The number one thing that I hear over and over again from
doctors is, “I’m stuck in assembly line medicine.”…
I’m going to use an example of a specialist who thought she
was stuck in middle America, a child psychiatrist, and she discovered that this
was not true. Even though she had had a challenging fellowship and then ended
up in a very big hospital, where she was told, “There’s absolutely no way as a
child psychiatrist, as a pediatric psychiatrist, that you can work outside of the
system.” Yet she was so overburdened, and in such a compromised position with
the demands that were placed on her, that she felt like she had to explore
other options. When she decided that she was going to go out on her own, she
was pleasantly surprised to discover that she wasn’t stuck. Not only was she
not stuck, she could thrive. And she has a thriving practice where she sees
many, many, many children each and every week. And has a waiting list…
Number two is: “I’m not smart enough.”…
I think they lose their confidence. In fact physicians
report that their number one issue is self confidence that gets eroded through
the process of being trained as a physician. Often we embrace perfectionism in
order to make up for that which we feel insecure about, and perfectionism does
not help us feel smarter. It just helps us become controlling. Then we feel
insecure and not smart enough. You’re absolutely right. You are in the top 1%.
You’re not only intelligent. You are brilliant…
Number three. “I have no power.”…
My contract was up, I
was the only breadwinner… And I took my life, and my career into my own hands,
and opened my own practice. This was 12 years ago, or 13 years ago now, and it
was a simple change in overhead. I changed the structure, I cut out the
middlemen, and I literally got my power back by removing all the people in my
business life that were sucking my power from me. They’re like little parasites
and you’re supporting them with the revenue you’re generating per minute.
Sometimes upwards of 85% is going to them. Why not cut them out of the formula?
Which is what I did…
Number four. The thing that gets under my skin more than
anything in the world. The thing that I hear more frequently than anything else
is, “I’m burned out.” You are not burned out. You have been abused,
manipulated, and you have experienced human rights violations in your medical
education and training…
So please, I am begging you all to use proper terminology.
To stop calling yourself burned out, when you’ve been abused, neglected,
manipulated, and have literally survived years of human rights violations.
“I must overwork and overextend myself.” I hear this all the
time. Workaholism, alcoholism, self-medicating. These are the top coping
strategies that we, as medical professionals, use to deal with unrealistic work
demands. We tell ourselves, “In order to get everything done that I have to get
done. In order to meet expectations, meet the deadlines, then I have to
overwork.” And this is not true. If you believe in it, you are participating in
the lie, you’re enabling it. Start to claim yourself. Start to claim your time.
Don’t participate. Don’t believe that there is a magic workaround or gimmick
that’s going to enable you to stay in a toxic work environment and reshuffle
the deck. What happens is in that shuffling process you continue to
overcompensate, overdo, overextend yourself—and you’ve moved from overwork on
the face of things to complicating your life. This is common. Liberate
yourself. You can be free. It’s not about overwork…
And number six. “I can’t get confidential mental health
help.” Yes you can. There are so many off-the-grid options. Even locally. Many
psychologists and counselors do not even use an electronic medical record. They
keep paper charts, and they’re 100% confidential. You can always talk to your
pastor, your massage therapist, your friends without worrying about anything
going into an EMR. Plus there are therapists, even psychiatrists, who do phone
and Skype sessions….
“I’ll go broke.”
Pamela Wible: Number seven.
Sydney Ashland: Believing that in order to pay off debt,
maintain your medical license, you have to stay in assembly-line medicine or
your big box. I visited, several times recently, with an OB/Gyn who believed
this, thought she couldn’t leave her practice because of the tail insurance on
her malpractice insurance. She had loans to pay off. She was the breadwinner.
Didn’t think she could support her kids and spouse. And guess what? She
discovered when she started exploring what it might take to get a small space,
to get rid of all of the administrative, middlemen that you talk about, Pamela,
in her office, and just provide simple health care for women that her overhead
dropped dramatically. From 70% down to 15%, that she got a very reasonably
priced space, that actually her risk for malpractice went down because there
were fewer people interacting with these patients Fewer people taking call…
And number eight. “It’s the system.” We spend so much time
vilifying and demonizing insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, clinic
managers, hospital CEOs, that we don’t take our own lives back. Once you
realize that you have the power to practice medicine on your own terms, you end
up way more successful and financially secure. You sometimes realize, along the
way, that you are the problem. You have been the main obstacle to your success…
And number nine: “Nobody cares.”
Sydney Ashland: This is another lie. Because there are so
many people who want to share your vision. They just need the invitation. So
much of the time when we isolate and we don’t communicate, we tell ourselves
that nobody cares, because we’re in our little isolated bubble. Once we start
to poke our head out, and we start to talk a little bit about our vision, and
we get brave enough to invite others to join us, we discover that there’s power
in collaboration. That more people cared than we’ve recognized…
And number ten.
Sydney Ashland: “Nothing will ever get better.” I’m here to
tell you, you are not terrible. You have not screwed it all up. It doesn’t
matter if you’ve lost your license, made unethical or illegal mistakes, or
missteps. It can and will get better. You just need help in strategic planning.
You need to be willing to embrace change, instead of resisting it. And when you
do that, through acts of courage and bravery, usually that start by telling
yourself the truth. Not participating in the lies that we tell ourselves, you
begin to personally and professionally experience what it’s like to have things
get better, not worse. You absolutely can create for yourself, what you want
your practice to look like.
http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/blog/top-10-lies-doctors-tell/
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