Hey it’s Dr. Shelly Meyer welcome to my channel and my women in medicine be the change podcast if you’re listening on the podcast and I know I’ve been talking a lot about burnout but I haven’t really talked much about what it is so today we’re going to talk about that and then some simple steps you can take to reduce your burnout if you’re new here welcome and if you’re returning I thank you so much for your support please remember to like subscribe and share this video content or rate and review the podcast so this channel and this mission can grow so as I said I’ve been talking a lot about burnout but really what is burnout well it’s basically when we feel like we cannot keep going at the pace that we’re going we feel like we don’t have the mental physical energy to continue the way we are working or going through our daily lives so it can manifest in a lot of different ways and I hear from a lot of my patients and other health care colleagues uh different symptoms of burnout so there can be even things like numbness not necessarily physical numbness in our you know fingers or toes or something like that but it can be just feeling numb to the world almost like depression would be described um you can feel dissociated from your life you can feel like you just don’t you’re not an active participant in your life anymore then there’s the fatigue it could be physical or mental I’ve heard from some that they um have muscle soreness and fatigue and just can’t do the exercise that they used to do or you know just have that mental fatigue where they crash when they get home after work and they wonder is it my thyroid is it you know my hormones well maybe it’s some of those things but it might be the burnout situation as well um there can also be symptoms of course of depression um lack of motivation not wanting to get out of bed in the morning and then they’re going to be the alternative the symptoms of anxiety where you’re having panic attacks to the extreme but also just feeling nervous and anxious anger quick to anger can be another sign of it as well so there’s all kinds of different ways it can manifest um it’s particularly difficult if you’re going through other you know problems with hormones cortisol problems hormone transitions all of that can be another thing that can make burnout worse but really we don’t want to blame it all on that on our thyroids or on a cortisol or on estrogen progesterone testosterone any of that it can be fixed without even addressing the hormones it can be fixed through addressing the actual burnout itself so how do we do that well it’s a very overwhelming thought right when you’re that deep in it so a lot of times you need to take a step back in the more extreme versions or situations of burnout that I’ve seen with some of my colleagues and patients they have had to take um maybe even some time away from their job fmla the family medical leave act does allow you to do that so I’ve had um I’ve supported other colleagues and members of my practice patients um through their fmla uh you know just they can take their you could take a form to your physician and I’ve filled out the forms as a physician allowing you to work less and then you can take that step back and really realize is this the right job for me is it putting me in this state of burnout or my personal is my personal life putting me in this state of burnout and really have some more time to reflect on that because when you’re in the thick of it you can’t keep going and then reflect back because you really don’t have that time to do that in that mental capacity but when you do take some time to yourself you can do that also you know just finding a way to rest especially in medicine to re-establish as a feeling of freedom and autonomy that’s what a lot of us are lacking is that freedom and autonomy so to do that you may need that time that fmla time you can also just speak up go to your management and say look this is I can’t see this many patients a day I can’t handle this workload uh how can we kind of take the load off my back you may get support and you may not get support and that might be you know the turning point to know is this the right job for me or not and then freedom so do you have the freedom to practice or you know participate in your job in your health care job in your job as a physician wherever you’re coming from um to practice the way you believe is ethically the way that you were supposed to when you took your oath to take care of people so if you don’t feel like you have that freedom to do that then that probably is not the right place for you and you need to think about what to do next a lot of the positions I have been interviewing have found that that freedom and that different mindset and the way to just step back and look at things through coaching so you can do that through coaching I found it like I expressed in my other video which I’ll link here through just starting my own practice and really setting my own rules and setting my own boundaries and that’s not easy that does take you know financial planning and overhead you know thinking about that but you can really start small like I did and you know just have your own yourself as a solo practitioner um and just maybe one staff member one part-time staff member not even I’ve definitely met other practices and practitioners that have just gone straight solo no support so then but you yeah that sounds daunting but if you’re starting small you’re not going to have that many patients in the beginning anyway and you do have freedom you have that freedom and autonomy and that feels really good when you do make that decision and you have those you can set those boundaries and have that freedom um there’s definitely some ways to get that support there’s a dpc direct if you’re thinking of direct primary care like a membership kind of practice and you are a primary care or you know just want to learn from the people in primary care that have done this there’s dpc summits and dpc face group Facebook group I’ll link some of those in the show notes in the description and I found those very helpful um I also can if you want to get a hop on the link in the uh show notes and description to book a call with me we can explore that further as well but there are some resources out there that can help you really start your own practice and it doesn’t have to be direct primary care there are some other resources for just starting a small solo practice even through insurance if your you know healthcare practitioner and want to do that but that’s a good way to establish freedom you can also look at maybe just getting out of the setting that you’re in whether it be the really high volume kind of clinic setting and you know finding some part-time work in telemedicine perhaps or some consulting work some supervisory work something like that where you’re not it’s not the burden’s not on you to see you know 20 30 patients a day you’re instead supervising somebody else remotely maybe or doing the telemedicine there’s a lot of thriving really good quality telemedicine companies out there so that’s a possibility I’ve also talked to other doctors on this channel and you can check out some of my other videos and casts about you know investing if you want to stay at your current job but yet see a better future and you do have some cash to do that you could do the real estate investing land investing um just different kind of money mindset uh avenues to go down so there’s some resources for that in some of my other videos and I can link those resources down below as well and link some of those other videos in the description I have a whole playlist for the whole women in medicine part of my channel and podcast um so just finding some way out and some source of maybe additional income could be another way to have that freedom in autonomy as well um so if you don’t find support in your current position you could explore going out on your own or investing your money so that there’s an alternative income source for you so that you do have a way out and you potentially could even go part-time in the future then I’ve also talked with some other entrepreneur physicians um that have you know patented products that they’ve designed that have gone into media training that have gone into life coaching or health coaching themselves anger management coaching there’s all kinds of different approaches you can do that have written books you know so just stay tuned to the channel and the podcast come because I am introducing a lot of different avenues that you could explore because I don’t want anyone in healthcare to feel stuck or overwhelmed um I also have a new venture coming out that could help support you and I will be having more and more information about that it’s a just a small little step you could take to help a practice better self-care and to really have a monthly reminder to practice self-care and to have support in that area and a community that comes with it so if you’re interested in that please drop me a comment and let me know because I will be posting more about that in my videos and on my content so I hope this provided some resources and some support to give you some avenues to get out of burnout but really also providing you know better self-care getting your quality sleep seven to nine hours of sleep setting boundaries not working late at night when you come home if your job is requiring you to do that than a conversation needs to be had and I know that that’s easier said than done and I know that we think of that as the norm in medicine is just working and not complaining right but we have to that’s why be the change we have to be the change we have to change this culture so we have to talk more we have to advocate for ourselves more and we have to take better care of ourselves because we could we don’t take care of ourselves we can’t take be a caretaker we and that’s our job is to be a caretaker so we have to learn ways to take better care of ourselves so whether that be through setting those boundaries meditation um journaling speaking up for ourselves getting better sleep eating better really nourishing our body stepping away from the computer to eat lunch stepping away from the patients to eat lunch going outside taking a walk those moments are going to be so much more than they seem they would be that five minutes to take for yourself to really reset and to you know nourish our bodies and our mind is so key and it sounds so simple but it these are little steps you can take to really break that burnout cycle so if you have any ideas on how you if you have any ideas or tips on how you broke your burnout cycle or if you have any questions on anything I’ve talked about please drop some comments down below and I really appreciate you watching and listening and if you could like subscribe share the content and read and review the podcast that would be great and we’ll talk next Frida