I have been gone from this board about 2 years. At that time, my wife/medical partner and I had made the decision to leave private practice and take positions at the hospital on Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. If you look at my posts, you will see that we had a successful practice in Alaska. While it was a really great, lucrative practice that had made us financially independent with a patient base of people we had come to consider our friends, it had gotten stale. I had been reading all of these posts on the board from doctors who were in despair about the horrors of practice in the lower 48, and when we decided to move posted an offer; we would give away our practice; hardware, software, charts, equipment, delightful patients, great staff eager to keep working, pictures on the wall, pencils in the drawer.. ALL of it?for FREE? no strings attached? to anyone who wanted it. We got no takers. At that point I decided that they would rather suffer and whine than change. I decided they were correct; they COULDN?T move because they were locked in the prison they built for themselves. I posted our experience hoping that some would see that there were other paths possible , but only got some snarky comments like ?Well, we can?t ALL move to a Pacific island.? I felt ?dissed? and just quit.
But, today I got a note from a physician who had read those posts, and is thinking that for him, too, there is another path. So, I will tell of our experience.
We are a ?real? but small (about 80 bed) hospital. We have 2 general surgeons, full time IM hospitalists, an OR with 2 suites, a fully staffed ER, delivery rooms, a 4 bed ICU, respiratory therapy, a decent lab, x-ray with ultrasound and CT (read by radiologists in Guam) a half time gastroenterologist, a full time nephrologist and busy hemodialysis unit. All physicians are US trained almost all board certified, the vast majority born in the USA. If you found yourself in Bisbee, Arizona I bet it would look similar, except for the patient demographics. We have about 40% native Chamorro and Carolinian, the rest Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Palauan, Bangladeshi. Our psychiatrist and his family are from Qatar and practicing Muslim, the island is heavily Catholic, I am ?other? and no one gives ia damn. My wife and I are caucasian former Alaskan, and we Anglos make up about 4% of the population. I feel totally accepted and at home. If you wanted your kids to learn about different cultures, this is the place. It is a vacation spot for Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans, with a bunch of resorts, and a million Asian restaurants. You can buy fresh fish along the shore most days from local fishermen. There is a farmer?s market with local produce Saturday mornings. It is about a 3 1/2 hour flight to Japan, China, Korea, Manila. Friends not rarely go to Tokyo for a long weekend. I hear rumors a low cost airline is planning $150 round trip tickets to Inchon. I myself love diving so I am making it a point to dive the islands. So far I have dived Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Palau, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Pelileu. I have Chuuk and Yap to go. And, I still have nearly 2 months of vacation time saved since I got here 2 years ago, including 2 10 day trips back to Alaska.
So now we are here, taking care of people who have very little and treasure what we can offer. We are in a salaried position working very long hours for the government, making about 1/3rd of what we made in Alaska and giving thanks every day for what we discovered. Not a week goes by that I don?t get a hug from some little old Chamorro lady who thanks me for being here. I just melt. We live in a house on the side of a mountain in the jungle, overlooking the Pacific ocean. We have a garden granting us more tropical fruit than we can possibly eat. Behind us is a cliff riddled with caves and shell holes from WWII. 10 miles away is Tinian, the site of the busiest airport in the world at the end of WWII, and where the Enola Gay took off to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima. The old airstrips are still there, the pits where the bombs were loaded a monument, bunkers and buildings still standing amidst the jungle And when I have visited it I have been the only person there. It is beyond awe-inspiring.
This isn?t for everyone. One has to be willing to sever a lot of ties, or at least make sustaining them difficult, and be brave enough to take the plunge. Our daughter (who graduated from high school here) is in college in Michigan, 10 time zones and (thanks to the dateline) one day away. When we call it is very early Sunday morning for us and late Saturday for her. It is often a strain, but we have all grown. We lost a lot of conveniences. If you can imagine that people go to Guam and rave about shopping at K-Mart or having lunch at Burger King you may understand. But despite all that it really is the job we have always wanted. Perhaps if you are unhappy there is something out there for you, too.
