The Executive Suite: Balancing medical industry work with a healthy private life

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Balancing medical industry work with a healthy private life

Look, it’s an inescapable reality, feeling isolated in one’s private life. The often-time-consuming responsibilities that we face limit the amount of time we have to work on a healthy and fulfilling personal life. It is quite a common notion to think that a rich personal life is the price one has to pay to work in the healthcare industry.

It isn’t even just the physical hours you spend working, either. When one isn’t doing additional research within your field, you are most likely busy sorting out CPD revalidation. So, where can you start creating a meaningful private life in hopes of achieving an ideal work-life balance? These efforts will help you avoid having to overcome the turmoils of burnout.

Learn to switch off

You are very likely on call quite a lot, even when you are taking a personal day. Some things cannot be changed or avoided. Instead, your mindset becomes the most potent weapon in self-care. It would help if you mastered it.

In healthcare, we are dealing with people’s very wellbeing, and the stakes are often life or death scenarios. As a result, you will need to find ways to get your thoughts away from work and be present in your own life when you aren’t physically working. Just telling yourself to ‘relax’ may ironically cause more stress and anxiety. Our advice is to start practicing mindfulness meditation.

Set clear boundaries

Because other people won’t do it for you, in the medical fields, we frequently find that people seek out professional help and advice whenever we do have some time off from work. Random acquaintances will phone you at the most limited time to ask your opinion on a rash or some new medication they are thinking of taking. It would be best if you were firm, keeping in mind that your real patients suffer when you are exhausted.

If you are a physician, you should ask them to call you at the office and be sure to make it crystal clear that you will be charging for your time. Suppose you do not work in the traditional field of general practice. In that case, you are entitled and advised to tell anyone seeking medical advice that you are not permitted to offer a diagnosis or opinion.

Set personal goals

We understand and relate to the fact that time constraints limit your options. It is difficult to make plans too far in advance when it comes to any group activity, so one is usually bound to solo activities and hobbies. All the same, it is tremendously vital that you set some personal goals. You may not be able to do them all in one go, or practice whatever it might be every day, but putting in the effort when possible will help lend your life a sense of personal impetus.

Try to keep your hobbies to relaxing things to do. This doesn’t necessarily exclude stuff like going to the gym, but it is essential that whatever your interests may be, they do not become another source of stress.