I thought I'd post a little update to my last entry.

I mailed on the application packet for the one job. Their process is on the complicated side because not only do I need to be hired by the urgent care center, I also need to join the medical staff of the hospital. That's kind of a pain and also cost me $525.

Now I need to copy and send pretty much all of the same information to their credentialing office because apparently one office can't manage to talk to the other even though they are all part of the same company. I'll take care of that over the weekend.

Yesterday, I interviewed at the other urgent care center than I'm considering. There are pros and cons to each of them. One pays better. One has more flexible scheduling. One requires a higher level of certification. One has an easier to use electronic records system. Etc.

I think my plan at this point is to sign up with both of them and try to work at least one shift a month at each and see which I like better after a few months (hopefully it will be the better paying one but I'm going to try and not let that be my only deciding factor).

I do need to get my advanced cardiac life support certification. I'll do that in the next month or so. The one hospital will reimburse me for that once I come onboard so that's nice. The downside is that I need to miss 2 days of work to take the course so I'll lose the income from taking those days unpaid so either way, it's going to cost me a chunk of money.

Hopefully it's all an investment in my future, though. At least that's how I need to look at it.

I haven't posted a blog for quite a while. I'm on the forums all the time but not here. I wanted to share some news and I thought this was the better place for it.

Before I do, let me just mention that for 2015, I earned $12,163 from surveys. That's by far the most I've ever made. See what happens when I really stay committed to doing it?

Anyway, on to the news.

I've been at my current job for almost 16 years. Overall, I've been happy there. Certainly, there have been issues but nothing that was enough to make me consider leaving.

One thing has been a growing problem, though. The doctor I work for is a lousy businessman. Unfortunately, medicine is very much a business today and you need to be very financially savvy to succeed, no matter how good of a doctor you may be - and he just isn't.

The most troublesome effect of that is that I haven't had a raise for years. I'm embarrassed to admit how many years. I feel kind of awkward complaining since I still make far above median income and I don't want to come off sounding ungrateful to folks who would kill to make what I make, but the simple reality is that what was fantastic money 10 years ago and still pretty decent money 5 years ago is barely covering things today. Pretty much everything is more costly than it used to be - food, clothing, taxes, cars, etc. I'm sure very few of you would like to have your incomes cut back to what you made 10 years ago.

So I finally started looking into other opportunities. I do family practice currently (always have) but I started exploring the growing field of urgent care. There are 2 big hospital-based urgent care systems in my area. One of them is paying 28% more than I currently make. The other is paying 71% more. I'd be stupid to not at least look into making a change for a 71% increase in my income (or even a 28% increase).

I've taken the first steps in the process. I've already met with, and gotten an offer from, the higher paying place. I'm going to sign on on a per diem basis for now and hope to pick up a couple of weekend shifts each month to see if I like it, remaining at my regular job as well. I'm also going to meet with the other place and may sign on as a per diem with them too. Being signed up with both will give me more opportunities to find open shifts when I'm looking to work.

If, and this is the big question, I find that I enjoy the urgent care work, the ultimate goal would be to transition into doing that as my full-time gig. I only need to work 21 hours/week at the higher rate to match my current weekly income, which wouldn't be hard at all, especially as they are opening a new center next month and have a few more planned over the next couple of years. The demand for doctors is only increasing. Now is a great time to be getting involved.

Sorry for rambling but I haven't really been able to share this with too many people just yet. It will probably be a few months before all of the paperwork and credentialing is done and I can actually start working but I feel good knowing I've gotten the process started.