Do you want to know how to prevent physician burnout? Do you feel disheartened by the broken medical system? You are fully not alone. The medical is absolutely broken. So many healthcare professionals I know are noticing a loss of personal autonomy and feel a lack of appreciation for the long hours and personal sacrifices they are putting in. And all the failures of the system are adding up to epic rates of moral injury.
But what if you could find a way to work within a broken system… without being broken yourself? I know… I was skeptical too. In today’s episode, my guest Dr. Jimmy Turner author, podcaster, coach, and anesthesiologist breaks down how healthcare workers can actually thrive in a broken medical system.
In this episode you will learn:
- Practical tips for reclaiming your autonomy, sense of belonging, and confidence to prevent burnout.
- How to use thought work to move out of the victim mindset and take responsibility for your emotions in any given situation.
- How to recognize when thought work alone isn’t enough and it’s time to actually CHANGE your situation.
This is such a fantastic conversation full of so many aha moments and I just KNOW you are going to love it.
Use the audio player above to listen, or tune in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Dr. Jimmy Turner’s Career Journey
Jimmy took the traditional route and stayed within a close area from where he attended college, medical school, and residency up to becoming a member of the faculty. When he became an academic anesthesiologist, he wanted to focus on simultaneously being good at research, clinical work, and teaching.
He started getting into the realm of personal finance and started the business “The Physician Philosopher.” In this business, he applied his expertise of breaking down and making complicated things much simpler for others to understand. He made a website to teach personal finance to physicians. He realized that financial literacy was a key part of how to prevent physician burnout because when you have the financial freedom you don’t feel so trapped.
Learning how to prevent physician burnout the hard way
Three years later, Jimmy himself experienced burnout. He was in a bad position in his life, experienced a panic attack, and was diagnosed with Graves Disease. After he got treatment and became euthyroid, he still felt ill. This is when he realized it was burnout making him feel unwell. He had been teaching on how to prevent physician burnout for a while and now it was time for him to apply his own financial teaching. He also got a coach and was introduced to the huge benefits of thought work. Because of his huge mindset transformation, he also became a coach.
You aren’t as trapped as you think you are
One major reason that many doctors start to feel burnt out is that they feel trapped. They feel like they can’t afford to leave medicine. One reason is because of the financial burdens that physicians incur from medical school up to residency. Doctors live with the fear of losing employment that can help them pay off their student loans but also fears that the longer they stay in the profession, the debt could just get bigger. This is where mindset work comes in as a tool for how to prevent physician burnout. It’s important to have awareness of the different options doctors have in their life and career. “Doctors are not as trapped as they think they are.”
The book on how to prevent physician burnout
He wanted to write a book on how to prevent physician burnout to share his expertise on a broad scale. The terms “burnout” and “moral injury” go hand in hand in defining the phenomena that happen with medical professionals. There are countless systemic failures in the medical system that lead to moral injury. The rest of the book discusses measures that healthcare professionals can take to cope with burnout and moral injury.
In his book, he emphasized the importance of having autonomy, confidence and a sense of belonging to a community or higher purpose. Even when it is not your fault that you feel burnt out, you must not play the victim and need to work on empowering yourself.
Taking Responsibility in the Midst of a Broken System
Even if the system is broken, you can still take responsibility to improve your own individual situation. Thinking that you are powerless is a logical fallacy. Just because the system is broken, doesn’t mean that you can wait until it’s fixed to start feeling better. It’s going to take a long time for the system to heal.
But in the meantime, if you want to know how to prevent physician burnout you can look at the three traits of a self-determined physician. A self-determined physician has autonomy, belongingness, and confidence. Doctors can start to reclaim their autonomy by looking at their actual financial situation and adjusting it to meet a new goal. This might mean accepting a pay cut to free up some time. It could also mean changing their lifestyle to accommodate the transition from the medical profession. They need to see the numbers and do the math in order to have a concrete plan for getting out.
How to prevent physician burnout through belonging and confidence
Jimmy gives practical tips for how to prevent physician burnout through achieving belonging and confidence. First, you should start looking for your sense of belonging outside of work. You must look into finding things to be grateful for and look at what you are actually contributing as a professional.
In order to gain confidence, you must understand that just because a bad outcome has happened doesn’t mean you are bad at your practice. You did the best you could with what you had at the moment. Self-compassion is a vital quality for healthcare professionals to have as they practice medicine.
Thoughtwork and the Arrival Fallacy
Thoughtwork is a coaching tool that helps people learn how to isolate their external and internal factors. Mastering thought work is an important aspect of how to prevent physician burnout. It is based on the CTFAR Thought Model (Circumstance-Thoughts-Feelings-Actions-Results). It helps to break down the situations into these parts to narrow down which parts you can change and work on. Aside from doing the thoughtwork, it is also important that people follow their “calling”.
The “Arrival Fallacy” says happiness lies in arriving at a certain destination. This is a fallacy because most often the joy is in focusing on the journey. When you are present and enjoy the journey you get to enjoy all the moments leading up to a destination too.
