I might be a bit exaggerating, but the never ending debate about healthcare workers workload and burnout comes to mind whenever I’m negotiating, find appropriate or schedule “working hours” for my practice. Ever since starting medical practice, my priority in choosing when, where and how I deliver care to patients, is the quality (not just quantity) of time I spent with patients. This may seem impossible in healthcare, in trauma orthopedics for example, where patient load demands are 24/7, 365 days a year. But I say, after 20+ years in practice, healthcare workers do have the power or influence over what work time fits their individual context.
This might not be true for every healthcare professionals out there, since personal considerations and working environments is probably different than what I have. Or that there are other unique factors affecting their decisions in choosing appropriate working time. Morever, factors also differ how healthworkers evaluate or assess if their schedules indeed work for or is slowly killing. This is the topic of the #HealthXPh chat this Saturday Nov 23, 2024 9PM Manila time. Guide questions for this chat are as follows:
T1. What are your personal considerations when choosing appropriate work schedules?
T2. What are your work environment considerations when choosing appropriate work schedules?
T3. In your year of practice as health worker, which among these considerations heavily influenced your work schedule?
Please append #Healthxph to all your replies/chat to this copnversation. See you all!
[su_dropcap]A[/su_dropcap]s healthcare professionals, we dedicate our lives to the health and well-being of others. Yet, amidst demanding schedules, long hours at work, and constant emotional and physical toll, we still think our body will handle itself, without us “helping” or investing time and effort on our overall well being.
[su_box title=”Stories from the Clinics”] A patient sought consult for a low back pain and tingling sensation down his legs. He is overweight and his random blood sugar was elevated on testing. Both his parents were diabetic. I asked if he consulted an internist or endocrinologist. “Not yet, but I will” he said. After doing a physical examination, additional diagnostics, preliminary diagnosis and strategy for managing his concerns, he asked me this question “what is your physical activity and how do you avoid obesity? This patient obviously noticed my “not so healthy physique” but courteously waited for my advice. So as an orthopedic surgeon, I advised him what I know about the (theoretical) benefits of physical activity and proper nutrition to his overall well being. Then he followed up with – “How”? I paused for a moment and replied, ” I try fitting all that into my busy schedule. My answer confused him even more. I doubt he’d follow my concoction of advice, seeing that I, a physician, was obviously out of shape. [/su_box]
This clinical encounter flashed backed months ago, when I saw my physique on a mirror. I am out of shape! Last year alone, I saw two colleagues my age succumbed to lifestyle disease-related complications. Another one took his own life. I got so scared I started researching physical and nutritional health, again. I did the same research, activity and dieting, several times in the past. I even went on organic farming to support these effort but well, failed. So not this time I promised. I also delve into specifics of incorporating such healthy physical and nutritional lifestyle into a busy physician life. Is it even possible?
Share Your Insights
For this conversation, I wanted to learn how healthcare professionals maintain well-being while delivering the best care possible. I want to reach out and gain insights from colleagues’ experiences. Your experiences and strategies can provide invaluable guidance and support to fellow physicians navigating similar challenges. Here are three main questions I’d love for you to answer:
T1. How Do You Manage Stress and Prevent Burnout?
Burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, is a prevalent issue among physicians. There’s no published local data yet, but according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), more than half of U.S. physicians experience substantial symptoms of burnout (Shanafelt et al., 2015). How do you manage stress and prevent burnout in such a high-pressure environment? Are there specific strategies, routines, or practices you follow?
T2. How Do You Prioritize Your Physical Health?
Given the irregular hours and intense workload, maintaining physical health can be challenging for healthcare professionals. Regular exercise, a balanced diet, and sufficient sleep are fundamental to overall well-being but are often compromised. An 2018 FNRI study showed 37.2 % of Filipinos adults are obese. Since 1993 to 2018, fasting blood glucose is increasingly elevated in adults. Approximately 40% of Filipino adults are also physically inactive. While these figures do not single out healthcare professionals, it doesn’t exempt us either. According to the American Medical Association, a significant number of physicians report insufficient sleep, which can impair cognitive function and overall health (American Medical Association, 2017). How do you ensure you get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and maintain a healthy diet? What tips and tricks do you have for balancing these aspects amidst your busy schedule?
T3. How Do You Sustain Mental and Emotional Well-being?
The emotional demands of being a physician are immense. I witness doctors quit training because “they couldn’t handle the pressure”. I talked to a colleague shifting into an outpatient only practice because in patients took much of his night time sleeps. Dealing with patients’ suffering, making critical decisions, and managing complex relationships can take a toll on your mental health. The National Academy of Medicine highlights that mental health issues among physicians are often underreported and undertreated (National Academy of Medicine, 2019). How do you take care of your mental and emotional well-being? Are there support systems, hobbies, or mindfulness practices that you find particularly helpful?
[su_box title=”Key Takeaways”]Healthcare professionals should balance their physical and mental well being while taking care of their patients and their families. The best way to do this is to invest time and effort on physical and mental activities, incorporating these into our daily life/work routines.[/su_box]
“If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.”
Will that patient follow my advice when he sees my physique now? Will my improve physical and mental well being impact my work as a physician? Please share your insights in the chat with the guide questions above . Kindly append your answers with #healthxph hashtag. Your insights should help foster a community of well-being and resilience among colleagues.
Shanafelt, T. D., Hasan, O., Dyrbye, L. N., et al. (2015). Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians and the general US working population between 2011 and 2014. JAMA, 314(22), 2334-2343. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.13971
American Medical Association. (2017). Addressing physician burnout: The way forward. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org
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]
As in any profession, there are perceived advantages and disadvantages of going into an intimate relationship with a health professional. In the medical profession, what constitute a life enhancing, long lasting or nurturing intimate personal relationship at least controversial. Even health professionals don’t agree on what constitute a successful, life enhancing or nurturing relationship!
T1. As a health professional, what defines a life enhancing, intimate relationship for you?
Our society often demand almost superhuman performance on health professionals, that sometimes intimate relationships suffers. The extended work hours for example, often eats up on time intended for our personal relationships. The objective, emphatic but emotionally protective way of communicating by healthcare professionals at work often backfires when applied to interpersonal, intimate relationships.
T2. What work related factors affect the intimate, personal relationships of medical professionals?
How health professionals balance their personal and professional life is an art itself. More so with intimate relationships. By experience, it has never been easy. Tipping the balance either way may wreak havoc on the other or worse, destroy both. There are numerous, often funny and sometimes scary anecdotes of health professional’s “love life” gone awry. The demands of healthcare profession is often blamed, although early stage recognition of attributing factors is never even considered. As in work, early diagnosis and “treatment” could have save a potential life enhancing intimate relationship. What constitute “treatment” for a failing health professionals intimate personal relationship is another practice guidelines we have yet to develop.
T3. As a health professional, what coping mechanism have you employed to nurture a life enhancing, intimate relationship?
How health professionals cope with the demands of work and sustain a life enhancing intimate personal relationship is the topic of our chat this Saturday, February 15, 9 PM Manila time. Join us in our #healthXPh tweet chat!
