Tag: doctors

The Clinician Style

On By Clinician LifestylistIn career, lifestyle, Personal FinanceLeave a comment

This post is geared toward early career clinicians, but may benefit advanced career folks too! When transitioning into my new professional clinician job, I was excited to make sure I looked the part too. At the moment, I’m mostly working in an outpatient office, so I rarely put on scrubs or a white coat. I also wanted to continue growing financial independence and not break the bank by upgrading my wardrobe. Here are some key choices that I’ve made:

  1. Getting a feel for the work environment and culture. Every hospital, clinic, or office will have a different standard of dress, whether stated or implicit. If you are in a department or group practice, it’s great to start by looking at how more senior professionals. I like to meet or exceed senior clinicians in dress level, within my own lifestyle guidelines as far as brands, number of pieces, and actual cost.
  2. Getting the full picture of what’s already in the closet. I start off the wardrobe plan by opening my closet doors and pulling out any clothes in storage. Since the middle of my main grad school years, I’ve had some work clothes that were shoved aside when not needed for hospital rotations, or was just getting tired of them and wanting some new clothes for internship and residency years. Even after donating and selling a bunch of items before moves, I still had some nice pieces that hadn’t been worn for awhile but were still stylish and well fitting enough to bring back in a new setting.
  3. Checking out thrifted options before buying new. Online marketplaces are also a stop before new retail. If new is a must, I like to see if the store is listed on coupon code websites or try waiting for a sale to come along.
  4. Good grooming goes a long way. Whether you’re lower or higher maintenance with your look, not underestimate the value of solid grooming to elevate style. I’m a fan of the “5-minute face,” approach to using a few basic makeup and hair products. For guys, a regular trim and some moisture on the face or lips can do the trick. Lastly, doctors, let’s not forget that our hands and nails are often on display!

Here are some of my favorite pieces:

  1. Pockets, pockets, and more pockets in tops and bottoms
  2. Wedge dress shoes for comfort and style
  3. Grown up backpack for commuting
  4. Hospital logo fleece jacket lives in the office
  5. Hair comb lives in a desk drawer

Loving Your Clinician Lifestyle

On By Clinician LifestylistIn lifestyle1 Comment

A truth about me is that I’m very good at compartmentalizing and working toward goals. Even though I can experience stress very deeply at times, if I have a goal I go at it with strength and conviction. Fortunately, I find that if I can get through a particularly stressful moment, the feeling passes and contentment with many aspects of a given situation can settle in. This mindset is helping me to maintain the current lifestyle that I’ve crafted. 

Do you feel content with your current life? Whether everything at work and home is peaceful, or you are intensely working to achieve your goals, reaching that feeling of contentment will help keep you going and live your own life as you want it to be. Here are some ideas that will help get to this place:

Have a concrete, ideally written goal. This process helps to clarify your thoughts and serves as a reminder of where you’d like to be heading. 

Look around at what you have. House? Utilities turned on? Food readily accessible? If the basics are covered, we’re well on our way. Now think back to how you lived 5 or 10 years ago. Chances are, you were once in a dorm, sharing a basic apartment with roommates, or living at home as a young adult. Maybe you’re still in that situation. As part of a bigger goal, a simple lifestyle can be enough. If you are hoping to upgrade, are you fully prepared for it or is there an unnecessary rush? 

What do you really need to feel good about your current life? Maybe it’s quality with family, being a social butterfly, hitting the gym, or looking at art. Regularly engaging in these activities will help to maintain contentment. If it’s difficult to balance personal pursuits with family or other obligations, combining efforts can be helpful.

Look for ways to decrease stress too. As much as we may love our opportunity to help others and solve complex problems, a clinical job can be stressful. Finding ways to balance is good for everyone, whether for you that means doing something active and physical, or having some low key relaxing. 

Have you approached each of these tasks?

Welcome to Clinician Lifestylist!

On By Clinician LifestylistIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Ready

Hello and welcome to Clinician Lifestylist! A little about me here- I have a clinical doctorate degree and professional license. After finishing my training and preparing to start a “real job,” I very quickly I realized that personal finance and lifestyle management were going to be just as valuable skills. 

I work in a respectable academic medical center, with hospital privileges and a faculty appointment. By many accounts I have “made it” as an early career clinical professional. On the other hand, there’s living in an expensive city, seeing the full reality of working in my chosen profession, and thinking about the next phase in adult life. 

Position 

There are some well developed websites out there for doctors, but I was also somewhat discouraged to constantly hear about family medicine docs, psychologists, nurse practitioners, veterinarians, and many clinicians described as “low-income” and advised in a different manner. This kind of relative thinking can lead to a downward spiral that might contribute to poor mindset and consequently poor lifestyle management. Everyone knows at least theoretically to avoid Keeping Up with the Joneses, but who wants to be told that they are the Littles? The reality is that the best advice will generalize broadly without much calculation about if it will work for you compared to others. Even more, we know that positive mindset and positive environment are some of the most valuable tools in developing and maintaining helpful skills.

Onward

I’ve enjoyed sharing my ideas with people and my life and would love to build a community here to discuss how clinicians and medical professionals are crafting their lifestyle. So pull up a chair, subscribe, follow, or direct message me. What do you think?