You maybe wondering about Physician’s Wellness…

You may be wondering about this topic and how we got to this place in the medical field in the first place! Well there is no denying A LOT has changed in the last 20 to 30 years!

So I’m breaking down the 4 phases of Burnout Recovery and Wellness over the past 20 to 30 years.

Phase 1, well there is nothing much to say here because it didn’t exist! Shocker right!

Of course, majority of us may already know this as we lived it or studied how the medical field has grown and changed throughout history! Phase 1 was during a time where it was taught and normalized to suck it up and carry on! So, we will call this the “bad old days” phase.

Phase 2, we can refer to this phase as the recognition phase which came around in the late 90’s early 2000(s). We realized burnout did exist and when we were experiencing it, we just needed to take a break aka a vacation or time off. Which is great for a quick fix, but nothing was truly getting solved or resolved in doing so.

Phase 3, which occurred in the 2010(s) and on, was a time where many important researchers and physicians such as Tait Shanafelt, MD, brought the studies and research to the table about how burnout was affecting physician’s and their health. This phase was a huge step in the right direction. Mindfulness was introduced into our world, we were taking deep breaths more, doing yoga and meditation along with resiliency training.

These were all great in certain aspects of burnout treatment but wasn’t necessarily treating the root cause(s) of it only the result of burnout.

So as much as 2020 was a year of hardship and challenge it brought the next phase,

Phase 4, Where we introduce Physician Wellness which is everything that we need and more moving forward.

For example, if you were talking about fatigue we can now directly address adequate sleep, OR if we were talking about inadequate nutrition we can now recommend necessary supplements.

We can now go straight to the source of our pain without beating around the bush!

Even when it comes to our work environment! If you are creating an ideal work environment for your employees (which you should be!) you have also created a highly desirable place to work! Giving you and your practice a serious competitive edge because we have learned how important it is to enjoy where we work.

How I see it, using the concept of Physician Wellness as a lens through which we see everything is so important. Our decision making becomes much easier because we can get straight to the source of the problem we need to solve. And back to work environment, as a physician owning a practice (whether you do or want to!) imagine how much better systems, people and your overall workspace will function when you prioritize wellness and burnout prevention….. I mean I would take a 50% pay cut to work at a practice that put our health and wellness first!!!

Wellness is and needs to be a priority because it is foundational to everyone success.

Watch this week’s Tip Tuesday to learn more!  

https://youtu.be/UXpaGWUQPLghttp://

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!