I’ll teach you how to fuel your body so that you can live longer | Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner, MD & Professor | Co-founder & Lifestyle Coach @ Eagles & Pigeons Making Health, Fitness & Nutrition Simple 🥦 x 🧡
I wasn't going to post today, but I had to get this off my chest. I received a comment yesterday from a guy that asked whether the right type of people are entering the healthcare profession and whether those entering need to be stronger, and that's why the suicide rates are so high. There was no ill intent behind his comment, he simply asked a question and I'm glad he did. I've encountered people in the past that have assumed that those that suffer are weak. I cannot stress this enough, especially during mental health awareness month but burnout that leads to suicide has nothing to do with weakness. You cannot mentally overcome: - Long shifts - Minimal sleep - Poor eating habits - Lack of social health - Missing family events - Regular bullying and hazing - Constant stress and pressure Even the strongest people I know will break under those conditions. And let me be clear, this is relatable to any industry. If you're overworked, not sleeping, stressed, and overwhelmed, it is going to take a toll on your physical and mental health, no matter how tough you are. The solution is not to try and make people 'stronger' but to focus on the imbalances that lead to physical and mental health issues in the first place. To raise awareness and focus on prevention rather than cure. Remember, sleep deprivation by itself is a form of torture. We cannot blame individuals for suffering in environments that are intended to break them. We should focus on the bigger picture instead. 🥦 #mentalhealthawarenessmonth
MD, I appreciate everything you and others have stated here. I've been a nurse for 20 years, and after 15 years I burned out developing compassion fatigue, anxiety, depression, and wanted to leave healthcare altogether. In a Level 5 corrections facility, I was bullied by nurses that should've retired long ago, was required to respond to inmate hangings in their cells (and did more than once), and was "mandated to stay" overnight more times than I cared for d/t call outs. When working in a Level 1 OR, I was exposed to lateral violence by surgeon's and nurses & had many nights of interrupted sleep from being on-call after already working a 12 hour shift. As a hospice floor nurse, lunch breaks/self care was often thwarted to provide STAT pain meds or care to pts. for uncontrolled symptoms, family education, death pronouncements, admissions of new patients, and documentation. One imbalance we need to correct for helping professionals is addressing grief. Grief is commonly overlooked in our profession. Healthcare workers are exposed to a variety of repeated trauma, vicarious traumas, loss, and suffering daily- and they add up. Unresolved grief can contribute to poor mental health, affecting us physically, emotionally, & spiritually.
Observed this firsthand with my college roommate and close friend. She came from a supportive family and had no history of mental health issues until she went to medical school. I watched one of the most compassionate, mentally-strong, and emotionally-resilient people I've ever known suffer burnout and anxiety. She's the ideal, the best-case-scenario, and even she was crushed by these inhumane working conditions. Let's stop victim-blaming here. There are bad eggs in every profession, but health providers are often a selection of the most compassionate/caring among us, and we're failing them.
Administrators and Managers/ and most Supervisors don't have a Clue because they don't do the job,some folks travel far to some work long shifts 10 / 12 hrs daily and they have something called (late stay) which means once you're shift is completed you have to stay due to short staffing callouts etc. This has been a ongoing problem for Critical Care Technicians at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, they have a revolving door of Administrators and managers who never really focus on the issues because they're there for 2 maybe 3 years tops and they're Gone and most Don't even have (Clinical experience) this is a continuous and Sad Truth at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and it's getting worse. Take Note !
I’m thankful someone sent me this post- As a school principal I can remember being scoffed at for bringing this up with a superintendent in Colorado. What the man didn’t know was that 5 minutes before his meeting I was in a conversation with one of my peers who broke down into tears because of the pressure. Imbalance. Policies that ignore the workload versus benefit… and running people into the ground with no recognition. So what is the solution? I think you start with the trusty Golden Rule and treat others the way you want to be treated. When someone who works for me asks to leave work early I try to always say yes- when someone has gone above and beyond I try to share my gratitude… when work tasks seem to drain more than provide benefit I try to amend or eliminate them… I found a district that has a four day school week… this helped so much in my mental health. Other ideas I would put into place if I was ever a superintendent… 1. Health Emphasis. Maybe we open our gyms for staff use… or provide local gym memberships as part of our contract. 2. Mental Health Emphasis. Examine our work hours and tasks- find ways to keep our people refreshed. Counseling and coaching. Thoughts?
I just said this to a young man a little while ago that is struggling and I will repeat it to you all. Caring and thoughtful people easily fall into despair because as we give more we are rewarded for that behavior. Over time the encouragement feels like manipulation because there is no concern for our wellbeing behind it. We keep pushing ourselves because of the deep personal responsibility we feel to care for other people who are suffering. We do not want to fail them, so we push ourselves to do more with less....We get away with it until we crash. Often we struggle with guilt and shame if we feel we are pushing ourselves to the brink because we think we aren't resilient enough. It is not resilience that is the problem, it is the system that is broken. It only makes us push harder because we know it is broken so we try work arounds and hacks to do more with less, less joy, less time to take care of ourselves. The root cause is during an average week, a nurse has to put their own needs aside HALF of our waking time. It takes forever to recover after hard shifts where we are understaffed.
Again for the people in the back: "We cannot blame individuals for suffering in environments that are intended to break them." Wowza, that is a whole heaping spoonful of truth.
Too much of the legal training, starting in law school, involves hazing. Large law firm successes believe you must put aside a personal life to Serve The Client. I never joined the big firm and instead sought balance. Less money in that and more sustainable.
I can relate to this post previously working full time psych ER and part time private practice. What honestly tore me down was the hospital ER due to poor management, high stress, short staffing, bad pay, staff putting you down, and to think it was just one Psych Screener per 12.5 hr shift for the whole ER. The worst part is no one did anything about it even when you voiced yourself. When the staff is suffering so does the patient. Everything shouldn’t be a fight. I left and went full time private practice and can not be any happier. I sympathize with people in healthcare because the system is broken (a whole other conversation). Hospitals really need to bring in more staff and provide free mental health care to healthcare workers with qualified psychologists on site to aid in the emotions that come with working in a hospital (anxiety, depression, ptsd, etc). Much like police, firefighters, and military who see a lot of difficult things …so do out healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, mental health workers, etc) and deserve to be cared for to provide the best quality care to patients as well as lead more fulfilling lives themselves ❤️
I agree 100%. A few months ago, I had to reduce my working hours because it was affecting my health. I didn’t mind the pay cut at the time because I needed to get my health back. I’m happy it’s coming back to a good place but it’s now down to looking for the right job with the right hours that appreciates my value and my rate. Your health is so much more important and your mental wellness too
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1moAmazing post. I like how you haven’t hijacked this being a health worker issue only and have acknowledged that it can be anyone in any walk of life (my “industry” at the time was motherhood/daugherhood/sicknesshood). I can relate to this. After having a second baby via c section, nearly dying from painful pleural TB and sepsis 4 months later in Indonesia, followed by a pandemic involving my poorly lungs protection, and becoming a carer to my Mum with dementia for years, there were days I wished I wouldn’t wake up. I was slammed for years, from every angle. Worst part was sleep deprivation, no social life, exhaustion, and living with constant physical (my illness) and mental (my illness and my Mums loss to dementia) pain. People were too used to the happy smiley me, so of course I buried all that bad stuff. Not that many came out to offer help anyway. My experience was very very lonely. Years ago I had a brief relationship with an Australian SAS officer and he said to me that the trainees who left, left after the sleep deprivation part/test. He told me that most people can withstand many struggles of torture but without good sleep, they buckle. Rest and quality of rest is fundamental to our physical and mental health 🙏