non-clinical role you want to transition to.

What are the chances you’re fulfilled or happy? Take your best guess. 10%, 30%, 50%?

3.   Subtract your answer for 2 from 1. If the % is positive, it might be worth the risk!

If you want to be more fulfilled, have flexibility, and time with your children but the job you’re in now offers none of those things, does it make sense to stay in it?

If leaving is uncertain (it almost always is), might uncertainty help you find the fulfillment and happiness you’re looking for?

                                                        *Adapted from Annie Duke

Improve Your Current Situation And Re-assess Later.

If your answer to #3 above is a negative probability, or you really don’t know the probability of #2, you might decide to stay. If you do, create a plan and timeline. Be as specific as possible.

Questions to guide your plan:

• What must change (in you, or at work) for you to be happy or fulfilled?
• How long will you give yourself before you reassess? 3, 6, 12 months?
• At your future check-in time point, how will you know to stay or leave? What specific things must you have in your current job by then?

Pre-empt The Regret Scenario.

When you stay in a job you no longer love, you’re deciding every day to stay. It might not feel that way. But you’re making an active choice to stay.

Whereas, when you quit your job for a new one, your brain sees this as an active choice and this is where the fear of regret might come in. 

Some pre-emptive thought experiments:

• Think carefully about why you want to leave clinical medicine.

Remember, you carry yourself with you to the next job.

• Don’t judge your decision to stay or leave by the outcome.

This will trap you into thinking a decision was good when the outcome was good and vice versa. In reality, you make the best decision with the information you have available at the time.

•  Think through the choices available to you if you do regret it.

These include going back to a clinical job, or taking some time off to figure it out.

Last Words

There are risks and benefits to any action.

As you think through the consequences of a decision to leave clinical medicine, also take into account the consequence of staying where you are.

Which of the thought experiments in this post did you find useful?