How, when and if - to leave medicine

Should I change career?

Many years after I ceased clinical work I was still correctly informally diagnosing friends and family illnesses ( albeit advising them to see their GP as I was always very careful to say that I am not currently a practicing doctor).
I was in most cases correct
scabies
Churg Strauss 
Polymyalgia Rheumatica
Scleroderma
etc

The thing to realise is that once a doctor  always a doctor.
You can not stop thinking like one

But you can - if you are not enjoying your work choose to earn a living by doing something which is not your current role. Whether that requires a "leaving" or not depends
A) on how one looks at "leaving"
B) how carefully one has examined ones career to be sure that no stone has been left unturned before any radical or irreversible decisions are made

The reason most doctors studied medicine is - because they wanted to work as a clinician. It is an immensely rewarding privilege to work as one. However there are times when medics find the work is not fulfilling
overwork
lack of autonomy
lack of career progress for any reason
career plateau
career mismatch
job or job plan changes that you have not been a part of
etc

These are all good reasons to reevaluate where you are going , whether you are getting out of work what you need and why any state of discomfort exists. Merely exploring ones options does not have to mean taking them.

THe very act of career exploration can be hugely stressful for some people yet the processes one goes through to effect this can sometimes in themselves reveal issues that need to be addressed in the current career and at times no career change is needed ( although clearly some change WAS needed).

When one has spent many years achieving one career it can seem like a waste or heresy to question this but we find that career planning builds on all past experiences and that nothing one will have experienced in work is wasted. 

It is patently not heresy to question where one is going in life and in fact one is ill advised not to if one is not enjoying work or even worse - work is making you ill.

So the answer to "should I change career" is always no - there is NO "should" about it.
There is merely either a need to explore ones career position - or not.
The choice whether to act on that can only come once all options are revealed and clear and the various courses of action fully evaluated. Otherwise any career shift can be like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.