Who Takes Care of Doctors and Nurses?
Lucien Engelen
Health(care) strategy & digital transformation Maven. International Ambassador Nursing Innovation. (im)Patient. International keynote speaker. Makes things happen.
It's been almost three years since I first addressed the fact that more and more doctors and medical students are getting negative about their work. In a second blog I focused on the same matter (maybe even worse back then), which I named "Trapped between two worlds", and focused a bit more on the students.
After a story in the New York Times about a study done in 2010, a few days ago another study reconfirmed the same. Recently a study of 13.000 physicians showed that two-thirds of them feel negatively about their profession. And as Danielle Ofri (MD, PhD) points out in her article:
American doctors spend more than 22% of their time on nonclinical paperwork. That’s the equivalent of 165,000 doctors idling with busy work instead of seeing patients...."
This all coincides this week with an interview of one of my colleagues, Prof van Laarhoven, who told me that only 20% of a nurse's shift is "quality-time" with their patients interacting other than interventions, doing registration etc. The number actually shocked me.
For now I do not have the solution, but clearly this is a ticking time-bomb that needs to be dismantled. Starting to talk and maybe more importantly starting to ASK about it and LISTEN, might be the first step.
After all medical professionals should first take care of themselves to be able to help others. It's just like the safety instructions in an airplane, isn't it?
What's your take on this ?
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Also related to this topic:
- "Trapped in two worlds"
- Compassion fatigue is a call to action
- How stressed is your doctor
- Is healthcare about to "go the way the of the Dodo"?
Photo Credit : Martin Barraud
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11 年Hi. If doctors and nurses do not care for themselves, no one would! , enjoy your free time and pay attention to the other things and people (not patients) that matter in your life.we are for help to human........(I am nursing )
Earth Charter Certified Educator for SD, Transformational Coach and Managing Director Silvia Latham Consultancy
11 年Indeed. I support your point. I have seen lots of doctors and nurses run out of energy not only with their patients but also in their private life and with consequences that are detrimental for everyone. I have a dream and I am working towards that: that they all learn techniques to de-stress and bring the best of themselves especially in difficult circumstances.
I bring compassionate leadership to mission-oriented organizations; leading the organization and its people into the future!
11 年As an administrator, I have always tried to implement time-saving measures for the clinicians. Often the greatest efficiencies require use of new technology (electronic medical record as one example) which meets with a lot resistance. I've made it a point to make "change" as painless and easy as possible for the end users (the clinicians). My mantra is that if the staff is happy, the patients will be happy.
Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement
11 年I fully believe this is true not only in Medical professions, but life in general. You have to be both physically, mentally, and emotionally fit to be in a state of high performance--medical careers happen to be in a critical role where underperforming may have really bad consequences. The better we take care of our HCP's--the better care we will get.
Poet, novelist, screenwriter, educator
11 年We went into our professions as doctors and nurses to actually work with people directly. However, if we break what is a very special connection by focusing on completing paperwork to satisfy regulators who know nothing about working with patients, then we are downgrading our spirits. Of course, we would leave. Or never go into the so called 'health' 'care' professions that are not healthy and do not really care. As both a provider and at times, a patient with an oddball heart condition, I have experienced the difference between a doctor that stares at the computer screen and a doctor that is completely engaged with you - face to face - human to human. Maybe you would laugh at this analogy, but there is a divine connection of real caring that can not be pretense - not when human suffering is so real. I have found that the skills learned in the Avatar International, Master's and Wizard's courses are absolutely crucial to being able to work in a higher consciousness that can observe, intuit and originate the best possible response for the other person. I get relief from stress and enjoy my work as well as increase the enjoyment of my coworkers. It is well worth it to learn these skills!