I mentor & coach physicians on their wellbeing & how to use their energy wisely.

Just as there are people called to work in healthcare, it's my calling to serve those who help people in their most vulnerable times & phases of life to continually have the capacity to do it. Somewhere along the journey to becoming a physician, students started believing that they should be able to handle everything they're exposed to & developed messy coping habits that impact on their ability to connect with others & self in healthy ways.

THREAD:

Being an entrepreneur comes with a sense of freedom & none of the institutional limits on creativity. Yet unless I'm consulting within an organisation or connected to community, it can feel lonely & isolating. Online communities are great for support but it's not enough. I've seen the negative effects of people investing all their time/energy in networking online & draining group dynamics. I realised that one of my values is to participate in collaborations that involve physical meet ups or at least in the potential of physical meetups. 2/

#FridayNightMusings
The end of my week involves reflecting on my week and what I've learned from my experiences & conversations with others. Topics in my awareness are gender inequality in medicine, physician burnout, abuse in healthcare & sharing/oversharing our stories 1/ There are those here who strive to inspire peers, provide a space for connection & rally for change through the various discussion threads. It's clear to me that there's a lot of passion & desire to do great things in the world by those who I follow/see in my feed. 2/

This is my commentary on #twitter #movements. Before I go I want to preface this with a statement: I love humans. We're amazing creative & powerful beings. I'm fascinated by human behaviour and the hidden motivations underlying our basic need to belong. 1/ I've observed some movements taking off on Twitter. Some for #MedEd, raising awareness, knowledge sharing, inspiration and sharing failings, wounds & triumphs. Generally they support creative expression in 280 characters. Awesome! 2/

I’m going to pitch in here. A lot of what’s considered burnout is actually compassion fatigue. Poor understanding of either which affects types of interventions, prevention & support available. Let’s also remember how boys are socialised to be ‘men’.

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Depersonalisation: shut down of empathy to cope. Emotional exhaustion: too much empathy & absorbing emotional burden + vicarious trauma thrown in. Both contribute to compassion fatigue-looks like burnout but isn’t.

Some thoughts: There seems to be an assumption in #medicine that patients receive the best care based on best evidence, where evidence usually means quantitative research (my assumption). Yet quality of care is dependent on personal characteristics of each health professional 1/ Knowledge derived from evidence is insufficient to translate into behavioural changes that support the 'best care' intention. Science-based evidence must be channeled through unquantifiable characteristics expressed by each individual health professional to provide best care 2/

Wellbeing preservation in healthcare (within your control)

1. Stable & trusting connections to others
2. Connection to self - meditation, self-reflection, self-examination ie. quiet time
3. Connection to your environment/Nature

#medtwitter #phdchat #MH4Docs #womeninmedicine
1/ 4. Connection to your purpose (your Why) & desire to serve wellbeing of others
5. Peer support & group reflective practice w/ agreements to preserve confidentiality, respect, non-judgement & openness
6. Mentoring by someone who has qualities you want/admire & skills you need

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