David Bridgers, MD, a gastroenterologist with One GI and Gastroenterology Associates & Endoscopy Center of North Mississippi in North Oxford, spoke with Becker's to offer advice for new gastroenterologists.
Editor's note: This was edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Question: What advice would you give new gastroenterologists about to enter the field?
Dr. David Bridgers: Don't let somebody discourage you from pursuing practice. I hear a lot of older physicians telling younger physicians, 'Don't go into medicine because it's gonna change too much.'
But it's a great field. Medicine, in general, is a great thing to do, and gastroenterology is a great field. You have the potential to do a lot of good in the field of GI — that would be my first thing, don't be discouraged.
Also, don't be afraid of change. Do everything you can to educate yourself and align yourself with people that think like you so that when you're facing these changes, you at least have people that support you and are going to work with you on it. It is a big system to try to swim upstream against, and when I say that I mean just the medical industry as a whole, all the entities that are involved in it. So the more that you can align yourself properly, educate yourself properly and motivate yourself properly, the better off you're going to be.