‘Job Hopping’ May Help Doctors Avoid Burnout, Boost Career Success

• A study of Nobel Prize winners revealed that frequent movers or those working in multiple locations started their prize-winning work earlier than those who stayed in one location.
• Healthcare industry experts suggest that exposure to diverse practices, professionals, and people can fuel creativity.
• Experts also say that a range of experiences can make work more joyful, which is critical to preventing burnout and improving physical health. 

Although common, “job hopping” is sometimes viewed as a sign of disloyalty, a contrast from previous generations, who valued staying with one employer for their entire careers.

However, a new study is challenging both ideas. 

The study, published on May 12 in the International Economic Review

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Wiley
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, examined Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, medicine, and physics over 102 years and found that those who moved more frequently or worked in multiple locations initiated their prize-winning work sooner than their peers who remained in a single location. 

“Providers working in different locations often encounter a variety of workflows, patient populations, clinical protocols, and organizational cultures,” said Jay Bhatt, DO, MPH, MPA, the managing director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and Health Institute. “New tools and alternative care sites support clinicians in broadening their exposure, learning, and skill set.”

Industry experts spoke with Healthgrades about the key takeaways from the study that may help health professionals improve career satisfaction, job performance, and reduce the risk of burnout.

A team of researchers analyzed data of Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine and physics from 1901 to 2003. The data included details on where the scientists worked each year, when they began research that earned them the Nobel Prize, and when they received that distinction. 

The top-line findings are:

• Scientists who moved every two years began their prize-winning work two years earlier than those who didn’t. 
• Moving every five years began their prize-winning career slightly under a year (0.7 years) before those who didn’t. 
• Those who worked in various locations — such as a physicist who split time between a university and a research facility — began their Prize-winning initiative 2.6 years before their peers who only worked in one spot.

“The study suggests that changing your environment might actually spark creativity, a takeaway that could be especially relevant for healthcare providers looking to stay sharp and innovative,” said Raj Dasgupta, MD, a clinical researcher, associate professor at USC, and the chief medical advisor for Sleepopolis.

Dasgupta pointed out that the latest research differs from other recent studies, including those published in 2022

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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
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and 2024, which credit a “spillover effect” — or putting high-achieving people together, such as in Silicon Valley or a major academic center — for curating creativity and growth. 

“This new study flips that a bit,” Dasgupta said. “It’s not just about where you are, but how often you move. Instead of relying on the environment to inspire you, it’s the act of moving between places that may shake up your thinking and help you see problems and solutions in new ways.”

Dasgupta suggested that health professionals who may especially benefit from moving or splitting time between locations include those in the fields of:

• Academic medicine, because new environments can refresh research and provide networking opportunities for funding/partnerships
• Global/public health, where exposure to different communities is vital to shaping effective interventions
• Travel nurses/locum physicians who need to adjust to new teams and patients quickly
• Health tech and digital innovators can benefit from seeing gaps and friction points that those who remain stagnant don’t notice 

Experts who spoke with Healthgrades noted that changing employers or working in multiple locations increases exposure to different practices, people, and ideas, boosting innovation and even fulfillment.

Here’s how each of these factors can improve success and make a healthcare career more sustainable for professionals:

Moving or working in multiple locations provides providers with firsthand experience in new environments and with different team members.  

“It enables clinicians to gain valuable experience to develop their own views on best practices,” said Sean Ebner, the president of physician services at VISTA Staffing and VitalSolution, Ingenovis Health companies. “By learning and applying the best practices of every environment they encounter, as well as avoiding the pitfalls of methods or approaches they see as inferior, are great ways they can contribute to improving healthcare.”

However, providers often learn not only by observing but also through hands-on experience, especially if they spend time in smaller facilities, such as those in rural healthcare deserts.

“Larger systems or groups often reserve the higher-skilled procedures for more tenured physicians and relegate newer physicians to diagnostic and administrative work versus procedures,” Ebner added. “This can serve to impede a physician’s ability to gain the experience necessary to receive the credentials they need to work in unsupervised environments.” 

Working in various settings requires healthcare professionals to adapt to diverse patient demographics and healthcare systems.

“Each new environment presents unique challenges that require creative solutions,” Ebner said.

For instance, Bhatt works in a community health center in an underserved community and does home visits. 

“[It] allows me to work in an environment that is much different than a hospital or nursing home,” Bhatt said. “In this environment, I must draw on our care team, care managers, care coordinators, and community-based organizations to creatively meet the needs of my patients and their families.”

Dasgupta said that working in multiple locations — either by splitting time or by changing jobs early in a career — naturally broadens a professional’s connections to specialists, researchers, and administrators.

“That makes it easier to team up on research, pilot a new care model, or bounce around fresh ideas,” Dasgupta said. “Think of a hospitalist who spends a year at a policy institute and ends up designing a discharge process that reduces readmissions.”

Bhatt said working in multiple locations gives him a sense of purpose and fulfillment, which he noted are critical to “joy in work” and health, and pointed to a 2019 study

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JAMA
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that suggested a link between a stronger sense of life purpose and lower mortality rates. 

“Furthermore, working in other countries can bring meaning and joy to clinicians,” Bhatt added, “Critical purpose, meaning, and joy in work are important to combating burnout.”