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Episode: Join the revolution!
Author: Michelle Chestovich MD
Duration: 00:13:36
Episode Shownotes
Physician coach Michelle Chestovich MD explores how physicians need to be the change we need to see in medicine by empowering themselves and standing up to the toxic culture. Come join the revolution..one baby step at a time.Want to learn how to stand up and tackle burnout? Join Stress RX
for Physician women. We begin Wednesday May 8th. Click here to join:https://www.mamadoclifecoach.com/stress-rx-group-coaching-program
Full Transcript
00:00:00 Speaker_00
You are listening to Episode 164 of the Remind Yourself Podcast. Welcome to the Remind Yourself Podcast, the podcast for physician moms just like you who want to ditch mom guilt, stop yelling, and start enjoying their lives today.
00:00:21 Speaker_00
I'm your host, Michelle Chestovich, certified life coach, family physician, and mom of four. If you want to overcome overwhelm for once and for all, this is the place for you. Hello, Mama Docs, and welcome back.
00:00:39 Speaker_00
I just want to warn you that I may get a little feisty again this week. Last week, I talked about resiliency, and I got a little feisty. And today's topic also makes me a little feisty. So if that offends you, I apologize.
00:00:54 Speaker_00
But if it invigorates you, buckle up. Let's go. Today I'm going to talk about becoming revolutionary and counterculture. I'm saying this in the most nonviolent sort of way.
00:01:07 Speaker_00
But what I will tell you is that the culture of medicine currently is quite toxic for many of us. And again, I love that I can just speak my bit. And if it offends people, then it offends people. I'm not a part of any organization.
00:01:24 Speaker_00
I'm not affiliated with anyone. So I really just get to speak my truth. And I feel very honored and I understand what a privilege this is. So again, I will just say the toxic culture of medicine is affecting
00:01:37 Speaker_00
a lot of us, people who signed up to work hard for many, many years to dedicate time in their education and in their training to provide excellent care for our communities. And now, nearly 63% of us have components of burnout.
00:01:56 Speaker_00
People are feeling exhausted, people are having compassion fatigue and just wondering, I'm not sure this even matters. And I'm not sure how much longer I want to be doing this.
00:02:05 Speaker_00
And so what I want to talk to you today is about joining an anti-burnout revolution. Because oftentimes organizations will say, hey, you need to be more resilient.
00:02:15 Speaker_00
You know, by the way, in this broken medical system, we're depending on you to hold it together, doctors, right? I get it that all healthcare workers are affected. And yet we docs who are not working on the clock are asked to do more and more.
00:02:30 Speaker_00
And so the work that we have done over the years has expanded. And many people are working nights, weekends, extra call shifts, and perhaps not being reimbursed.
00:02:42 Speaker_00
Certainly if you're doing charting at night and weekends, very, very few people, if any, are being paid for that time.
00:02:47 Speaker_00
Again, it's not that we are afraid to work hard or put in a lot of hours, but even full-time hours for a physician typically goes to 60, 70, 80 hours per week. on the normal week. And many of us aren't loving this.
00:03:03 Speaker_00
And we're feeling really overwhelmed and exhausted. And so again, I just want to say, come and join the revolution. Because it's going to take physicians to stand up and say, no more. This is the work I do as a coach.
00:03:16 Speaker_00
Years ago, I was on the burnout train. And I felt like I was on treadmill running faster and faster and faster. And I didn't think that there was any way to get a break. But with coaching, I learned, wait a minute. I can say no. It may disappoint people.
00:03:31 Speaker_00
People may not love that I'm starting to have boundaries in my life because when people in our lives benefit from us having no boundaries, of course they get a little bit fearful when we do start to have boundaries.
00:03:43 Speaker_00
The organizations in medicine as a whole have benefited from doctors just adding more and more onto their plate.
00:03:50 Speaker_00
And for a large degree, many physicians are able to do this because you're high achievers, you're hard workers, you're diligent, you are not going to drop the ball and certainly not let the patient suffer.
00:04:03 Speaker_00
And so again, organizations have no incentive to do anything different when we keep doing more.
00:04:08 Speaker_00
When we keep fitting in more patients, when we keep answering all the patient messages after hours, when we keep saying, sure, I can pick up a couple more call shifts because we're short right now, nothing's going to change.
00:04:20 Speaker_00
So I will ask you again, are you ready to join the revolution? Are you ready to be a part of the change that we need to see in medicine? This takes courage, right? Because to stand up and say, this isn't right, takes courage. It's counterculture.
00:04:37 Speaker_00
Now, I know many of you are doing this because I hear from you and I love to see that. But we can do this in a way that doesn't rock the boat so much that it tips over and or you're going to be asked to leave.
00:04:47 Speaker_00
But by the way, it would be foolish for an organization to ask you to leave because you stand up and start to set boundaries because they need you. You bring so much value and expertise to the organization.
00:04:59 Speaker_00
Someday, I just want you to sit down and think about all of the value you bring to your organization to the patients. It would be foolish for an organization to say, please go. That being said, I'm not an employment lawyer.
00:05:12 Speaker_00
You know, if this really worries you, speak to an employment lawyer about that. But the things I'm asking you to do are not illegal, and they're not totally crazy. It's just saying, No, I'm not able to do that.
00:05:26 Speaker_00
At the staff meetings, you know, with all the medical staff to raise your hand and say, Hey, I noticed we're being asked to do more and more when we're already short. And I don't think that this is good for patient safety. or our safety.
00:05:39 Speaker_00
I always love to leave with patient safety because it seems to me administrators' ears prick up, right? And of course, I of course care about patient safety as well, but it seems that people kind of sit up and listen.
00:05:51 Speaker_00
Hey, all these patient messages that we're getting that we're maybe not getting to until, you know, late at night or the following day or even a couple of days later, I really worry about patient safety.
00:06:02 Speaker_00
What are some of your ideas how we could make this go better? right? Put the onus back on them, whoever them is, right? And again, I don't love to use like othering words.
00:06:12 Speaker_00
And yet, in this system, I'm just saying, okay, them, whoever the administrator is, whoever's running the business, and needs to come up with these things.
00:06:21 Speaker_00
If it's important for the organization to make sure that these patient messages get dealt with, perhaps they should hire somebody to do that job specifically. and or it may need to wait for a day or two.
00:06:33 Speaker_00
And now I'm concerned about patient safety and I'm going to raise that. So this is not like super duper, when I say, you know, join the revolution, it's not super duper revolutionary, like, oh my gosh, you've got to like, you know.
00:06:45 Speaker_00
wave the flags and burn the bras and all that sort of thing. That's not what this is about. But it's about standing up and empowering yourself.
00:06:52 Speaker_00
Yet many of us in medicine are trained to just keep going with our heads down because we've been told that that's how it needs to be. That if we don't pitch in, that we're not a team player. There may be a bit of gaslighting going on, right?
00:07:07 Speaker_00
Ask the highest, hardest workers to do more and then they say that's not going to work and you call them not a team player? Come on now, that is absolutely ridiculous.
00:07:17 Speaker_00
So, and then some people love to say like, well, in the past, it used to be this way. Here's what I'll tell you. In the past, there was not EMR and there were not patient messages. People were working long hard hours and then they'd go home, right?
00:07:30 Speaker_00
and have their evenings free unless they were on call, right? So pulling in all these other stories of quote unquote how it used to be, the olden days, not helpful. This is something that I recently learned that needs to be brought to light.
00:07:44 Speaker_00
The person who started with residencies, can't recall the physician's name, was using crack. So of course he kept going. And he needed a whole group of people working underneath him to make sure that things were safe.
00:07:58 Speaker_00
Again, I probably shouldn't be sharing these stories, but I've seen it in the mainstream literature, in articles and things like that. So this is not like I'm bringing to air something that's not known.
00:08:08 Speaker_00
And again, I apologize that I don't know his name, but go look it up. This is where residencies started from, working the crazy long hours. Hmm, perhaps that's not safe. Perhaps that's not how we want to be doing things.
00:08:21 Speaker_00
I've talked a lot about hours before. You know, there are some work hour restrictions for residencies programs, you know, limit of 24 hours, I believe, and 80 hours a week. That's still crazy long hours.
00:08:34 Speaker_00
Do you want your pilot working for 24 hours straight? Hmm. Okay. Well, maybe you also don't want your surgeon to be up for 24 hours straight. That is a blood alcohol equivalent of 0.1 per the AMA or actually per the CDC. So I get it.
00:08:53 Speaker_00
But now, you know, residencies have these pretty huge hour requirements, you know, despite them saying it's a restriction. But now you're out of the attending world. But you get to decide for yourself what's working.
00:09:05 Speaker_00
So again, when I say join the revolution, decide for yourself, what do I want my life to look like? Okay, all of my other partners are doing X, Y, or Z. Okay, great for them. What's going to work for me? What's safe for my patients?
00:09:19 Speaker_00
And what's safe for me? Join the revolution. Stand up for what you need and want. And again, I get it that it's hard because we're in a very driven, driven culture. This is where coaching can help you.
00:09:34 Speaker_00
You come together in a community of other physician women who are also learning to stand up and empower themselves. And it starts small. It starts by saying, no, I'm not going to be able to put that double book on.
00:09:45 Speaker_00
I'm completely full today with these challenging patients. Where are they going to go? I'm not sure. They may need to see my partner or you can get them on my next available spot. It starts with baby steps.
00:09:58 Speaker_00
That's not a crazy revolution, but that's where it begins. When I say join the revolution, it starts with realizing what's happening. The way my world is, the way my job is, is unsustainable and I don't want to do it anymore.
00:10:11 Speaker_00
Then you start to see where can I start to make some baby steps? set some boundaries and empower myself to realize, hey, what I desire also matters. And I'm going to speak up to these things.
00:10:23 Speaker_00
Anytime they say we're going to have an extra meeting, you know, in the evening or the morning hours, I'm going to say, you know what? That's the time that I'm exercising. That's not going to work for me. That's my family time.
00:10:33 Speaker_00
That's not going to work for me. And the more of us that do this, we can start to show the culture of medicine that the way it is, is not okay. It forgets that we're human and that we need adequate sleep. We need adequate movement of our body.
00:10:49 Speaker_00
We need love and connection. And when we're working over 80 hours a week, there's very little time for that. Right? So again, we can be amazing, compassionate, brilliant physicians and be human.
00:11:05 Speaker_00
But the organizations have benefited from hardworking docs doing more and more and more to fill in the gaps, to fill in the shortages. And it's not working. It's unsustainable and people are miserable. This is your one precious life.
00:11:21 Speaker_00
and you deserve to have more joy. Joy in medicine? Think about why you went into medicine in the first place. It's because you wanted to help others, because you were intrigued by the science. You knew that you could make a positive impact.
00:11:36 Speaker_00
I want more of that for you. I also want you to find more joy outside of medicine, with your family, with your friends, with yourself, to realize that you don't have to do more and more in order to be worthy and amazing and have an incredible life.
00:11:56 Speaker_00
And in fact, by joining the revolution, you may find that you're doing less work and your life and joy are amplified. Okay, friends, a little feisty today. I didn't get super duper crazy. I don't think I swore or stomped my foot, so that's pretty good.
00:12:12 Speaker_00
But this is really important because the culture of medicine needs a big shakeup. And who better than you, who better than women physicians, to stand up and say enough is enough.
00:12:27 Speaker_00
This is no longer working for me, and this does not benefit the patients when we are unwell. Join the revolution, my friends, and join StressRx Group Coaching. We begin in one week.
00:12:39 Speaker_00
Wednesday, May 8th, I'm pulling together a group of physician women from around the nation, and we are going to get to work and learn tools that we can apply daily to help us with burnout, to help us get our notes done faster, to help us have easier conversations with our staff.
00:12:55 Speaker_00
with our partners, to be able to set boundaries with our patients and with our staff with ease. This is how you become a part of the revolution, my friends. Click on the link in the show notes, learn more, grab your seat.
00:13:09 Speaker_00
And until next week, peace and love to all of you. Are you ready to take control of your life and put these tools into action? I'm here to help. I offer free consultations for physician moms to see if my one-on-one coaching package is right for you.
00:13:25 Speaker_00
You can sign up for a free consult at www.momadoclifecoach.com.