Physician Resilience – a stronger canary is never enough

In my work with thousands of over-stressed physicians and over 175 healthcare organizations, I have learned one lesson over and over -

Resilience training alone is not sufficient to rein in the epidemic of physician burnout.

If you believe like I do that physicians are the canary in the coal mine of medicine.

Then it is clear the epidemic of physician burnout is an indictment of the conditions of the mine, not the resilience of the canary.

The Business Case for Investing in Physician Wellbeing - a Triple Competitive Advantage for Your Organization

In this blog post let's look at what happens when you run physician burnout in reverse. Here's what I mean.

What will your work day look and feel like when A.I. has eliminated your need to document, answer messages or deal with your InBox?

Isn't that what we all want ... freedom from Electronic Medical Records and all the other documentation tasks?

Yes?

For decades now, the physician's lament has been, "I just want to see patients."

A recent article, revealing the Mayo Clinic's A.I. task automation strategy, hints at a future that is screaming "be careful what you wish for".

Watch This 1 Minute Video to Learn More about
this New FREE Online Video Training for Physicians

[LB3] FREE Work-Life Balance Video Training is ready for you now
More Life Balance every day, week and month.
Proven Tools from our 40,000 doctor experience.

The most exhausting aspect of being a doctor, a nurse or anyone who works seeing patients these days … is the WHIRLWIND.

The relentless bombardment with patient after patient, EMR, InBox, messages, clicks, keystrokes … overflowing the schedule and your short-staffed team.

This Whirlwind is the reason we just created a new free online video training sharing our top three boundaries and balance trainings.

I have some exciting news about our first Live and In-Person Personal  Wellness Retreat since 2019 ... Retreat dates are June 16 - 22, 2024. 

Our Retreat Hub sits in Kanab, Utah at a spot equidistant from three national parks

• Grand Canyon
• Bryce Canyon
[and the hoodoo forest!]
• and Zion

We will hike in a different park each day ...
and have daily short trainings to learn proven tools to ...

• get home sooner
• build life balance
• be the eye of the storm
• and build your Ideal Practice
• (19 CME/CEU's available)

And take a whole week off to rest, recharge, rejuvenate and make a bunch of new friends.

When you want to change anything about your job, practice, career or life ... and fear or uncertainty stops you ...

Your are contemplating a step that is TOO BIG.

In psychology it is called "telescoping". Here is an example.

If you wanted to walk from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the opposite rim - on the trail that goes down and through and up the other side of the gorge (it's a thing...) - you would not try to do it in a single step. You would not attempt to leap from the south rim and expect make it all the way to the north rim. It would be scary (and most likely, fatal) to make that attempt.

This is telescoping. Looking from where you are to where you want to be (like you are peering through a telescope), noticing the huge distance and giving up before you start. It's such a long way. I will never make it. 

NOTICE: If you don't try to leap the whole canyon in a single bound, there is a trail that takes you the whole way. You just have to take regular old steps, one at a time.

Telescoping is when you think about a big goal, notice the distance from where you are to where you want to be, and fear motivates you to give up. 

This fear is also a clear sign to take a different approach

That goal IS attainable.

You just can't do it in a single step

How to spot a psychopath inside a complex bureaucracy.

It is a consistent feature of bureaucracy. Psychopath doctors and senior leaders almost never get walked out of the building despite years of complaints and truly outrageous behavior. When they finally are fired or brought to justice just a small amount of digging reveals National-Enquirer-headline-style shenanigans.

Here is the latest in the healthcare industry press:

Prominent Johns Hopkins physician on leave amid misdiagnosis, bullying claims

You can read the details. They will sound familiar. 

... "multiple comments by pathology physicians and residents stating they did not feel comfortable speaking up regarding 'intimidation' or 'bullying' behavior by a department leader, indicating they were forced to change diagnoses, issue addendums and defer to the leader's wishes over several years, thereby potentially leading to harm to patients."

This is a complete failure of leadership.

They failed to take appropriate actions at any point in a multiple-year history of suspicious, self-serving and dangerous verbal tirades and actions - all occurring in a healthcare workplace.

As a professional coach, when I design and deliver a training to a group of physicians, we are laser-focused on TRANSFORMATION.

Physicians desperately need proven tools to Get Home Sooner, Build Life Balance and Recognize and Prevent Burnout. These tools must transform their day-to-day experience from burnout to a healthier practice experience. If you pull them away from their patients for a wellness training, you must understand ...

• Education by itself is always insufficient.
  
  
• The only way to get New Results is to take New Actions.
  
  
• Your trainer must push participants to plan a New Action in order to trigger the transformation you seek. 
  
  
• Without this final training step, your money and time have been wasted.

What do you think the US healthcare industry will look and feel like in 2023?

If you want to call US Healthcare a "system" today, what will that "system" look like in the year 2030 and how will it handle the healthcare needs of an older, sicker population?

With nearly everyone calling for system change and reform, "burn it to the ground" and more ... let's look at the demographics of the US Physician Workforce and imagine healthcare in 2030.

Here's my crystal ball. What is does yours look like?

I am not exactly sure WHAT will happen, and I believe I have some clarity on HOW it will go down.

[ CME link is at the bottom of this blog post ]

The Shortest Path to Healthcare Profit is also the Shortest Path to Physician Burnout.

This cartoon/meme is the most powerful way to illustrate it.