Why this plastic surgeon chose to become a high school science teacher [PODCAST]

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“I have closed my practice, but I have no plans to retire at the age of 52. I have started the journey to become a high school science teacher. There are frequent internet postings and blogs by physicians with strategies to retire young. I suspect that many of us, not near traditional retirement age, still desire to work. At this point, I do not yet have a passion for traveling the world or for driving around the country in an RV like many former physicians. Furthermore, I still have two children who are not yet college age. I enjoy working, and I fear mental stagnation were I to retire at this point. Currently, I am pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching degree. From pre-school through hand fellowship, I have had 28 years of formal education. It is time for me to reciprocate and to honor the extraordinary minds of my teachers and mentors. I am excited to become a high school teacher. I was a chemistry major in college, and it will be a smooth transition to teach high school science. I judge success not by financial wealth, but by contributing to the community and finding happiness in life. I don’t miss my pager.”

Timothy Bill is a plastic surgeon.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, “Why this plastic surgeon closed his practice to become a high school science teacher.”

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Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Timothy Bill. He’s a plastic surgeon, and he’s in the process of becoming a high school science teacher. He wrote the KevinMD article “Why this plastic surgeon closed his practice to become a high school science teacher.” Timothy, welcome to the show.

Timothy Bill: Thank you, Kevin. It’s an honor to be here. I’m looking forward to spending some time with you today.

Kevin Pho: So we’ll get into your article a little bit, but first off, can you just share your story and your journey to where you are today?

Timothy Bill: So maybe I’ll start with my journey since my article was published back in December. My journey is somewhat unique. Currently, I’m a student at James Madison University here in Harrisonburg, and I’m pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching degree, with the goal to teach public school science on completion. The program takes about 18 months. I’ve just started. There are certainly other ways to get a teaching certificate that are a shorter time frame, but I’m really enjoying being a student, even though I’m kind of the old man in the class. And I’m learning a lot. I’m fortunate to have some of the best education professors in the country.

Going back, when I finished college, I was a chemistry major, and I had to decide whether I was going to get a PhD in chemistry or go into the field of medicine. So I actually took a couple of years off, and I worked as a chemist for Merck up in Rahway, New Jersey. After that time frame, I decided that I was ready to go to medical school. And to shorten the story, I did a plastic surgery residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. After that, I completed a fellowship in hand surgery, which was a combined fellowship between plastic surgery and orthopedics.

When I finished my training, I had to decide what I was going to do after that. My wife was already a state employee, with all of the excellent benefits along those lines. And so we decided to stay in Virginia, and I moved here to Harrisonburg, which is about one hour west of Charlottesville, where for the last 17 years, I was a private practice plastic surgeon, primarily specializing in surgery of the hand.

Initially, my business model was very low budget, and it continued to be. I had only two employees, a nurse and a receptionist, and I was the physician and the business manager. In 2003, it was very easy to be the manager of a solo practice surgery office. What occurred over the next 15 years, in particular over the last 5 years, is programs such as HIPAA and MIPS and new onerous rules and regulations, and I found myself spending more and more time on the weekends doing administrative work to maintain compliance than spending time with my family. Also, as mentioned in the article, I wasn’t doing super well financially at that point in time.

So when coronavirus came around, I had some difficult decisions to make. I was not making any money because elective surgeries were canceled for a period of time. I didn’t know how long the coronavirus would last. Would it come back? Would we ever get a vaccine for it? And in the setting of a business that was doing OK, but not great, I didn’t want to put a whole lot of money in loans into keeping it afloat. So I decided to change careers completely and share my knowledge as a public school teacher here in Harrisonburg.

Kevin Pho: Now, that’s such a fascinating story. So you went through medical school, plastic surgery training, and a fellowship even on top of that, you’ve been in private practice for almost 20 years, and then you decided to make this career transition. Now, how was the medicine itself, aside from all the onerous rules like HIPAA and all the other rules and compliance that you have to abide by? How was the medicine itself while you were practicing? Did you enjoy it?

Timothy Bill: I loved it. My practice primarily was hand surgery, and I ran through my scheduling software, and I saw over 10,000 unique hand patients during that time frame. And I loved the patient interactions. I really enjoyed teaching and learning from all of my patients, and I really do miss that. Hand surgery is a very underserved specialty. There was no one here doing hand surgery when I came here. So naturally, I had a ton of business. And that’s why I ended up giving up general plastic surgery, because I was so busy doing hand surgery. I didn’t have time to do anything else.

Kevin Pho: Were there any other options within medicine that were available to you? I know that the challenges of private practice are tremendously onerous, especially in this day and age. Was there the option of joining a larger group or an academic medical center, for instance?

Timothy Bill: The backup option for me, if I were to stay practicing as a physician, would have been to join the corporate hospital that we have in town. My mom told me not to say anything bad about anybody, so I won’t, but I would not have been happy in that situation. I would say that when I came here, we had a very nice small community hospital, and I would have joined there as an employee in a second. I would have been really happy with that.

Kevin Pho: So let’s transition more into your KevinMD article, where you go into more detail about your journey. It’s titled “Why this plastic surgeon closed his practice to become a high school science teacher.” Now, when contemplating this career change, what were some of the decision points and factors that went into that choice?

Timothy Bill: I started thinking maybe about 5 years ago: What skills do I have other than doing hand surgery? And it quickly went back to my chemistry background from college and afterwards, and my love of science. And so for me, perhaps the most straightforward thing to pursue would be the field of education, and to share the knowledge that I’ve learned with others. And I think that even though I’m not a physician anymore, I will still be contributing significantly to our community in Harrisonburg.

Kevin Pho: What do you think are some of the aspects of being a physician that would translate into the field of education and being a high school teacher?

Timothy Bill: Well, there are a number. One is, I was lucky to be my own boss as a solo practitioner, so learning how to interact with patients, often with complex issues, just like students of today in our diverse society and diverse town. Listening to patients, as with listening to students, is just as important. And then there is my science background. So I think that the transition from medicine will actually go fairly smoothly for me.

Kevin Pho: And when you made this decision and your colleagues and peers found out about it, in general, what was their reaction?

Timothy Bill: Surprise, and also, interestingly, excitement for me. We’ve gone through some difficult times in our town as far as health care is concerned, and a number of physicians have thought about changing careers or moving elsewhere. So there’s been a lot of interest in my journey and what I’ve been doing.

Kevin Pho: Did you have a background at all in education? Tell me how this process began, and just walk me through some of the steps that you’ve taken in making this transition.

Timothy Bill: As a medical student, resident, and hand fellow, I spent a lot of time giving talks to other medical students and other residents, particularly as I got further along in my residency, and I gained comfort speaking to larger groups at that point, as well as sharing information on a more intimate basis about particular cases, just sitting down with residents and medical students and talking about them. That would probably be my biggest experience.

I have had the opportunity to go to my kids’ classes in school and share my knowledge of science, exciting things about the hand. And I also have two adolescent kids, and I spend time with them, acting more as a guide, trying to make sure they understand why an answer or how an answer is found rather than the correct answer. So that would be my education experience at this point.

Kevin Pho: And tell me what it’s like going back to school after practicing for almost 20 years. It’s almost like you’ve come full circle after such a long and arduous journey becoming a hand specialist, then practicing, and now going back to school. So paint a picture. What’s it like going back to class and learning essentially a new career?

Timothy Bill: In medicine, I was starting to become unhappy. And so for a couple of years, I’ve been kind of in a search for happiness. What is there out there to make me happy? And I’ve always loved education, either learning or teaching others. And so for me, as I wasn’t terribly happy with the management side of my business, I’ve noticed that this new freedom to be a student at this point and learn new things has been incredibly rewarding for me. So I’m very happy right now.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Timothy Bill. He’s a plastic surgeon who is transitioning to become a high school science teacher, and he wrote the KevinMD article “Why this plastic surgeon closed his practice to become a high school science teacher.” Timothy, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve faced thus far in leaving medicine and transitioning into education?

Timothy Bill: I’m not sure that I’ve had a lot of challenges. I’m blessed that we lived within our means, and so the idea of having a financial challenge is not a concern for me. I know it would be for many others. And again, as I mentioned, my wife works for the state, so we have all of the insurance benefits. So I don’t think it’s going to be a huge financial challenge for me.

It’s challenging to relearn information when it’s been 30 years since I studied it, but I’ve discovered that I have dormant neurons in my long-term memory that still hold that information. So actually, chemistry and biology have come back relatively easily for me, and even taking and passing the prerequisite courses for education has not been terribly difficult. So I haven’t had a lot of challenges, and I’m very fortunate for that.

Kevin Pho: So why don’t you outline a path? You’re currently in this 18-month program. So what are the steps that you need to take to become a fully qualified high school science teacher?

Timothy Bill: It involves primarily didactic and small-group courses in the spring, summer, and fall. So that’s three semesters, and then in the spring of next year will be basically student teaching. But we actually start that student teaching journey early. In fact, in a couple of weeks, I’m already going to start working with a local middle school science teacher and learning her approach to teaching science to eighth graders. And so the exciting part for me is going to be getting into the classroom and spending time with students. So I will finish this in May of 2022, and at that point, look for employment.

Kevin Pho: So do you plan on incorporating some of the stories and lessons that you learned over your career in medicine into your high school and middle school science classes?

Timothy Bill: My goal is to make school fun. And I think that when kids are bored, or say they don’t like something because they just don’t like it, I think they’re not enjoying what they’re learning. And so I’m very excited that I’ve had these experiences, both as a research chemist, so lots of topics relating to medicine and things today from a chemistry standpoint, and certainly lots of stories from medicine as far as biology is concerned. So yes, it will be a big role. And I would consider myself successful if I get a group of diverse kids interested in science or medicine, and maybe some who even major in science would be successful in my mind.

Kevin Pho: I talked to a lot of physicians, both on this podcast and on my blog, about the dissatisfaction in medicine. As many know, the burnout rates, even before the pandemic, approached 50 percent. And it’s primarily because of the reasons that you describe. It’s a loss of autonomy and increased regulations and the fact that physicians can’t focus on medicine anymore. Now, for those physicians who are perhaps speaking of a career change or not, what’s some advice that you could give them in helping determine whether they should stay in medicine or not?

Timothy Bill: I think if you get to a point in your career where you’re not happy, I think it’s time to think about other options. And there are lots of other options. I watched one of your podcasts from a few weeks ago with Dr. Meta, who talked about side jobs, and going into some form of education as a side job, I think, would be rewarding. It wouldn’t bring a lot of income, but it’s finding something that you enjoy doing. For me, it’s going to be a career.

As physicians, we’re all scientists, and we have a lot of knowledge to share with others. So I would encourage people to think about education as a career, particularly if you’ve managed your finances well to that point in time. There are lots of other things as a former physician that you can do: write scientific articles, work for an insurance company, be an auditor. There are a number of things, starting a blog. So there are lots of things out there that, if you’re kind of stagnating in your business model, you can find interesting, I’m sure.

Kevin Pho: And in making this career change, did you have any resources or any mentors who helped guide you through this change?

Timothy Bill: When I was in medicine, I had a number of mentors who were plastic surgeons or hand surgeons, and I modeled how I behaved and how I practiced after them. I discovered that when I talked to them, they were all very excited about my plan.

From a standpoint of education, my father, who has passed away, was a professor, and my sister was a college professor. So education was a big part of our life when I was growing up. In fact, my dad always told me, “Tim, be a professor, be a professor,” and I didn’t listen to him. I became a doctor, but I’ve loved being a doctor. So I would say my family, in most respects, has been wonderful mentors for me.

Kevin Pho: And my final question: What’s your take-home message that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience?

Timothy Bill: So I would say, if you get to a point in your career, and, as I’ve mentioned, you’ve been financially savvy, consider using the information you’ve learned to help others in your community. Whether this be a career or a side job, I think it can be very rewarding for you as an individual and certainly for the community in which you live.

Kevin Pho: Timothy, thank you so much for sharing your story and insight. Best wishes on your education journey, and thanks again for being on the show.

Timothy Bill: Thanks, Kevin. I appreciate it.

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