Career and Life Planning Guidebook for Medical Residents

Values and Objectives Somewhat paradoxically, the first step of the Decision Analysis process is to take a step back from the actual decision you are currently facing. Momentarily, Iwant you to forget that you are trying to decide on which job offer to accept. Why? Because, a moment’s refection reveals that before we can decide which particular job offer we prefer, we must first understand what our values and objectives are. Simply stated, we first determine what is important (our objectives) to us as individuals; only then do we know how to achieve our objectives. Think of this as how you clear your mind at a code: Your job is to be the calm person in the room. Clarity and peace comes from taking the 10,000 foot view and looking at the whole picture from a distance, then going back to your basic “ABCs” to bring order towhat feels like a chaotic situation. What exactly are our values and objectives and how exactly do we use them when making decisions? Values are what we care about in life. They help us evaluate the consequences of possible actions. The difference between values and objectives is that values are made explicit by objectives. For example, in the decision of buying a car, I value safety. My value of safety is made explicit by the objective of minimizing injury in a car crash. In choosing a job, I value compensation, which can be made explicit by the objectives maximizing salary, maximizing medical benefits, and maximizing retirement benefits. Note that objectives always have a direction, i.e., maximum or minimum. It is not a stretch to say that we must know what we want before we can decide which job offer is the best, but how do we know what we want? Without explicit instructions that we can follow to determine our values and objectives, it is an empty promise that we can improve our decision making based on knowing our values. Thus, we now dive into a rigorous process that is designed to elicit and structure your values and objectives. The process can be broken down into two steps: Identifying Objectives and Structuring Objectives. Identifying objectives requires the decision maker to be creative and to think hard about the decision context. Structuring objectives requires the decision maker to determine the interrelationships among the objectives discovered when identifying objectives. Approximately 50% of physicians leave their first job within five years. Residents don’t have a framework for diagnosing practice opportunities thoroughly and analytically because they have only been in a residency setting and don’t have a frame of reference for what it is like to be in practice. Therefore, residents are likely to select a practice based on its location or on a compensation offer that seems attractive rather than on what they need in a practice opportunity personally and professionally. Residents need a game plan for what to ask, what to see, and who to meet to ensure they conduct a complete practice opportunity diagnosis. – Phil Miller, Vice President, Communications Merritt Hawkins and Staff Care F I E L D N O T E S Decision Analysis Applied to Job Selection 271 WWW.PHYSICIANCAREERPLANNING.COM