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  • Work Life Balance: The Art of Saying “No”.

    Work Life Balance: The Art of Saying “No”.

    I’m always have been a workaholic but I’ve never been more rushed in my life than lately. This year is about to end yet I feel I ought to spend more time with family and friends. Days are compressed with most nights I’m awake doing some work or school stuff. There seem to be an endless barraged of things to do and I’m sacrificing personal for my work time. Of course I did try “hacks” to regain some sense of work-life balance, but I need to try harder. One big contributor to work life imbalance is the difficulty of saying no, so I thought of discussing work life balance, vis a vis saying “no”, in this week in #HealthXPh chat.

    T1. Why do you think many medical professionals find it difficult to say “no” ?

    Medical education and training honed us to be super humans many of us grew accustomed to the culture of extending work time to service humanity. In a work environment where the culture are straight duties, overtimes , giving “extra mile” in the service of humanity, saying no is like saying no to our profession. It is pretty much embarrassing, to say no in the medical profession. Sacrificing personal life seem to be the de facto culture in healthcare.

    T2. What’s your funniest saying “no” experience?

    I digress a bit. Yes, saying no in healthcare is often embarrassing, sometimes outright humorous. How often do you find yourself yearning to say no to a request yet uttering the word “yes” instead? There are time that I said yes to a request or an additional work, yet I almost instantly wished I said “no” and hated myself for it. Sometimes, I say “yes” because a “no” in healthcare, is often interpreted as the work ethic of “scums” .

    T3. Can you give tips or advice on saying no to achieve work life balance?

    Lately I calendared a regular exercise schedule and declared it non negotiable. I did prioritize myself- health, and openly declared it to everyone- patients, friends, family and even my bosses. It was difficult at first but by calendaring it early on, it became a routine “excuse” to say no to every request foregoing that exercise routine.

    There! I hope to read your thoughts and advices on work life balance and the art of saying “no” at the #HealthXPh chat this Saturday, Sept 15, 2023 9PM Manila time.

    These are our guide questions:

    [su_box title=”Work Life Balance: The Art of Saying No.”][su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]

    • T1. Why do you think many medical professionals find it difficult to say “no”?
    • T2. What’s your funniest saying “no” experience?
    • T3. Can you give tips or advice on saying no to achieve work life balance? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      See you all at the #HealthXPh chat!

      ( Image by stockking on Freepik )

  • Post Pandemic Challenges Healthcare Professionals Face

    Even before the pandemic, healthcare professionals face numerous challenges trying to thrive in the industry . These challenges were made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent lifting of the global emergency response seemingly eased some of the challenges. Several colleagues though, hinted burgeoning new challenges of the post pandemic healthcare. Burnout and mental health problems among many healthcare professionals is at its all time high.

    As a practicing physician, healthcare administrator and educator, I felt we emerged in a post pandemic world far from what exists before. It’s even more difficult to survive (let alone thrive) now in healthcare than before! I wanted to know what my colleagues have to say about these challenges and how they are coping to such challenges. This is the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday, August 12, 2023 9PM Manila time.

    Here’s our guide questions:

    [su_box title=”Challenges healthcare professionals face in a post pandemic healthcare industry”][su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]

    • T1. What challenges does a healthcare professional face in a post pandemic healthcare industry?
    • T2. What practical habits should a healthcare professional develop to thrive in a post pandemic healthcare industry?
    • T3. What advice would you give to fellow healthcare professionals who’s having difficulties thriving in a post pandemic healthcare industry? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      I’d be delighted to hear your responses to these guide questions. These will mean a lot to many colleagues who are still struggling to thrive in this post pandemic world.

      Simply log in to your twitter accounts, follow the hashtag #HealthxPh, reply to guide questions then add “#HealthXPh” to your tweets. See you all there!

      Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

  • Gratitude: The Art of Savoring.

    I was stressed this past past few weeks I finally figured in a sports injury which was supposed to be a way to de-stress my body. The many roles I acquired during the pandemic finally took its toll after almost all required physical presence and face to face activities.

    Face to face tasks demand full attention and physical presence. You cannot attend two conferences at the same time anymore or listen to two lectures on two different gadgets. It seems that, the technology enabled “always present, always available” does not hold true anymore post pandemic. It came to a frustrating point that I decided to give up one of the “roles” I took on during the pandemic. The reason? I couldn’t handle that many roles anymore, not in this post pandemic, physical presence demanding work environment. I just want to go back see and treat patients, nothing else.

    One mentor I consulted said “instead of lingering on the many difficulties this pandemic brought us, try savoring on the ones you survived- the small wins. You may have downplayed many of these wins because of the negative experience we had in this pandemic!” “You journal right? I’m sure there is a lot you can write on the gratitude corner”. He was absolutely right!

    Gratitude! I can certainly count many but why is it easier to linger on a negative experience? Medical professionals are often taught to spot uncomfortable experiences like pain, decrease range of motion or difficulty breathing. When was the last time you asked a patient “Did you have a good night sleep?” Somehow we relegated that gratitude to that small corner of our planner. We lost that art of savoring the small wins.

    “Savoring” said Daniela Ramirez Duran, is “intentionally placing our attention on positive events and prolonging the positive feelings that arise”. Duran further enumerated the many benefits of increasing savoring ability. I first encountered the word “savoring” in Christopher Peterson’s Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology. Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience by Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff dug deeper into this “art” and gave practical tips applying it on our daily life. Dr. Hayley Lewis enumerated some of these tips in a sketch note below.

    I’m asking my fellow healthcare providers about the art of savoring in their daily life and how they practice gratitude in spite of the challenging grinds of the medical life. This will be the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday July 1, 2023 9PM Manila time. Here are the guide questions:

    [su_box title=”Art of Savoring among Healthcare Professionals”]
    [su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]

    • T1. What are the benefits of savoring/ gratitude?
    • T2. How do you practice savoring/ gratitude?
    • T3. Do you recommend/ prescribe gratitude exercise? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      See you all this Saturday 9PM for the #HealthXPh Tweetchat!

      Image by partystock on Freepik

  • Leading Change When “Change” Isn’t the Norm

    Leading Change When “Change” Isn’t the Norm

    “If there is one thing that will definitely change about our complex healthcare system, practices and behaviors aren’t one of these”

    One comment I get whenever I talk about “learning organization” as a way for healthcare institutions to adapt to the new normal is this- “I really like the change concepts your saying, but what else can I do if many in my organization doesn’t embrace that change philosophy?”

    Rina is a new resident physician assisting more senior residents attending and treating fractures at one healthcare institution. Yet to learn the finer details of cast application and monitoring, her team leader instructed her to apply cast on a young patient who had recently incurred a forearm fracture after a fall from a height. The senior resident added that she “read about techniques of applying and monitoring cast” from the recommended textbook. When an emergent call from ER summoned her senior to attend to another patient, Rina eagerly went on applying the cast to the patient’s forearm alone and unsupervised, with only her recently “acquired” cast application techniques, and a single experience of seeing one senior resident applying a cast in their last team duty. She sent home the patient after advising the parent about cast monitoring she learned from the book she read.

    Less than two hours after, the patient was brought back to the ER in pain and crying. “My arm hurts! like it is being squeezed and twisted! ” complained the patient. Suspecting that the cast its too tight, Rina instinctively cut the cast in half (bivalved) using a cast cutter. Patient immediately reported relief, but Rina was shaken by the experience. She felt she did what is the right for the patient and still ended up with a potential complication.

    Rina brought her experience in one group mentoring discussion with an attending consultant. “Is there a certain level of competency which a resident possess to be able to apply cast and prevent this complication from happening?” she asked. “If you are referring to how many times did the resident applied cast to the same extremity in a number of patients in the past, there’s no ballpark figure” said the consultant. “The incidence of that complication is less than a percent. What we know is that you have to have some high index of suspicion to catch the prelude to a complication” the consultant added.

    Rina then talked to several ward nurses and patient companions about their knowledge of cast monitoring and what they actually do in the wards and at home. “We write on the monitoring sheet what our clinical inspection would tell us, but I’m not quite sure about what’s the exact results do we refer to the residents on duty” said one nurse. One parent told her that although pain and tightness in the casted extremity is a danger sign, “we’re leaving”we live far away from the hospital it is usually too late when we arrive back in the hospital.

    Rina is currently doing a research on a better protocol for cast monitoring and preventing such devastating complication before it happens. Since the incidence of such devastating complication is low (as we all believe it to be based on foreign literature) and local literature about this complication is scarce, she lamented that her experience and research will just be buried in anecdotes again. I smiled. “Just keep on doing what you are doing” I said to Rina . “Maybe your research results will change behaviors, practices. Maybe it won’t, but at least you will have made things better for you, your patients, and then some”.

    “Do what Rina did” is my reply to the comment -“I really like the change concepts your saying, but what else can I do if many in my organization doesn’t embrace that change philosophy?” Start small, talk to like minded people, research, recommend a change policy, do it, even if others won’t. Maybe your new policy will change behaviors, practices. Maybe it won’t, but at least you will have made things better for you, your patients, and then some”.

    So what would a healthcare professional do when you want to change behaviors and practices in your organization yet many doesn’t espouse the change philosophy? This will be the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday May 27, 2023 9PM Manila time. Here are some guide questions:

    [su_box title=”change behaviors and practices in healthcare industry”]
    [su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]

    • T1. Do you have any experience in the past urging you to change practices and behaviors in your healthcare organization?
    • T2. What healthcare change initiative did you do and what were the results?
    • T3. What advice would you give a colleague or health advocate when it comes to changing behaviors and practices in healthcare? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      Please join #HealthXPh chat Saturday May 27, 2023 9-10 PM manila time. Reply to the guide question above via twitter and append #HealthXPh to all your tweets! See you there!

      (Image by wavebreakmedia_micro on Freepik)

  • Addressing the Healthcare Learning Transfer Gap Post Pandemic

    Addressing the Healthcare Learning Transfer Gap Post Pandemic

    It’s not uncommon to hear healthcare professionals complain about work performance of new graduates who were recently integrated into the clinics, hospitals and the healthcare system. We heard reports of medical errors and patient safety concerns because allegedly, the newly integrated grads still lacked skills and competencies but were “hurriedly” hired to work in a severely undermanned healthcare system. The three years of pandemic was blamed for the learning disruption. Learning transfer though isn’t only affected by the healthcare providers competency but also by the workplace environment.

    While these allegations needs to be properly validated and documented, it is important that we bring this “elephant in the room” up front and find solutions, as patient safety is a top priority for healthcare providers. The healthcare academe and our healthcare system seem to have forgotten this learning “gap” in the midst of addressing other post pandemic healthcare system problems. This will be the topic of the #HealthXPh chat this Saturday April 15, 2023 9PM Manila time. Here are the chat guide questions:

    T1. Have you encountered patient safety issues lately that might be attributable to the lack of healthcare professional competency or an unsafe workplace environment?

    T2. As a healthcare professional/ student, how did you react to such patient safety issue?

    T3. What recommendations can you give to our healthcare educational system and our work environment to address this patient safety issue?

    To join the #HealthXPh chat, just append your answers to the three guide questions above between 9-10PM Manila time this Saturday April 15, 2023. See you there!

    Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik