balance Archives

Even the best of us suffer from burnout from time to time. It is utterly human as training in medicine is very demanding itself and combined with the life issues it can be weary. Well, we can control the chaos. Here are five tips for creating a system to support long term-term success and a happy life.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle and be persistent: Back to basics: Embrace a sustainable, healthy diet; drink approximately eight glass of water; sleep at least eight hours a day and exercise regularly. You need to take care of your body: A healthy diet and adequate water enhance stamina; regular and enough sleep promotes learning, memory, stress relief and performance; exercising helps you to relieve stress and increases endurance. Sacrificing any of these for studying more does not miraculously help you reach success. Building a career is a long path: You have to stay strong.

For more on this topic: National Health Service, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Regulate your time wisely: Have you ever met an astonishingly successful professional who seems to be participating in every social activity? Do not fret! Learning how to manage your time will get you there. Let me share a few tricks with you: Decide your priorities and learn to say “no” to the rest. Spending ten minutes to planning your day will sometimes save you a few hours – hours that you may spend on your hobbies or with your family or friends. Conquer procrastination and do it now! Create a study area and be minimalist about it. Get rid of your phone (and your social media accounts!) while studying. If you feel you lose your focus, it is probably time for a break. A bullet journal is an excellent way to plan your day, month and future.

For more on this topic: Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy, Bullet Journal, Work Life Balance

Regulate your Energy Wisely: Managing your time is essential but not enough. If you have ever struggled not to sleep in the second half of a 2-hour lecture, then you are not alone. Energy management, a newer concept than time management, is about to change our beliefs related to performance and happiness. Here are a few basics: According to Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, you must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned for long-term performance, health and happiness. Overuse and underuse will hinder your energy, you need to balance your energy expenditure by intentional challenges and resting in between. Studying continuously will damage your performance in the long term.

For more on this topic: The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz

Recognize and change your values: Identify your priorities. If you are prioritizing medicine over your health and happiness, you are in the wrong. You and your well-being are your top priorities. Your job or your academic performance does not define you, you are more than that. Determine your personal and professional long-term goals, then create a road map. Check and update your goals regularly. Do not let the first bump on the road demotivate you; if you stay persistent, you will reach your goals sooner or later.

For more on this topic: How To Make Work-Life Balance Work by Nigel Marsh

Spend quality time with your family and friends: If you think that you can accomplish all by yourself, think again. Spending quality time with your friend and family has numerous personal and professional benefits: It helps you to relieve stress, create an early network and a supportive net, diversify your area of interests, rest your mind by distracting it away from medicine. Always remember: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

For more on this topic: Why It’s Important to Spend More Time with Friends and Family, 4 Reasons Friends And Family Are Good For Your Health

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Turkey

Watching the famous TV series “ER” in my 3rd year of medical school I decided to be an “ER doctor.” I started my Emergency Medicine residency in 2003. So this is my 15th year in Emergency Medicine. I have not regretted my choice yet, and I cannot imagine myself being anything else but an Emergency Physician.

Emergency medicine is indeed a fulfilling career choice for a variety of reasons: first of all, we are cool, we never panic over an emergency. Secondly, emergency medicine is never boring, every shift in the Emergency Department is filled with diverse cases waiting to be solved, like a puzzle. We treat patients in every age group with all kinds of chief complaints, and we hear all sorts of exciting stories. We are there for people who need us most, 24/7, on one of the worst days of their lives, regardless of their background and financial status. We bring patients who are near death back to life, and in every shift, we feel that we make a real difference.

Having said all this, I admit that the life of an Emergency Medicine physician is not a perfect fit for everyone. For example, although shift work is flexible by its nature and you have control over your schedule, shift work is not desirable to everyone. If you plan ahead shift work will allow you to take more vacations any time during the year but if something comes up last minute, there is a pretty good chance that you will miss it. Night shifts may easily disrupt your body cycle even if you follow the recommendations for sleep and it gets harder with age. Working weekends and holidays will mean missing some family gatherings or events at your children’s school and may make your social life difficult. On the bright side, you will always have free weekdays to run errands or catch up with friends on their lunch breaks. Although you do not bring work to your home, (when your shift is over you just pass your patients to another doctor, leave emergency department, and you are not on call) sometimes your shift is so physically exhausting and emotionally draining that you have little energy left for home.

If you are living in a culture where child raising, housework or care of the elderly is seen primarily as women’s duty, or you choose a partner that thinks so, you may have a harder time in life regardless of the specialty you choose as a woman. You may solve some of this issue by willing to accept all help you are offered from close ones and purchase help when necessary to share some of these duties. You may find fewer role models in Emergency Medicine compared to your male peers, but if you look carefully, you will recognize female or male leaders close to you, who understand the difficulties you face and offer you their mentorship.

When choosing any specialty, think about not just now but try to imagine what would make you happy in 10-20-30 years. Yes, being an Emergency Medicine specialist has its challenges and is harder in some aspects compared to other specialties, but I think most of the challenges are there regardless of being men or women. I also believe that with a little flexibility and creativity you can overcome the difficulties, so join us who find joy and feel content in the vibrant and exciting environment of emergency medicine.