I’m having a conversation with a colleague when our talk drifted to how are we managing our lives. “How are you managing your physician life?” I asked. I am in the middle of pivoting professional directions, easing out on one an aspect of my physician life. So, maybe I could get an insight into how they balance all these amidst their very busy practice and learn something I could apply in my own life context.
“You mean our academic, clinical and administrative life as a doctor? or all of that plus our family??!” She jokingly scoffed. The couple are surgeons, both taking masters degree, both professors at a school of medicine, have very vibrant surgical practice spanning several hospitals in the locality. “Plus,” she added, ” we have two adolescents who often ask about their whereabouts but eventually understood their professional and family “routines”. “We’re juggling, surviving and giving up something for another thing ! ” she continued. “How?”, I asked. While we were engaging in a lively discussion about how we manage our physician lives, it hit me. “Did they teach us managing ourselves in med school or training??” “No” was the unanimous answer. It was all a trial and error sort of learning. Imagine a physician, a noble profession, trained to treat, lead and managed people wasn’t trained to manage themselves.
T1. Should physicians be “taught” how to manage themselves?
The five star physician goal of WHO for any medical curriculum comes to mind. But nowhere you can find “manage self”. I mean sure, we’re clinical expert when managing our patients. Ironically, we were taught not to manage our own afflictions for fear of bias! Academic? thru some self directed learning maybe. How about administrative? like leaders or managers? Partly yes, but this is more on managing our patients or the community. What about formally managing our doctor self? Nada. Nitz. I went though my formal arts, humanities and social science courses in pre and med proper and that was the closes thing I could imagine to “managing oneself” I could remember. Art appreciation, really? a long shot yes.
T2. Is there a negative impact to doctors who couldn’t manage themselves?
Times have changed. The suicide rates for physicians is one of the highest among all professions. Apart from that, the mental health concerns among healthcare professionals are also, at all time high. Career shifts which was often unheard of in the profession, is becoming a commonality. Training institutions begrudgingly complain of resident burn out and low retention rate. This impact physician and patient relations as well as their communities of practice or training institutions. While it is rare that these would bring down the whole healthcare industry, it is disconcerting why such noble profession trained at managing others, wasn’t trained at managing their own, self. Not one physician ever thought of shifting, quitting or worst, committing suicide after med school, just because they weren’t able to “manage themselves” as doctors, academics and leaders and a family person.
T3. What advice can you give a colleagues about managing our doctor self?
Teach yourself how to manage your doctor self now! Learn from colleagues and mentors who went through the tough times. Take a coach, a mentor, a formal course if there are. Read a book about managing yourself even if that book is non medically related book. There’s parallelism and nuggets you can take from any other profession. If you can afford, get an assistant to manage some facets of your physicians life.
Peter Drucker and Clayton Christensen mentioned one key ingredient of a successful professional career is that persons ability to manage oneself. I think that applies to physicians too. No amount of “field expertise” could cover up for someone’s ability to manage all facets of his or her professional and personal life.
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