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How To Set the Right Goals And Take Your Career To The Next Level in the next year!

Have you finished your goal-setting for the new year? If not, this time of the year is the perfect to set new goals, that’ll bring you ahead.  Just as in any other part of your life, you should set goals for your medical career. Here is how I set goals for the new year.

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How To Succeed In Your Medical Career.

5 Strategies That Never Fail.

It is easier than ever to make a great career in medicine. You wanna know why? Because your competition is very busy.

Your competition is very busy

  • complaining about the tough circumstances they have to work under.
  • because they did not organize they’re daily work schedule well and they are wasting time.
This doesn’t make it EASY for you, but it’s easier. You still need hard work and a strategy: There are five steps to follow. Apply these, and I guarantee you’ll have success.
  1. Find out what your boss wants and overdeliver:
    Every boss has different goals, opinions and priorities. On the other hand there are things he doesn’t care about at all.Make it your top goal to find out what she thinks is really important, when it comes to treating patients. Then spend time delivering on these expectations. Here are a few examples:

    1. My first attending was all about blood gases. If I knew the patient’s CO2 by heart he was happy.
    2. Another doc’s hot topic was the patient’s dry weight. If you didn’t know their dry weight, there was nothing you could do or say to make him happy.
  2. Use your time wisely: 
    Please: don’t complain! Stop complaining right now. The toner is empty, there are too few people on your staff, and on and on we go. There are so many things going wrong. But instead of whining, use your time and energy to change the things you actually can control. Whining is for losers. Never has a chief said: That guy who is complaining all day long: I really need  him on my team…hasn’t happened! Ever!
  3. Have the patient’s best interest in mind.
    This strategy will never go out of style: Listen to the patient, have his best interest at heart and everything will take care of itself. Sooner or later your patients will tell your boss what a great doctor you are and that always is a big advantage!
  4. Hustle.
    Many medical students have had it easy all their lives. I don’t want to bash the millenials all too much but basically: Their parents took care of them, but that is now over. Once you arrive in the working field, expect to work harder than ever before. Volunteer for jobs nobody else want to do.  Be the first guy there and the last to leave.
  5. Be patient. There is no overnight success. You will have to wait years until you will reap the benefits. It takes time. You have time.
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Upcoming Webinar: Productivity in Medicine

My 3 Most Important Tools

Time is the most precious resource we have. In the upcoming webinar I share my most important tools I use to ensure that I use my time efficiently.

 

I invite you to join me in this webinar. You will learn the tools I use

 

  • to effectively communicate with colleagues and collaborators
  • to manage “input” (things I like to keep or remember)
  • to access medical information quickly
  • create a workflow with maximum productivity

 

 

Spots fill up quickly, so you should register to reserve your spot.

 

 

 

 

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Stop Wasting Your Time With These Three Habits And Save One Hour Per Week.

Time is a precious resource. It is the most valuable resource we have, because as opposed to money and energy it can not be won back. Once it is lost, time is gone forever. So especially in the hospital I am quite intentional on how I spend my time.

And I am even more intentional about how not to spend it. Here are three things to cut out of your life to spend enormous amounts of time.

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Why Learning German Is The Most Important Career Step For Non-Native Speakers.

I get many emails from other parts of the world asking for advice on how to  start a medical career in Germany. What is one thing I can do to maximize my chances? I always answer this:

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15 Things I Like About Working At The Charité.

I have been working at the Charité University  Medicine Berlin since 2008. Me and many of my colleagues are very content with working here, but every now and then you hear cynical voices about how bad, slow and misorganized things supposedly are.

As I have written before, I think that this discontent should always trigger some kind of constructive action. You always have a choice:

  • change things to the better or ultimately, if you just can’t stand it anymore:
  • you can look for another organization that may fit your needs better.

 

However, how do you protect yourself from cynicism and depression when  people around you are whining?

Gratitude is always a great move. I like to point out the good things of life. For that matter I created a list of things I like or even love about working here. Here is my Top-15-List of things I like about the Charité:

  1. I am trained here by amazing physicians.
  2. They pay me money. Fair and on time.
  3. Fast internet at every workstation and coming up:
  4. Reliable WiFi on most wards.
  5. Uncountable numbers of experts for every topic: I call them and they will help me and the patient.
  6. Experienced nurses.
  7. Access to Uptodate at many departments.
  8. All patients are treated equally: regardless of country of origin, race or language they speak.
  9. Equipment that works.
  10. If equipment doesn’t work (and the responsible department is informed!): things are fixed.
  11. We come in contact with a wide variety of diseases and conditions.
  12. We now have a Kebap cart on our campus 🙂
  13. Social prestige: Many people are impressed, when you tell them you work here.
  14. Opportunities to do research.
  15. The campuses are beautiful.

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Become A Problem Solver By Asking The Right Question.

Every day I come across several problems that I am not responsible for:

  • Personal computer in the doctor’s room is slow.
  • Printer is out of toner.
  • Biopsy gun is broken.
  • Two out of three elevators don’t seem to work.
  • The only closet in the physician’s office is filled with old patient files.

All of these common problems not only cause delay in our workflow but lead to great frustration in your team. By choosing your reaction to all of these issues you make a great decision between ongoing frustration and improving the quality of your work.  

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Stop The Madness: Four Ways To Reduce Frequent Phone Calls…

...so you can focus on the important tasks again.

Mobile phones for doctors have changed the clinical routine tremendously. The pager is gone and everybody can be reached whenever he is at work. Is this a progress? I am not sure.

Turns out that the threshold to contact doctors in semi-important issues is close to an all-time-low while the number of calls and hence interruptions is close to a peak.  

Get The Most Out Of Your Next Internship

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When Doctors Yell… Here are four steps to deal with it.

On my first day in the OR during an internship in NY a physician’s assistant briefed me: “You know, the surgeon we are  going to spend the next 6-7 hours with yells. A lot.

Keep in mind he is not yelling at you. He is just yelling…“ As it turned out he was right and the advice he gave me was valuable.