As usual, I’m a day late in my reflection. Case in point: IBCLC Day 2022. ;)
As I reflect on another Doctors’ Day, especially in the light of a pandemic 2 years in the running, it’s hard not to consider the mental health of our profession as a whole.
The pandemic has shone a light on the frailties and limitations of our healthcare system. How running a system with minimal redundancy in its workforce puts an immense strain on the people who try to provide the best care, while being overworked and undervalued.
Healthcare workers are burning out in droves, either desperately trying to pivot within the system, or leaving it completely. Not to mention the suicide rate among physicians, which was already above the general population before the pandemic. Anxiety and depression rates are likely skyrocketing as well, although most choose to suffer in silence, for fear of repercussion to their careers if they sought help.
I’m grateful to have had the privilege and opportunity to have pivoted within my career more than once, to have learned skills and received help to counter burnout. Furthermore, I have been fortunate to have the resources to start my own practice, which allows me full autonomy and flexibility to make decisions that support my mental, physical, and emotional health.
Burnout makes us forget why we went into medicine in the first place. We develop tunnel vision that is wholly focused on surviving, on getting through today and just making it to the next one.
Doctors’ Day reminds me to reflect on my “why”. The “why” that got me through the hurdles of medical school admissions, grueling classes and clinical rotations, sleepless nights on call, and harrowing life or death situations in residency.
People call medicine a “calling”. I think for most physicians, we could half-jokingly call it a “compulsion”. It’s the only way I can justify, in hindsight, pushing myself through all the physical and mental rigors that comprise medical training.
Even if I’ve lost sight of it at times, my “why” is probably still the same as when I wrote my personal statements for medical school and residency.
I want to use my knowledge and expertise in the service of helping others get a diagnosis, find the right treatment, and feel better.
Having been an attending for almost 10 years, I’ve honed and refined my “why” to include specific populations that I find absolute joy in helping, like postpartum families, teens with mental health struggles, moms with breastfeeding challenges, and tongue-tied newborns with their stressed-out parents.
My “why” is a constant reminder of my purpose within an often chaotic world out there. My “why” keeps me grounded and gives me clarity. My “why” keeps me going.
As the shadow of Doctors’ Day passes, please think of your doctors, who may be suffering or otherwise barely hanging on, and give them a nod of appreciation or a kindly word to let them know their work isn’t going unnoticed.
