Greater focus on self-care can reduce burnout, improve work-life balance for providers
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SAN DIEGO — Medical providers can reduce work-related burnout by focusing more on self-care and work-life balance, according to a speaker at the AACE Annual Scientific and Clinical Conference.
According to survey findings of more than 20,000 U.S. physicians published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in December 2021, one in five doctors plans to leave medicine within 2 years due to COVID-19-related work burnout, including stress, grief, getting sick, feeling undervalued or underpaid, receiving less support or feeling overworked. C. Nicole Swiner, MD, chief executive officer of Serenity Hydration & Wellness in Durham, North Carolina, and formerly a founding partner and family physician at Durham Family Medicine, said there could be a lack of health care professionals available to care for patients if too many providers decide to resign in the coming years.
“We’re all dealing with stress, but we don’t have the same amount of tools to deal with it for different reasons,” Swiner said during the presentation. “We need to even out the playing field so all of us have access to things that make us feel better.”
Overcoming mental obstacles
Swiner said providers can face several mental hurdles that may lead to stress and burnout. One is the superwoman or superman complex, is when a person tries to do too much with between work, family and extracurricular activities while ignoring their own self-care needs. Another is imposter syndrome, where a person internally believes they are not as bright or successful as people believe they are, despite having academic and professional achievements.
“These thoughts are going on inside of our heads, which prevents us from asking what we really need,” Swiner said.
Swiner listed several simple steps providers can take to overcome these obstacles. These include engaging in positive self-talk, learning how to accept and believe compliments, making a list of strengths, reminding oneself how great they are, realizing perfection is not realistic and asking for help if needed.
Another important strategy is saying no, something Swiner said is key to self-preservation and setting boundaries.
“Saying no is a practice of advocating for yourself,” Swiner said. “It will help you feel liberated. ‘Say no,’ more.”
To promote self-care, providers should create a list of activities to reduce stress, such as therapy, meditation, music, nature and more. Swiner encouraged making time for these activities and revisiting the list when life becomes overwhelming.
Reducing stress in the workplace
In the workplace, there are several steps employers can take to help out medical professionals during the pandemic, including engaging in more transparent communication, providing more support for childcare, creating more rapid training for deployment to unfamiliar units, providing enough adequate personal protective equipment, creating supportive environments, ensuring access to confidential services for mental health and reducing work overload through better teamwork.
Individually, providers can reduce their level of stress by understanding the roles of their support staff, hiring more support, calling patients only when necessary, not letting others take advantage of them and requesting compensation for services, having a method to keep up with results, being an effective communicator, taking vacation and mental health days, firing troublesome patients, having allies and mentors, having a fun bag ready to engage in enjoyable activities spontaneously and starting a side job to better engage in their own passion.
Finally, Swiner said, everyone should visit regularly with a mental health professional to help guide them through hurdles in life.
“We all need a therapist,” Swiner said. “That literally helped me with the stresses of life in general. While we’re practicing medicine, life is still happening, our parents are aging, our kids are going through struggles and we’re trying to keep things happening at home. We need unbiased people to talk to."
Reference:
- Sinsky CA, et al. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2021;doi:10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.08.007.
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Swiner CN, et al. Physicians & Self-Care: Does Balance Truly Exist During a Global Pandemic? Presented at: American Association of Clinical Endocrinology Annual Scientific and Clinical Conference; May 12-14, 2022; San Diego.
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