Doctor’s Salary Upgrade: What Skills Do You Need To Improve? As much as we would like to earn money, we have to do our part first. And unfortunately, that does not involve us standing in the parking lot outside the hospital, holding our arms out to the heavens and waiting for the money to rain down on us. A Doctor Is A Skilled Individual As doctors, we are skilled individuals who have years of medical training and experience packed underneath our white coats. We need to continue to advance our skills in performing procedures and providing care but above all we need to know the basics like the back of our hands. But going beyond the hard skills that more or less determine our salaries, it is the soft skills that truly define and distinguish the excellent from the merely good doctors. One of the key characteristics that is a must in our profession, is patience. Being patient allows us to actively listen to our patients and to show our concern for them. This is where we put our best foot forward and as we do so we need to remain humble. When we require help we should do so, because let’s face it, there really isn’t a point to pretending to know what we don’t, that’s a recipe for disaster. With these two deceptively simple skills, the foundations of a good doctor-patient relationship is formed, and your patients would come to trust your judgment with ease. When working in an institution we are given positions and set salaries like those in the corporate field. Like people in that profession, the skills they require to make their way up the corporate ladder is applicable to our field as well. We need to be a team player, being able to work well in a team. This includes getting along with our colleagues – at least within a professional capacity – and other health care staff. It is only natural to want someone we like and respect to be in a certain position, as we know that we would work well with them. Amalgamating the hard and soft skills seamlessly is a must, and this has to be acknowledged as a constant work in progress. How To Improve Your Skills There are many ways to improve our skills. 1. Continuing medical education (CME) CME aims to maintain or advance our competence as healthcare professionals by providing us with significant updates about our respective fields. These are provided through real-time seminars or conferences or could easily be found online. Real-time seminars and conferences allow you to practice skills in the presence of the individual teaching it and you get to interact with colleagues in your field and learn from them as well. Online CME, on the other hand, is good for those who do not have the time to travel to real-time CMEs and could do them at their own pace. 2. Specialty training Specialty training or even sub-specialty training would improve your skills as well. It would be good to get training in different institutions. If you were in hospital A for your internship, go to B for your residency, and C for your fellowship. This way you could hone skills from different environments and bring them all together. Learn what is good and learn from any mistakes you might commit as well. 3. Observerships It is good to try and learn skills from other doctors from different work environments. You may choose to involve yourself in field work or do an observership in a different hospital. 4. Academia If you choose a more academic advancement you could return to school. If you are interested in trying your hand at shaping the minds of the next generation of medical practitioners, then explore the different master’s and PhD programmes that are available, and up your educational background accordingly. There are several ways to improve your skills, depending on what work environment you are in, and a continuously refined set of skills would inevitably result in higher compensation for you. Aside from offering a more attractive salary package, the skills you acquire will make you a better doctor holistically, which is a win-win for all. Source
