Cast & Curious

Category: Self – Management

  • Managing Stress, Building Resilience and Finding Meaning at Work

    Summary: This pandemic brought stress and the needed resilience to an all time high. Experts recommend finding new meaning at work to combat disillusionment. Join our #HealthXPh chat this Sat 9PM MLA Jan 29, 2022, share your experience and results!

    “I quit!!This is hardly the work I imagined when I entered med school! You risk your life and the safety of your family, for what? Getting rebuked for not extending an already extended duty??! What the f-!”

    MD

    I’ve seen more colleagues leaving this past 2 years than in 10 years I’ve been in practice. Many left because of the untenable healthcare system. Most, simply got burned out by this pandemic. Gone were the accolades and praises for health workers leading the fight against COVID-19. Instead, healthcare workers get ridiculed, criticised and accused of profiteering. People would rather believe popular but misguided personalities who propagate misinformation. Thus, vaccine hesitancy is at its highest.No wonder a lot of healthcare workers wonder- “are we still in the vocation that we all so loved before”?

    This pandemic “broke” many records in healthcare. Given the enormous level of burnout and stress healthcare providers receive at work, mental health issues is at its highest. The number of healthcare workers leaving the local health industry is also staggering, probably the highest in recent memory. Exit interviews among healthcare providers reveal predictable answers- seek greener pastures elsewhere or leave medicine until our healthcare system “figure out” this pandemic. If this diaspora continues, our healthcare system will probably collapse.

    What seem pretty obvious though is that in our healthcare system, care for healthcare providers is not a topmost priority. This is a difficult reality to swallow. Notwithstanding, healthcare providers should prioritize self care or we cannot sustain taking care of others. I am very interested in the thoughts and experiences of healthcare providers who continued doing their “calling”.

    “Why are you not leaving medicine? Have you found ways to manage stress at work? How did you sustain and build resilience? Did you find meaning in this thankless job? Or, are you are you simply zombie- riding the tides of this pandemic??” This will be the topic of our #HealthXPh chat. To guide our discussion, here are the topic questions.

    T1. How do you manage stress at work?

    T2. How do you build resilience at work?

    T3. How do you find meaning at work?

    All these questions obviously mattered even before. This pandemic however brought the level of stress and the needed resilience to an all time high. Many psychologist and mental health experts recommended finding new meaning at work as a way to combat disillusionment with the current healthcare work environment. Most of us agree on these recommendations, but “devil is in the detail”. Note my emphasis on the “how to” so many healthcare provider joining this chatr can try some out of what works for you. So come and join our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday 9PM Manila time Jan 29, 2022, share your experience and results!

    Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay

  • The Art of Restart: How to recover from a devastating loss this pandemic

    This COVID-19 pandemic brought misery, loss to many. Some lost work, their source of income while others lost a loved one. Both are devastating and causes grief. While grief is a normal response to a lost, grieving is specially difficult this pandemic. When a love one dies for example, the isolation and social distancing prevents us from mourning with others. Mourning with others facilitates the process of grieving. Going through the usual routine process of grieving is difficult or disrupted and recovery from grief is made even more difficult and or prolonged.

    My grief stealthily started as a mountain of unfinished work and bad decisions. The constant fear of contracting COVID hovers as we battle on the frontlines. Stress and burnout mounted, albeit I was pretty sure I still can thrive. Then someone left and my mom died after a prolonged battle with diabetes. Grief slip into depression. I didn’t have any idea how I to unstuck myself from prolonged grief. Luckily, some people reached out and I am so grateful I survived and is now healing. Or at least I think I am.

    This is the topic of our #HealthXPh tweet chat this Saturday December 11, 2021 9PM Manila time.

    T1. What are the telltale signs of grief, burnout or depression during COVID-19 pandemic?

    On hindsight, the first step to recovery from grief and later, depression, is accepting the fact that you are grieving. I have several grieving episodes in my life before, but grief during pandemics was especially difficult. The presentation was different and was even “facilitated” by isolation and social distancing. Social communication of grief is also quite awkward and is more difficult than face to face communication. This I observed in not a few close friends colleagues who are grieving too. Thus being “aware” that you are grieving this pandemic is a bit difficult or different.

    T2. How would you navigate grief during this pandemic?

    After accepting I was grieving, I started to reach out for help. I talked to friends, mentors, family and people that I trust and care for. Social media communication was very helpful. An escape from a toxic environment also helped me clear out confusion.

    T3. What recovery tips can you offer to grieving persons?

    Accept it and ask for help. A differing, positive perspective or revelations really helped a lot for me. Self love is ok, but giving care is even more healing. It also helps to express grief to others who are undergoing through the same process of healing. I also started to go back to activities I loved and enjoyed before.

    After going through the process of grieving and healing, I realized grieving in this pandemic is almost always a constant. What makes it bearable is that it probably is be a a new normal grieving process for a longer time than expected. Then accepting it as it happens and how we cope with it might be really different from what we knew before.

    Image by Freepik

  • Digital Online Language: Effectively conveying what we feel, online.

    This pandemic changed the way human beings communicate or engage. Rules for communication changed almost overnight for most of us, some negatively. Others took it upon themselves to learn new ways of communicating online just so we continue building emotional trust while surviving this pandemic.

    Social distancing reduced face to face communication to minimum, it reminded me of the caveman’s grunts and yells in the prehistoric times. Worst, “body language” to augment social communication we learned over time, is now very difficult to employ. You cannot simply hug a grieving person, or pat a colleague for a job well done. The water cooler or coffee break conversations are gone. So is the locker room tete a tete . This created a communication vacuum which fueled the sudden rise of digital communications recently.

    True, digital communication somewhat reduced the void for human to human interactions. Connecting to people we love for example, is easier nowadays. But at the height of an emotional conversation, it is still very difficult to hug a video camera. Facial expressions and body language conveying emotional trust are less noticeable during digital communication. Yes there are emojis but using the right emojis is a challenge for most of us.

    There are also that confusing human responses in digital space that cannot be easily corrected or undone compared to say, a face to face conversation. Regrettable tweets or status updates for example will stay in the internet forever no matter how often you offer apologies to the bereaved individuals.

    Digital communication is even more important than ever with this pandemic. Effectively conveying what we feel online is even more important now that many of us are burnt by the prolonged physical distancing. This is the topic of our tweetchat:

    • T1. How is the pandemic affecting your ability to convey messages across a physical or digital space?
    • T2. Did you seek help on effective communication across digital space?
    • T3. What specific recommendations can you give on effective communication across digital space?

    Join us at 9PM Manila time on twitter at #HealthXPh and #HealthXspaces for our twitter spaces live discussion.

    ( Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay )

  • Coping with Pandemic Induced Stress

    In early 2019, I was assigned several innovative projects because of technical, educational and administrative “troubleshooting” abilities. I was happy with what I considered as a promotion, embracing additional responsibilities to a mildly busy orthopedic practice and academic duties. The projects entailed mostly online work, with few face to face meetings as needed.

    Inspite of my supposedly “stress-proof” lifestyle, stress began creeping in early January of 2020. I was trying out some “stress mitigation tactics” when this pandemic happened.

    Stress, is at a unprecedented level.

    My adult life was about balancing the pursuit of dreams, self care and positive contributions to society. Many medical professionals eat stress for breakfast and most survive, unscathed. We’re “stress-proof” so to speak. We’re confidently resilient, agile and unbending to “pressures” . When COVID-19 pandemic came, I’m confident about surviving stress. One year after and though I’m alive and coping, I’m still trying out new things to stress proof my life inside a bubble.

    I’m having a hard time “managing” this unprecedented level of stress.

    Here’s the deal. I am very much interested in how you, a medical professional, is coping with this pandemic induced stress. I’m an action guy and I like knowing details or specifics of your coping mechanisms. Verb, I repeat specifics and the context of its application. Yes, you may include all those memes, tiktoks, food galore, plants and what nots. Just have the “decency” to spell out if and when these whatever, helped you cope with stress. What metrics did you use. Yes, let’s be scientific- evidenced based coping mechanisms measured by. This will be our tweet chat topic later 9PM manila time. Game?

    T1. How did pandemic-induced stress got you?

    The first step in coping with stress is knowing or accepting you are stressed. I has had sleepless, anxious nights thinking I got COVID after inadvertently bumping one sneezing person. There were times I had to wake up, read online messages for fear of missing out some important news. I easily flare up when people disregard health protocols. I had eating binges and didn’t exercise. I get angry when people don’t follow procedures or are offering excuses . I lost that “what-if-you’re-in-this person-shoes” empathic mind battle completely. I am on a self preserving mode. When I argued with a family member over some trivial stuff, I called up a friend for help. I was breathing stress and I needed help.

    T2. How did you cope with pandemic induced stress?

    Accepting everyone’s in the same stress boat as I am, I started looking for “positives”, a way out, an opportunity to act rather than blame. I was letting go of things or actions that is beyond my influence. Watched less TV, social media fasted and tried a phone-less existence as often as I could. I focused on plants, food then some healthy routines. Pre COVID I had this weekly, daily routine of exercise, creative and challenging pursuits, journalling. When COVID came, all that is left is journalling thoughts, because all the actions were severely limited. I struggled much adapting my exercise, exploring and discovering routines. Am still am. Refocusing is hardest, particularly with greying of the work and personal time with a work from home arrangement. Rereading stoic literature was helpful in this. Then there is this social media hiatus. I often turn off my phone, lock it inside drawer so people could not call me at night. One of I think the best coping I learned this pandemic is being grateful. Even with the smallest of things or failures that made me a better person.

    T3. How did you know your coping mechanism is effective?

    First, I slowly regained some restful sleep at night then wake up early in the morning to exercise. I’ve learned to reply to essential messages at day time. There’s this seemingly relaxed and unperturbed attitude at the breakfast table or a leisurely coffee while trimming plants. I could also now walk away from whatever I work from without guilt, accepting everyone’s is entitled to some reprieved in this pandemic. I’m still working on my stingy often cold, stoic demeanour about so many things. I’m still whinny as hell, but I laugh, or give self demeaning jokes about more often. I’m still a work in progress and hopefully, this tweet chat will give me ideas on how to have breakfast with sarscovid.

    Image by KamranAydinov on Freepik

  • “Socializing” in the “New Normal”

    Many people wished they could just stay home to avoid getting COVID 19. Even the variable successes of the community quarantine convinced us of the benefits of personal hygiene, social distancing and staying at home. Prolonged social distancing however is increasingly difficult, given that many essential human actions required “physical” socializing. The benefits of socializing has been recognized in literature, be it in health, or the survival and propagation of the human specie in general.

    T1. Do you agree with easing out the community quarantine in your respective geographic locations? Explain.

    Loud protestations from the medical community did not stop the government from easing out community quarantine, even if we had a vague idea of what the “new normal” is. The “new normal” has been the subject of many discussions, including previous COVID #HealthXPh chats. None of these “new normal” descriptions were definitive and will evolve.

    T2. Is there a benefit to “socializing” in the new normal? Please explain.

    An interesting observation about the new normal is the acceptance of the different degrees of socializing. Socializing was never a binary choice for many of us to begin with. It wasn’t a “I socialize or I don’t” choice. We all socialize in different degrees.

    Our path to accepting this begun with another less striking, but equally important adaptation- the human specie has this propensity for “risk assessment and harm reduction”. This pandemic highlighted these both and will probably be an integral part of socializing in the new normal.

    T3. Give a specific personal example of “risk assessment strategy” you employ before socializing in this new normal.

    T4. Give a specific example of socializing – personal or work related in the new normal.

    Our emergence and socializing into the new normal will be partly governed by two things- our ability to assess risk and reduce our chances of getting COVID. This will be the topic of June 6, 2020 #HealthXPh twitter chat. Join us at 9PM Manila time with this guide questions:

    • T1. Do you agree with easing out the community quarantine in your respective geographic locations? Explain.
    • T2. Is there a benefit to “socializing” in the new normal? Please explain.
    • T3. Give a specific personal example of “risk assessment strategy” you employ before socializing in this new normal.
    • T4. Give a specific example of socializing – personal or work related, you employ in the new normal.

    Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik