principleintopractice

This is a question I get a lot…

If you’ve followed this blog for a while (including through a long hiatus), or you know me, you’ll likely know I grew up in New Jersey, went to university in New Jersey, went to medical school (where I got an MD/PhD) in New Jersey, and then moved to Utah for my residency training. People were often curious why I moved to Utah, though people who have visited, and have an appreciation for the outdoors, usually understand pretty quickly. Living in Salt Lake City I could work at a big academic center and have the benefits of urban living (a super market within walking distance, an airport 15 minutes from my house, and, err- whatever other benefits you get from urban living (ok- so I’ve never exactly been a person who enjoys urban living)) while still having access to world class outdoors activities. With less than a 40-minute drive from my apartment in downtown Salt Lake City I could be skiing at any of 6 ski resorts, riding on multiple mountain bike trail systems, or exploring seemingly endless trails for hiking.  Sure, my paddleboard didn’t get a ton of use, but if I had a long weekend (or even just a precious 2-day weekend) I could explore one of the five National Parks, numerous State Parks, or a growing number (and hopefully not shrinking size) of National Monuments. Utah was a great fit for me, so why did I leave?

Three and a half years ago, between finishing medical school and entering residency I had 6 months of time with no real obligations (because of the timing of my PhD I was off-cycle with my classmates). I spent this time recouping and travelling. I visited Belize, Ecuador (including The Galapagos), Turkey, England, and topped it all off with 5 weeks of Antipodean adventures, spending 3 weeks in New Zealand and 2 weeks in Australia. I never posted about those 5 weeks (though I think I had at least 4 posts started- this was the start of my long blogging hiatus). It was a great adventure, complete with polocrosse, riding horses on beaches in Australia and New Zealand, walking on the Franz Josef Glacier, wildlife, excellent coffee, and friends. For me it was a great “last hurrah” before buckling down to the work of residency.

Pre-Residency NZ adventures, in front of the Franz Josef Glacier. 

Residency WAS work, and while I do still plan to pursue research and academic medicine (the long-term “plan” since I first decided to get an MD/PhD), during residency I realized I didn’t want to go straight from training into a long-term position. There were a few reasons for this. First- finding a “permanent” position is daunting, and while many new grads go straight from residency to a permanent job, I didn’t feel like I was in the right head-space to make long-term decisions during residency. Second- while I think I want my first “permanent” position to include a substantial amount of research and academic time, I also want to keep a hand in clinical medicine. While I’ve learned an unquantifiably-large amount in residency, most physicians that I’ve spoken with agree that you really form your practice “style” the first few years post-residency. I felt (and continue to feel) that immersing myself in full time primary care practice, at least for a while, would make me a better clinician and researcher for the long run.  Third- I may want to stick around in Utah eventually, but my wanderlust really started to act up in residency!

Which brings me to New Zealand…

As I was thinking about “where next”, New Zealand kept coming to mind… I’d loved my time in New Zealand pre-residency. A senior resident from my intern year (first year of residency) took a locum position in New Zealand for a year after residency and loved it. I have some friends in New Zealand. It’s on the other side of the world, beautiful, and great for outdoor adventurers (big points for my wanderlust). I have friends and family in Australia- not close by any means, but being in NZ would give me better access to visit them and to visit other new locations on the other side of the world. Also, like the US, NZ has a primary care physician shortage and even has a government funded medical recruitment agency to bring primary care physicians [http://www.nzlocums.com/]. Also, New Zealand is an English-speaking country (while my Spanish can get me through some basic patient encounters, it’s not good enough for full time practice) and US qualifications are recognized in NZ.

As I worked my way through the second and third year of residency I would browse a small percentage of the job postings filling my inbox, but in my mind I’d essentially committed to moving to New Zealand and didn’t seriously pursue a job-search in the US. In the end, despite all the reasons to consider NZ, my choice came down to a gut feeling that a year as a primary care physician- a GP (General Practitioner) in NZ terms- would be an adventure, and it was one that really piqued my interest.

I took this photo on my first trip to NZ, and a large canvas of it hung on my wall throughout residency. Now I live less than an hour from these mountains…

Just over a year ago (the day before the presidential election, to be precise) I sent my letter expressing interest in practicing in NZ. NZ Locums was great to work with, though the whole process took longer than I had anticipated (largely because we couldn’t proceed until I was technically “board certified” by the American Board of Family Medicine). I knew I wanted to come to the South Island- it’s less developed with more access to my type of outdoor-activities (though unfortunately it seems that all the polocrosse is on the North Island)- and as the GP shortage is most severe in rural areas I knew I’d be heading somewhere rural. That being said, I ended up in historically farming country that is undergoing a boom of post-earthquake development, with large farms becoming large housing developments (not unlike where I grew up in rural New Jersey).  It leads to an interesting mix of patients and medicine (by the end of the year I’m sure I will be able to write the book 101 Ways to be Hurt by a Cows and Sheep).

A New Zealand traffic jam.

I’m one month into practice in New Zealand (and almost two months into living here) and so far I’m very happy with my choice to live and work here a year (or potentially more, though there are people in the US who don’t want to hear that). The outdoor adventures don’t disappoint, and I’m getting the intense clinical practice I was looking for, though in a very different environment and system than I trained in in the United States… More on that in later posts!