Early Career Physicians—the Keys to Recruiting, Onboarding and Retention

Abstract

You know how valuable early career physicians are to the organization. Energetic, excited about medicine, anxious to prove themselves. For your part, you want to recruit them, retain them and help them reach their potential. For that to happen, you need to know what their attitudes, feelings and needs are. Let’s take a closer look. Early Career Physicians: Who They Are They’re Anxious—But they might hesitate to tell you Physicians beginning their careers are clinically ready, but naturally they are worried about making mistakes or “sticking out” in a negative way. They want to be team players, but are often concerned their residency training didn’t prepare them well enough to be working on their own. They’re worried you are going to regret having hired them. They’re also worried about financial debt. The average medical school debt was roughly $200,000 in 2022. Comparatively, in 1978 the average medical school debt was $13,500 equating to $60,580 when adjusted for inflation. They’ve accumulated significant debt and they are likely to push themselves to work a lot—often more than they should—to handle it. However, even if they have those concerns, they might hesitate to tell you given their intense need to prove themselves. They’ll typically show up to work every day saying, “I’m good. Everything’s great. Don’t worry about me.”