SELF CARE IS NOT GOING SOFT

“How many of you have a stress management routine?”

I started a curriculum for wellness and professionalism for a group of residents this past year. On our first day, I asked the group this question. Maybe one or two hands raised.

I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Residency training is great…for certain things. It sucks at others.

Medical education is robust and in-depth. You will learn every procedure, every diagnosis, every presentation in your field. Physicians have people’s lives in their hands, after all, so it is imperative that we learn as much as possible.

One area that medical training fails in spectacularly in, though, is teaching doctors-in-training that one of those lives is THEIR OWN.

In service of others, in service of ‘continuity/progression of a case’, we sacrifice sleep, nutrition, and hygiene. We begin our careers already in a deficit of health and grooming, and things only go down from there. Older generations of doctors weren’t trained in this either, so no one is modeling a healthy way of being a physician.

No wonder the latest burnout percentages are registering at about 65% of the field, certainly feeling the effects of this lack of self-care.

What is Self-Care..and what it isn’t

Self-care can be spa days, massages, mimosa brunches with friends or watching the game with buddies. But it doesn’t have to be. Self-care is NOT ‘going soft’.

One of my client’s life changed when I reminded her that Amazon can deliver groceries in addition to knick knacks. Grocery shopping didn’t have to take an hour of her time and meals didn’t have to just include Doordash options all the time. She felt less guilt, the family had healthier options, all using an app she used almost every day anyway.

ANYTHING that makes your life easier, more enjoyable, frees up even 5 minutes of your day is self-care. ANYTHING that makes this job easier (AI scribes, human scribes, optimizing all those smartphrases in Epic) is self-care.

It’s not selfish. Or soft.

It’s smart. And Efficient. Two things doctors LOVE to be.

Real Wins from Real Doctors

Other things that clients have reported as self care:

• Hiring a zoom trainer, meeting once every 2 weeks, for 30 minutes. Doesn’t break the bank or the body

• Buying a nice pen (that MAY or MAY NOT be one of my go-to moves, as anyone who has seen my desk can attest to)

• Sitting on their porch with a cup of coffee on the weekend, 15 min before the rest of the family wakes up

Did I mention that self-care does NOT have to cost a fortune, take all day, or require you to leave the house?

Next Step: Talk with Penelope

If you’re feeling better about ‘not going soft’, but aren’t sure what that would look like, let me help. I’ve coached hundreds of doctors to find their own versions of self-care. Let me help you find yours.

Booking your free 45-minute consult with Dr. Penelope Hsu today.

Schedule a COMPLIMENTARY session with Dr Hsu