The Lightworker vs. the Whirlwind
Physicians are losing the battle between their Lightworker Essence and the Whirlwind of the modern practice of medicine.
How do we know this?
The most recent national physician burnout prevalence study shows an all time high 63% burnout rate. Remember, this survey is a snapshot. What it means is 63% of doctors were "suffering from at least one symptom of burnout" on the day they took the survey.
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In the 6 minute video below, let me show you new ways of recognizing and preventing your own burnout ... and why I am optimistic you can take back your practice here in 2023.
- What is a LIGHTWORKER? (that's you and me by the way)
- What is this WHIRLWIND?
- What can you do to find more meaning and purpose and less chaos and overwhelm in your practice.
(You also listen or download the audio and the transcript is also below)
Stop Physician Burnout: the LIGHTWORKER vs. the WHIRLWIND ... take back your practice in 2023.
Downloadable Audio File Is Below
LISTEN HERE - just hit the orange PLAY Button
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Stop Physician Burnout: the LIGHTWORKER vs. the WHIRLWIND
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, Dike Drummond here with a quick lesson, something I'm noticing about the healthcare ecosystem right now here in 2023. That is proving to me that we're losing a battle physicians are losing the battle with the business of medicine.
How can I tell? Well, the latest survey in the recurring surveys that happened in 2014 and 2017. Last year, the latest survey of physician burnout shows 63% burnout prevalence, meaning every single day 63% of doctors are suffering from at least one symptom of burnout. And it's affecting the way they practice and the way they feel about their career.
So let's talk about the battle. Because it's invisible. It's like talking to a fish about water. Let me line up the battle between the lightworker and the whirlwind. And this is going to be the beginning of a series where I show you some things that you might not quite understand about the choice you've made to practice in this job, if it's a stressful job for you, and additional choices that are available that might give you some degrees of freedom. This can be the key to you reversing the stress or the burnout that you might be feeling right now.
It's been my experience that me and you were probably lightworkers. You might not notice it yourself on a day to day basis. But remember back to when you chose to go to medical school, I can remember I was a senior in college, right? And you and I both stood at a fork in the road there, right? Like the fork here in the woods.
You had a choice to make, you could go to medical school, or you could do anything else. And a whole bunch of your friends did anything else because med school basically scared him, they knew it was gonna be a long, hard road.
But you looked in the mirror and you said, I think I've got what it takes. And you also said, I am not going to accept a life that does not have the meaning and purpose; where I'm not able to make a difference. I want to be a helper, a healer and I want to have purpose and meaning in my life. That's what it means to be a light worker because right there, you allied your professional life to the forces of light in the universe as we battle specific forces of darkness:
- illness
- suffering
- death
- dying
- and family members crazed attempts to deal with those things.
And you also embarked upon a great journey.
This lightworker choice at the lightworker fork in the road is something that will define your career, your practice, your life, and it will be something that you have to make compromises around when you take a job. Because once you're out in practice, here's the dynamic.
The life of a doctor is very much like stepping into a whirlwind. You walk into your office, the hospital, your practice, whatever it is that you can do, and immediately things are coming at you from all directions. It's like you're in the middle of a little whirlwind.
This whirlwind has its own gravity. It's like a chamber of mirrors. Once you're inside the whirlwind, it holds you in its grip and it occupies all of your mindshare. It's overwhelming. The whirlwind of the modern practice of medicine is overwhelming doctors. It is separating you from your practice, from your calling, by distracting you with the chaos of task overwhelm: clicks, keystrokes, mandates, patient portals, EMR, short staffing. Understand that short staffing is a big problem right now. In a future lesson, I'm going to show you why There's no reason to believe that we'll ever go back to the good old days of maybe having your own dedicated MA. We'll talk about that a little bit later.
But right now, the light worker calling is losing the battle to the whirlwind of your job. I divide things into four,
- job
- practice
- career
- life
You have a practice that you learned in your training, a way that you like to work, you have a career, it's the path that you that you take as you put your practice into different jobs settings, but your day to day reality and your whirlwind is defined by the job you have right now.
Now, people tell me all the time, "you know I still love my patients, still love being a doctor, but man, I don't like this job." And I'll tell you, I hear you. In the next lesson, what I want to talk about is why you'll never win the battle with your job unless you do two things.
One:
Step out of the whirlwind every once in a while to make sure you know what your ideal practices and that you're working active measures to take your practice back
Two:
Have a real hair trigger on finding yourself a new job. Because as bad as the whirlwind is as bad as conditions are here, and 2023, I can tell you that in our communities, we're seeing doctors, interview and find jobs that make them much happier that they had never imagined existed.
There's a lot of innovation on the fringes these days that you can take advantage of. But for right now, take a breath. Know that you're lightworker. And hold your essence despite whatever your job is throwing at you right now. And I'll show you some more tools in our next lesson. Is it for today,
The battle between your lightworker essence and the whirlwind? We're losing it's time to get back in charge. Time to exercise a new playbook. Let me show that to you in future lessons.
Keep breathing and have a great rest of your day.
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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT:
What is the #1 way your whirlwind interferes with your feeling of making a difference?