Newsletter#8: Can work-life balance in healthcare be achieved?

I get it. Being a healthcare professional can feel lonely sometimes. 

Everyone else says you're lucky because you have a job that you "can't take home with you." You know, because of PHI and all. So when you clock out, you're done. Right?

Wrong. 

Healthcare workers face stressful, high-stakes situations all day at work and can't just turn them off when they get home. 

But is the ability to "turn it off" actually what we need or want? The brilliant Apple TV show Severance explores this concept in depth and it is...complicated.

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the show for you. But if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. It's one of the most creative shows I've seen in a long time.  

It follows the employees of the fictional company Lumon, who have all agreed to a "severance" program in which their work life/memories are completely separated from their home life/memories.

One may say that this is the ultimate work-life balance. When you're at work, you don't think about what else it is that you're missing out on. And when you're at home, you're not plagued by things that are nagging you about work.

For healthcare professionals, this has long been a complicated topic. 

Despite the fact that most that work in healthcare can't physically bring their work home (ie. there's no packing up your patient and taking them home with you because surgery went past 5 or bringing prescriptions home to fill from the comfort of your couch), the burden certainly comes home. 

Maybe you are going over and over that one case in your mind wondering if you made the right decision. Maybe you're calling in to check on something or someone. Or maybe you're grieving the loss of a patient.

The work part of your brain is often very difficult to escape.

However, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is crucial for your well-being and the quality of care you provide to patients. Here are some tips on how healthcare professionals can achieve better work-life balance:

1. Set boundaries

If you're feeling burned out and you are in a financial position to do so, don't pick up that extra shift when it's offered to you. It's probably not worth it. 

Ensure that you actually utilize your PTO to relax and recharge. 

If you've set a precedent of always staying late on your shift to help get caught up, try to cut that back slowly until it is no longer an expectation. 

Setting boundaries for yourself all at once can feel daunting and difficult but if you break it up into little actions, those actions will add up over time.

2. Seek support

Whether this be from colleagues that know what you're going through or a professional, getting support can make a big difference. 

In addition, talk to others about systems that they use in their lives to keep things organized and prevent overwhelm. Sometimes the mental load of everything that you're keeping track of can be too much. Finding ways to keep track of it all with the support of Google Calendar or Evernote can help.

3. Don't make your job your identity

This one is easier said than done. Healthcare professionals are notorious for this and with good reason. It took a lot of money, commitment, and hard work to get that degree or those credentials, and it's hard not to feel a sense of identity from them. 

But this way of thinking can make it particularly hard to create a boundary between work life and home life. There's nothing wrong with loving your job, but tying your sense of self too closely to it can be unhealthy. 

4. Consider alternatives

You knew I'd mention this. I'm all for finding nontraditional paths in healthcare. Direct patient care has been draining on healthcare professionals for a long time. Life in 2020 and beyond has just accelerated a really bad pattern of burnout that we were already seeing. 

I'm not going to say that a nontraditional role in health tech is going to solve all of your work-life balance woes. In fact, if that role is remote (which many of them are), your work-life balance can take an initial hit since you have to figure out how to physically separate your workspace from your living space in your own home. Trust me, it's far too easy to just grab your laptop and work after hours on something just because it's on your mind. 

However, for me, the change was worth it. I'm home for dinners and weekend activities with my kids, which is one of the main reasons I left community pharmacy in the first place.

Whether or not this path is for you, I genuinely urge you to learn about what else is out there. This can be extremely freeing when you feel stuck or burned out. Why? Because knowledge is power. If you look at alternatives and none of them look like they will bring you the same joy and fulfillment, you'll know that -even though it's hard - you are making a choice every day to be there. And you can always change your mind. You're never stuck. 

5. Take time for you

Healthcare professionals are often the worst at taking care of themselves.

Follow your own advice that you give your patients. Eat a balanced diet, exercise, and follow proper sleep hygiene. Find time for other things that recharge you like reading, gardening, or having a little dance party in your kitchen.

Hey, if the bosses at Lumon think dance parties lift spirits then who am I to disagree?

What are some ways that you have found that improve your work-life balance? And do you think true balance can ever be achieved? I'd love to hear from you with your thoughts. And if you haven't already, go watch Severance and see if you think it's the solution we've been looking for. 📺