 Welcome back to the channel everybody. For those of you who are new around here, my name is Michael, APA Dr. Cellini. I'm a radiologist, subspecializing in interventional radiology in New York City. As you probably know by the title of this video, we are going to be talking about selling out as a doctor, which is a pretty broad topic as you probably know, but that's okay because we are going to get into it right now. Let's go. So what does it mean to sell out? First and foremost, let's go ahead and look up the definition of selling out. One second. So we got it back there, but I can't read and do this at the same time. So I'll tell you right now. So selling out is the common expression for the compromising of a person's integrity, morality, authenticity, or principles in exchange for personal gain such as money. Now, when you picture a doctor selling out, what do you think of exactly? For me personally, I think of some doctor pushing weight loss supplements, superfoods, the next latest diet pill. I think we know exactly who I'm talking about, but I'm not going to say. For the purpose of this video though, that kind of doctor selling out is not what we're going to be talking about. But before we get into my definition of selling out as a doctor, let's go ahead and talk about the long process of medical training and you'll understand why after I finish the journey of becoming a doctor sometimes starts in high school and other times in college, depending on where you're kind of at in life. For me personally, it started in college. Well, it started when I did my post baccalaureate program, which was after college. So kind of like second college or college number two, the second part of college or the post baccalaureate program is where I did all my pre-med prerequisites in order to get accepted into medical school, all the sciences, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, all that kind of stuff. So let's talk about college since that's where it kind of all started for me. The absolute goal of college and all the coursework in the pre-medical part of college is to absolutely destroy all of your classes, get a hundred on every examination that you take, and ultimately end up finishing college with a 4-0 GPA in both science and non-science you get. In doing so, you forfeit a lot of your free and personal time because you spend long nights at the library while tons of your friends are going out partying till the wee hours in the morning, you're actually spending those times in the library studying or wherever you study at home or whatnot. But the point is you're missing out on a lot of stuff in college because you're spending most of the time studying. We're talking about four years of missing out, by the way, because you're missing out on all those weekends, all those late nights, partying because your one goal is to get into medical school. And once you finally crush all that pre-medical coursework, well hopefully, and get that 4-0 GPA, again, hopefully, what do you do after that? You can finally relax, right? Because now you will likely get into medical school. Well, not so fast, because now you have to study for months and months and months, miss out on more of hanging out with your friends, more of those late night partying, because now you have to take the MCAT. Again, I just want to reiterate, you'll spend many, many more hours, maybe some late nights studying for the MCAT as well, even after you finish destroying all that pre-med coursework that you've already worked so hard at. It just never ends. And now you finally finish your MCAT, you get accepted into medical school, and you can finally breathe that sigh of relief because you've made it, now you're going to be a doctor, you can finally relax. Not so fast. Once you're in med school, the real work begins. All that time you thought you were working hard back in undergrad and high school and even the MCAT, that's pretty much nothing compared to what med school is like. Med school is absolutely as brutal as they say, and you have to kind of experience it to even begin to understand what I'm talking about, especially the first two years, which are the pre-clinical years. We're basically talking about two full calendar years spent studying in the library, non-stop, every single day, day in and day out, in long nights with minimal sleep. Sounds fun, right? Let's not forget about the endless tests and practicals that go along with those late nights and minimal sleep. And then the dreaded step one exam comes along after you finish those first two years, which is the first of three board examinations you have to take during medical training, and arguably the worst one. Well, it is the worst one. And then after your first two years of med school, you go into the hospital and start your clinical rotations as a third and fourth year med student, which is fun, right? Well, it's more fun than studying, but the problem is you're still working just as hard if not harder. Instead of studying till late in the night, you're at the hospital working till the wee hours in the morning. You're trying to prove yourself and work your butt off as a med student and show your residents and attendings that you're worth your weight in goal. The goal is to prove yourself as a med student during these rotations, work hard, get an honors pass for applying to residency. And let's not forget that pesky old step two exam, which is the second of the three board exams, has to also be taken during your third or fourth year med student. Somehow you have to fit in the studying while working those long nights because this exam has to be taken before you finish med school. And then you're officially a doctor after finishing med school. And you can finally relax because you're a doctor after all, right? Not so fast. Now you're in residency, the big leagues of medical training, the 80 hour work weeks filled with endless call, endless pages, paperwork, people asking you to do stuff. And let's not forget minimal sleep. Again, you're busting your butt during these 80 hour plus work weeks because you're trying to prove yourself as a doctor. And this is the last time you'll get taught anything during your medical training. This is where you learn to practice as a physician in your specific field. This is the hardest part of medical training until last anywhere from three or seven plus years. For me, it happens to be six years and I have three months left, but who's counting? So why the heck am I even telling you all this? For me personally, it took 14 years of essentially nonstop hard work. And now that I'm looking for my first job as an attending physician, I find that these 80 hour plus work weeks plus 12 hours a day grinding through long call is just a little tiring and I'm kind of over it. I'm exhausted from these long call weeks and late hours and minimal sleep. So now I don't really want that anymore. I want something that will allow me the work life balance I've always wanted for the past 14 years. Short, predictable days with minimal call that isn't that arduous. So you're probably asking yourself, what's the problem with looking for a job like that after you just busted your butt for 14 years? The short answer is there's nothing wrong with looking for a job like that. The problem is in medicine, if you choose a job that allows for work life balance as the number one priority, you may be considered a sell out to some. Now this isn't true for every one or every specialty for that matter, but there isn't undertone among some surgical specialties where working long hours, performing complex procedures, being in the hospital all the time equates to being a better doctor. And that's only in these people's eyes who feel that way. And in those same people's eyes, they view someone who values work life balance in less complex patients to be a sell out. We've all been in the hospitals and I have seen those 80 year old doctors who never leave the hospital and they're there at 10pm on a Saturday when they're not even on call or on the schedule. They live at the hospital in their professional career as their life and their only identity. They may have a horrible home life or just absolutely love what they do. And that's completely fine. The same can be said for a person who enjoys working out at 7am in the morning, finishing the day at 5pm and going home to their lovely wife to have dinner with them every day. My point is that everybody has different interests and obligations. I would never think differently of someone who wants to stay in the hospital till 9pm doing 16 hour surgeries but they also shouldn't think less of their colleague who chooses to do part time work in less complex patients. The best part about medicine is that there is something for everybody. I personally prefer to have predictable hours and take care of less complex patients because I have a ton going on outside of work. I'm so happy that there are people who can do these 15 hour plus surgeries, much like they are probably happy that there are doctors who do more routine and less complex stuff. My point of this entire video is that you need to figure out what you want to do and what makes you happy because that's all that matters at the end of the day. Do not take a job or take a career path or even a specialty in medicine based on what other people think. You need to choose it for you and you alone. The reason I made this video to begin with is because I was having trouble with this when I first started looking for jobs. It took time for me to figure out what I even wanted out of my professional career as an attending physician. For me, predictable schedule and work-life balance is key and at the beginning I felt kind of guilty looking for jobs like this and I wasn't sure why but then I finally realized something. As doctors we work our butts off for over a decade in medical training and just because you want to focus on work-life balance and have some free time to yourself as an attending physician doesn't make you a sell-out and it definitely doesn't make you any less of a doctor. As always make sure you smash that like and subscribe button. Hit the thumbs up. It really helps out the channel. If you have a comment leave it below and I will answer it. Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok and I'll see you all on the next video. Bye!