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During his residency, Dr. Jean-Michel Guay and his wife decided to build their first home and start a family. That was in 2017. Not long afterward, he became a father of two while earning his residency and fellowship in internal medicine at two hospitals in Ottawa.

“It was a bit of a busy time,” he laughs.

The need to find answers when seeing patients with complex and diverse health issues drew him toward internal medicine, with a subspecialty in thrombosis. In the midst of the pandemic, he took a full-time general internal medicine position at the Gatineau Hospital and also provided consultation and inpatient care at the Hull Hospital.

“I grew up in Gatineau and was born at the hospital here — I really wanted to give back to this community,” he says, adding that Ottawa, across the river, tends to attract a lot of healthcare professionals. “There are dire needs on this side of the border that I can address, which is important to me.”

Dr. Guay says it is deeply rewarding to know that he’s helped to change people’s lives. Internal medicine is a field filled with diagnostic dilemmas, requiring knowledge and collaboration with others where needed to make sure that patients get the answers and care they need.

There are distinct challenges to working in the province that Dr. Guay has learned, including that specialists must work full-time. “It’s hard to slow down my practice because of this, which is okay when you are young and full of energy, but it is hard to take a step back and do less work,” he says.

Another regional issue is that since Ottawa attracts an abundance of allied healthcare workers, many registered nurses, for instance, choose to work there and not in Gatineau. He and his colleagues are used to relying on limited support staff.

In an age of serious burnout inside the medical profession, this can certainly pose risks — and Dr. Guay believes it is essential to keep one’s eyes wide open, understand expectations and keep goals protected despite busy schedules. “I knew I would be working 90 to 100 hours a week sometimes, and other weeks I’d be less busy with outpatient work. As long as you have your schedule in advance, you can prepare yourself and take pre-emptive family and vacation time. You need to care for yourself in order to care for others.”

On a related note, he says that for residents, the biggest challenge is managing their time studying and maintaining a full staff schedule with other research and academic commitments on the side. “There are far more opportunities in medicine than the time we have in a day,” he says. “It’s important to learn to say ‘no’ early on, or else burnout will pose a bigger threat.”

Dr. Guay joined the MD Physician Council in his third year of residency, compelled by an interesting opportunity to have a say in decisions that could help his colleagues develop greater financial freedom. As the sole Council resident, he represented the vital perspectives of early-career physicians.

“It was a nice period for me as part of the MD Physician Council because it felt that MD Financial Management (MD) genuinely listened to our opinions and took them into account when making strategic decisions,” he says, adding that a clear example was in the development of what became the Medicus Pension Plan™, a frequent topic at Council meetings. 

Dr. Guay’s parting thoughts are clear about the way forward. “Physicians see MD as a company that offers unique solutions for them because they have taken the time to understand our complex needs,” he says. “Always staying true to those roots is key.”