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Doctor Achieves Lifelong Dream of Quitting Medicine Forever

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Doctor Achieves Lifelong Dream of Quitting Medicine Forever

“Finally!” he exclaimed, throwing his white coat, scrubs, and stethoscope onto a pile of logs. “I can’t believe I made it!”

Meet Hunter McCutchen.  He is 39 years of age.  He is a physician and he has never been more excited in his life.  You might be asking why.  You see, Hunter just achieved his lifelong dream.  It’s a dream many doctors envision as they embark upon the long arduous journey of becoming a physician.  That’s right, after all the years of studying, training, calls, sleepless nights, last-minute presentations, and missed get-togethers with family and friends, Hunter McCutchen is quitting medicine forever.

quitting medicineAnd he’s never, ever coming back.

“I think I’m gonna do a happy dance,” added McCutchen while pouring lighter fluid over his old belongings in what he envisions to be a spectacular bonfire.  And it indeed becomes a spectacular bonfire when he lights it up.  Hunter begins an excruciatingly spastic but still joyful dance.  You can’t blame him.  He’s never going to see patients and their families ever again.

McCutchen knew very early on in childhood that he wanted to help people by being a doctor, becoming jaded, burning out, and leaving the profession entirely.

“People suck sometimes,” McCutchen said, shoveling no less than fifty medical textbooks onto the growing fire.  “I was trained to diagnose and treat diseases.  But you know what I did half of the time?  I said, ‘No, I won’t give you Dilaudid’ or ‘No, I won’t write for IV Benadryl’ before getting yelled at promptly.  They don’t teach you in med school how to call security or have a patient leave against medical advice.  And what’s with those patients who throw their feces?  Never again.”

The feeling and urge to help people persisted in college, before it was gradually and atrociously beat of out him during medical school and residency training.  Hunter best describes medical school as a four-year process of giving you the tools you don’t need to survive in residency.  He describes residency as a three-year process of learning the skills you wished you had learned in medical school while trying not to fall asleep when driving.  It was during this period of learning how to not kill people while minimally conscious – residency training – that Hunter realized what was his true calling in life: to not be in medicine ever again, ever.

“I was at the peak of medical knowledge when I graduated residency and took my boards,” said McCutchen, toasting marshmallows over the medical bonfire.  “So how did I get to apply my knowledge?  I didn’t.  I dealt with drug-seekers, noncompliant folks, insurance forms, disability paperwork, pre-authorizations, and litigation.”

His several years in private practice and academic medicine taught him several important skills, such as how to personally cope with dissatisfaction, insomnia, and depression.  It taught him the numerous ways you can be unappreciated and overworked.  More importantly, it reinforced the feeling he knew he had all along: that becoming a doctor was absolutely a huge, awful mistake, and that he desperately needed to get out, get out for good.  It was six months ago to this day that he realized that his goal was in sight and possibly attainable.

Today, Hunter is euphoric.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for years,” McCutchen said with a smirk.  He spit at his pager and crushed it with one overhead swing of his sledgehammer.  He kicked the remnants into the fire.  “You have no idea how much I hated this [several expletives] thing.”

Hunter is one of an increasing number of health care workers – not only doctors but nurses too – who are realizing their lifelong dreams of health, happiness, and helping people by getting the hell out of medicine entirely and doing something else, anything else, not remotely related to health care.  And you know what?  These former doctors and nurses have never been better.

“Yeah, get out of medicine,” said Carol Hozier, a friend of McCutchen and ex-nurse, who now happily works nights at a gas station.  “I learned to smile again, I’m a better person, and heck, I’m no longer on blood pressure meds or antidepressants.  Best decision ever!”

For McCutchen, the future is unknown and he likes it that way.

“What am I going to do?” asked McCutchen, folding his medical diploma into a paper airplane.  “I don’t know.  I have former colleagues who love their new jobs in retail, coal mining, or cleaning hotel rooms.  Honestly, I’d like to do something that has nothing to do with medicine.  Maybe something like being a park ranger, a musician, or a hospital administrator.”

100 COMMENTS

  14. I’ve been a nurse for 42 years, nurse practitioner for 12 of those . Every job has its challenges, its good days and bad days, but I’ve changed jobs, not given up the profession. Sounds like maybe this guy picked the wrong profession, or waited too long to get out.

  16. Yeah you guys are right! You can TOTALLY get shot or stabbed @work, in a hospital. I’ve worked nocs at several big city hospitals where staff were stabbed (Psychiatrist in Cincinnati), raped and killed, (chicago, an MD), raped in the hospital basement, ( bakersfield…didn’t hear who). Maybe a gas station isn’t much different actually….

  19. Oooohhh…. Unfortunately, I think he isn’t qualified for administration. From what I have seen, you need a lot of letters after your name and prime ass-kissing skills. However, actual experience with patients? I think that automatically disqualifies a person for management. Hope one of those other jobs pans out! ;-)

  21. We had a recent survey where they asked us docs ” Would you retire today if you were financially able to?” and the result was over 95% said yes

  25. You can totally get shot at for being a doctor. And if you work in an emergency room you’re constantly subjected to out of control people. Unlike police officers who are trained to defend themselves physicians know little about that.

  26. You can totally get shot at for being a doctor. And if you work in an emergency room you’re constantly subjected to out of control people. Unlike police officers who are trained to defend themselves physicians know little about that.

  35. I always question why people say the pursuit of their career caused them to waste their 20s and 30s. Honestly, what stuff that you “missed” during that time are you prevented from doing in your 40s and 50s? I can’t think of anything except maybe being in a Greek organization.

  39. I think that any physician feels some of this at least some of the time. There are plenty of nights I’d love to smash the pager. If this is actually real, I feel bad for him. There will be good days and bad–as a park ranger, gas station attendant, or physician. I thoroughly enjoy being a doctor

  40. I think that any physician feels some of this at least some of the time. There are plenty of nights I’d love to smash the pager. If this is actually real, I feel bad for him. There will be good days and bad–as a park ranger, gas station attendant, or physician. I thoroughly enjoy being a doctor

  41. A few years ago, I was at a meetup with a woman who was an assistant manager at Steak & Shake, and she said, “How do you know so much about fast food? I thought you were a pharmacist.” I replied, “I am, but I haven’t always been, and the jobs are not as different as you might think they are.”

  42. A few years ago, I was at a meetup with a woman who was an assistant manager at Steak & Shake, and she said, “How do you know so much about fast food? I thought you were a pharmacist.” I replied, “I am, but I haven’t always been, and the jobs are not as different as you might think they are.”

  43. I saw a news story a while back about a woman who left her practice to be a long-haul truck driver. If she was in a state where she was licensed, she would sometimes treat other truckers at the walk-in clinics that some big truck stops have.

  44. I saw a news story a while back about a woman who left her practice to be a long-haul truck driver. If she was in a state where she was licensed, she would sometimes treat other truckers at the walk-in clinics that some big truck stops have.

  45. I loved being a pharmacist too, but it’s not the profession I trained for and I’ve gotten 100% support for my decision to leave the profession. I am still licensed, however, and plan to stay that way because Ya Never Know.

  46. I loved being a pharmacist too, but it’s not the profession I trained for and I’ve gotten 100% support for my decision to leave the profession. I am still licensed, however, and plan to stay that way because Ya Never Know.

  47. I know a woman whose (now ex-) husband used to be a wedding photographer, and he gave that up to work as a security guard at their county jail. Guess which job he said was less stressful, and honestly, less dangerous too.

  48. I know a woman whose (now ex-) husband used to be a wedding photographer, and he gave that up to work as a security guard at their county jail. Guess which job he said was less stressful, and honestly, less dangerous too.

  73. I know a couple doctors like this! You know it’s bad when the answer to what is the worst decision you’ve ever made comes up and 2 of your colleagues instantly say “becoming a doctor”

  74. I know a couple doctors like this! You know it’s bad when the answer to what is the worst decision you’ve ever made comes up and 2 of your colleagues instantly say “becoming a doctor”

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