Onehealthpro

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY ELEVEN

There will always be too much work to be done, we cannot work from rising to setting sun.  Give your best to the patients in your care and then give your best to your life.  Find ways to experience joy in the world around you.  Our sunset in the midwest was fabulous yesterday, but I wonder how many people paused to notice. 

As the pressure in health care delivery increases due to our aging society and workforce, you and I must become better stewards of our lives.  We can use some of our lifetime to gain leverage that will reduce the number of people who need our care.  Preventive health care in the form of a healthy diet, exercise, spiritual development and a safe clean environment to live and work would reduce health care needs.  If you and I devote some of our time to these areas, we'll find the leverage to keep more people healthy and our workload will be reduced. 

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY TEN

Most of us use weekends to catch up on chores we've neglected throughout the week.  How about using some weekends to enjoy life?  Traveling to new locations is refreshing and offers the added benefit of being away from household chores.  You don't have to leave town to experience your community as a tourist.  Even if you are in a small rural area, you can travel to nearby communities to explore the best of those cities.  In urban areas, you can visit museums, attend plays or musical events and explore day trips to smaller outlying communities.  How long has it been since you used time off as time for relaxation and rejuvenation?    

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY NINE

Check it out, Onehealthpro can't count!  If you're wondering where recovery strategy eight went, take a look at my last two posts and you'll find it. 

How much time do you spend focusing on work?  I ask because conquering burnout requires us to enter the construction business.  We must become architects of our lives.  Are you examining methods to enrich your world with friends, family, hobbies and other leisure pursuits that are in no way related to health care?  If not, your world shrinks.  Work and worry about work become your dominant life force and that is a formula for burnout.  What will you do today to construct a life with balance?  Will you investigate a hobby?  Will you schedule time with friends?  Will you dream about what you would do if you weren't working?  Once you have the dream, it's easier to set plans in motion to construct the outcome you deserve and desire.      

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY SEVEN

Add your voice to the choir.  That means unite and participate in your professional organization.  The power to effect changes that might lessen burnout can happen when there is a common voice regarding what needs to be changed.  If your professional organization isn't speaking out regularly about issues that confront you, be the squeaky wheel that causes the organization to act.  Remaining on the sidelines diminishes power.  Your personal power shrinks and  your professional organization loses momentum from the lack of participation.  Unite your voice with the voices in your profession.  Spending time with others who are advocating for change works wonders for curing burnout and has the added value of potentially changing the factors that created it.

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY SEVEN

"The greater sin is not self love, it is self neglect."  Shakespeare

Overcoming burnout begins with self love.  We are living through a moment in history in which general consensus is people are putting themselves first.  Some mistakenly think that is self love.  It isn't.  It is the height of selfishness.  Self love is an abiding respect for ourselves and all that we may become.  Self love understands that time to meet our needs is important and understands that getting our needs met requires living in peaceful harmony with our fellow life travelers.  Self love understands that chasing self interest at the expense of the greater good is aggressive behavior that is neglectful of self and others.  So as you continue on the path of burnout recovery, are you planning for your life, planning to enjoy your life in peaceful harmony with the greater good?         

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY SIX

"Two people in the pits is worse than one person in the pits."  Before I entered graduate school, one of my former supervisors gave me that message.  She saw the seeds of burnout in me before I became a health professional.  I wanted to do it all and thought I could without taking care of myself first.  She knew from experience that the work would drag me down unless I found ways to make self replenishing deposits into my own life.  We can overcome burnout when we identify personal needs and design goals to get our needs met.  We have a responsibility to maintain our physical, emotional and mental health.  If we don't choose the path of self care as we care for others, there will be two people in the pits...the patient and the professional. 

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY FIVE

To avoid getting bogged down with frustration, remember your mission.  A Catholic nun helped me learn that lesson.  One day, I was covering for two people, carrying two beepers and being paged overhead.  I was rushing about the medical center as rapidly as I could when a Catholic sister appeared at my side.  She laid her hand on my arm and said words I've never forgotten:  "Do you realize when you talk with these patients you are showing them the face of God?"  That certainly put a new spin on the day's events.  Her words changed my approach.  She gave me a grand mission.  When challenges head your way, remember your mission.  And if you haven't identified your personal and professional mission, you can borrow the one the Sister gave to me.         

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY FOUR

Choose your attitude before you arrive at work.  Select one word that will describe your attitude, and regardless of what happens, fix your thoughts on that word.  I taught myself this technique by accident when I noticed as I was teaching continuing education courses I could determine before the day began whether the outcome would be successful.  The attitude I brought to the workshop determined the day's events.  So, the next time I was on the front line, I decided to choose an attitude before I went to work and I encountered success.  Among the attitudes I have chosen are:  humor, service, and teamwork.  Choosing your attitude ahead of time will allow you to feel powerful vs. feeling controlled by events.   

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY THREE

If you'd like my opinion regarding the current state of our health care system I can sum it up in a word:  chaos.  Despite the terrific efforts of great professionals, the systems in which we labor are in need of repair.  That reality adds fuel to the fire of burnout.  So, since you and I as front line professionals cannot reinvent those systems, we can direct our attention away from the chaos and focus on the patient before us now.  Those vulnerable patients and their loved ones need your best efforts and none of us can deliver our best efforts when our focus is on all that's wrong with "the system."  Instead of complaining about the system issues with coworkers, spend your time directed toward what you can do every minute of every day to provide excellent care.  We'll worry about the systems issues later in the month and I do have a few ideas for you, but for now, my focus is on helping you overcome burnout and one way to do that is to direct your thoughts in ways that give you power.  The system may be in trouble, but you are in control of your professionalism.  Don't let "systems issues" erode your power as you deliver medical care.  And by the way, Onehealthpro has accomplished one of the items mentioned in the previous posting on her list of 100 Outrageous Dreams and has a plan for accomplishing a second item mentioned.  (Care to guess which one can be checked off the list?)

BURNOUT RECOVERY STRATEGY TWO

Walking along the Great Wall of China.  Making gifts for family and friends at Christmas.  Learning to fly.  Those ideas are on my list of 100 Outrageous Dreams.  All of us need dreams and we need big dreams.  Focusing your attention on your aspirations will give you less time to dwell on the negative feelings associated with burnout.  Developing the list is fun and when you run out of ideas, begin talking to others about their dreams.  You can borrow their ideas and add them to your list.  Design your list as if money weren't an issue.  You might be surprised at the creativity others have used in accomplishing their dreams on limited dollars.  When your list is complete, identify 2-3 goals per year and get started!   By the way, hope you are still writing in that journal I suggested.