The Good Life – January-February 2021

"I like doing it," Hamilton said. "It's
a challenging job. Mentally, you have
to know something about everything.
Your brain has to be moving fast,
because if you wait 10 minutes on
something, it's crashing or you've lost
your golden period or you've screwed
up. So, as long as I'm mentally or
physically able to do it, that's what I
plan to do."
Eventually, Hamilton says he will
have to cut down on hours a bit, but
he says when the time comes where
he's unable to work in the ER…
"I plan to completely jump out of it,"
he said. "I don't see myself doing a
different type of medicine."
Retirement will be spent traveling
with his wife and kids, doing hobbies
and whatever else comes his way.
A perfect way to live, what Hamilton
truly believes to be The Good Life.
"When I got into residency," he said.
"One of the people that interviewed
me for that spot said, 'Okay, so we
see a lot of people burn out, and they
do this residency, and you see people
that wind up realizing they made a
mistake. This is challenging for your
family — they don't see you for long
periods of time, you show up after
working nights, and you're just kind
of this person that drifts to the house,
and what happens if you find that
happens for you?'
"And my comment was, 'Look, I had a
good career before this, I was able to
feed myself and my family before, if I
find that it's tearing my family apart.
I'm not going to be doing emergency
medicine, I'm going to do something
else. Even if I have to go back to what
I did before.'
"And the interviewer, who was on a
panel asking questions said, 'That's
the best answer I've heard all day.'
So for me, The Good Life means
being able to have a fulfilling career,
but more importantly to be able to
have a fulfilling home life with my
family. •
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