Physician Burnout Solution: 3 Good Things
Physicians are Struggling.
Whether they are in residency, fellowship, or an attending, physicians are struggling. Being a physician isn’t easy. You put in all this time and energy to get here, to put in more time and energy into your patients. This doesn’t even take into consideration the time energy that gets sucked out of you doing administrative tasks. There’s the endless documentation, dealing with insurance companies, returning patient phone calls, meetings and more meetings. Throw on top the fact we are still in a pandemic and here we are. On the struggle bus.
It’s not all Your Fault.
The entire system, including your supervisors and administration, co-workers, patients and the work itself, play a huge role in physician burnout. If you work in healthcare, you know the system is broken. The system needs to change, as well as, resources need to be provided to help those individuals struggling.
In terms of individual resources, I’m sure your organization has an online module. There is 30 minutes that you’ll never get back. Those online modules are helpful for some. Maybe it will tell you to go join a gym to workout daily, do yoga each morning as the sun rises, or go learn how to meditate. This isn’t helpful for many people because this takes initiation energy. Initiation energy is the initial energy that is needed to start something new, like going to the gym, or learning how to meditate. Many physicians don’t have the energy to start anything new. This is why those suggestions fall flat.
3 Good Things
I have a physician burnout solution tip that takes less than 5 minutes to complete. It’s called “3 good things” and is researched by Dr. J. Bryan Sexton, an associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University. While you are laying in bed, before you go to sleep, reflect on your day and come up with 3 good things that happened. Do this for 14 days straight to get maximum benefit. It’ll be hard at first to find 3 good things. The more you practice this, the easier it will be. Dr. Sexton’s research showed frontline healthcare workers who completed this intervention had a 20% decrease in burnout that was sustained a year later. Also, participants reported a 40% decrease in depression.
Get Online Therapy for Physician Burnout
When you want to work on your physician burnout, get online therapy. Reach out for a free 15-minute consultation. I’m Chris Rabanera. I provide online therapy in California, online therapy in Michigan, and online therapy in Las Vegas. I work with issues such as physician burnout, anxiety, depression, individuals dealing with relationships, and grief counseling.
