Healthcare Providers: The ART of Resiliency

Resiliency – as defined by Merriam-Webster is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change”, making it the perfect skillset for surviving in the ever-changing climate of healthcare.

You may also agree that the word resiliency can be so subjective, which is exactly why I chose it. How YOU define it, relate to it (or not), and search for it, is uniquely YOUR journey. I am hopeful that some of this insight will help you to discover the hidden treasures along the way and own the paths you take towards building and retaining your resiliency in your work, with your patients, and with your colleagues.

The good news: you can learn to be resilient and love what you do. Yes, they both can be achieved simultaneously! The bad news: like any other skill, it will take time (of which is purely dependent upon you).?Resiliency is a skill set that must be learned, put into practice often, and when done often enough will become a part of you, not something you turn off or on. I view it as an essential element of who you are, and your ability to use that newly developed muscle every day. (Have you heard of “muscle memory”?)

Let’s start by identifying what resiliency is NOT…having resiliency is not synonymous with having a harsh exterior shell in an attempt to shelter oneself from the infliction of potential negative experiences. Why? First, no one will want to work with you, including your patients. But most importantly, when that hard exterior shell is built, the joyfulness of your work is also then reflected away, unable to permeate and sustain you. And the goal is to grow and retain the joyfulness within our work, at the same time being able to sustain our strength and resiliency.

So, how does one build and sustain resiliency? These suggested five tactics will at the very least help to open up your awareness of your environment, the people whom you are working with, your strengths as well as your current limitations (we all have them but acknowledging them is harder for some than others).

Tactic One: Recognize, embrace and appreciate the now. Yes, to some degree we are talking about mindfulness. Your journey has taken you to this place in time, honor it for what it is; good, bad, or indifferent. You do have the power to change it, but that is a topic for another time. Recognize and acknowledge how you feel about where you are right now, appreciating the fact that you arrived here by the actions you have taken.

Tactic Two: Celebrate the elements of what you enjoy the most in this current space, and that which brings you the most joy. Is it your relationships with others, your connection to your patients, or your ability to heal and guide others to better health? Only you can decide the joyful elements which drive your passion and/or purpose. Those are the core fundamentals that may ultimately sustain you as you move through your journey, as you want to ensure that they consistently remain.

Tactic Three: Find common ground with others around you, not to commiserate or magnify the negative aspects of your current space, but to validate that you aren’t the only one feeling a certain way or enduring a challenge, or celebrating mutual wins. Unless you are an independent contractor, you are working with a team, or are surrounded by colleagues all working towards the same goal. While there may be extreme challenges you must meet and tackle daily, take solace in knowing that you are not the only one being confronted with very tough decisions or the inability to solve the world’s problems. Manage what you can today, with the help of those around you, and tackle the next set of problems that may arise tomorrow. Keep it all in perspective of where you are in the current time.

Tactic Four: Infuse humor (where appropriate of course). I am not talking about telling jokes necessarily, as that may not be received well and deemed insensitive (such as my personal experience during the labor and delivery of my daughter and my GYN thought it would be a good time to introduce several jokes, which did not go over well, though my spouse felt differently). However, being relaxed and comfortable with others to enable quick wit opportunities does help to lighten the mood and the intensity of stressful situations, and promotes a humanistic side to who you are and what you bring to the table. Plus, it just feels good to laugh and be social when appropriate.

Tactic Five: Be your truthful and authentic self (again, as appropriate). What does that mean you might ask? Only you know who you are, what you think about, how you feel, and what you believe. As a healthcare provider, you must be a professional, a collaborator, and a caregiver to others, but I can guarantee that your patients will connect with you in a more meaningful way when they see that you are also human. It is ok to not have all the answers, but you do possess invaluable knowledge and expertise that your patients look to you to share…do so with compassion, honesty, and integrity. Treat your knowledge as a gift you give to others, and take joy in watching them receive it.

I do hope that these tactics assist and support your journey towards building and retaining a high resiliency as we know that nothing stays the same in healthcare, but it can also be quite thrilling. The view and perception of this is an individual one, as is one’s resiliency to the same. Wishing you strength and joy in all that you do, and I thank you for your service and dedication to helping others.

If you enjoyed this piece and took away some valuable tactics that you hope to apply, please share your comments via this post or feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected]. Of course, I would also love to hear from you regardless of your impression of this piece, please feel free to reach out.