Success — Blog — Dr. Harjot Singh

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Do this, not that when your doctors are walking out the door - Special series for you on Physician Retention, Recruitment and Well-being.

Wellbeing: The Wrap-Up Episode!

What’s been discovered within the realm of physician (and other healthcare professionals) wellbeing, is startling, to say the least. The healthcare industry can be highly toxic, resulting in unprecedented levels of depression, suicide, suicidal ideations, physician turnover, presenteeism, and general dissatisfaction with work and life. But the condition that precedes these and is most readily associated with physician wellbeing is burnout. This, above all, is what we must be working against in our field.

Domains of Wellbeing: Wealth

Wealth can be understood comprehensively as finances, money, debt, and the ability to be financially independent. Physicians spend on average ten years longer than the general population in obtaining education and training. Therefore, they have less time than the average worker to save money for retirement.

Domains of Wellbeing: Health

Today we continue our discussion about the four domains of wellbeing. So far, we’ve explored both personal life and work life as separate domains. We’ve also begun thinking about how these domains interact with and affect each other. It’s easy to imagine how a personal crisis can affect an individual’s performance at work or how a work crisis can be more difficult to handle if one’s personal life is out of balance.

Domains of Wellbeing: Personal Life

Last post, we began our exploration of four separate domains of wellbeing. In order for an individual to truly thrive, attaining the top rung of the Ladder of Wellbeing, they must maintain either balance or outright success in all these domains.

Domains of Wellbeing: Work Life

A quick internet search reveals models developed by different writers, bloggers, consultants, and therapists. While the word domain has many definitions, for our purposes we will use, “a sphere of knowledge, influence, or activity.” With this definition, we can safely narrow down the domains we will discuss as relevant to personal wellbeing.

5 Reasons Physician Wellbeing MUST be a PRIORITY

Recently on the blog, we’ve been discussing the emerging scientific field of wellbeing. Thus far, we’ve mostly discussed this in general terms -- the two types of wellbeing needed to thrive and the ladder of wellbeing. The research is typically applied in two ways -- to organizations or individuals.

The Ladder of Wellbeing: Four Steps to THRIVE

The field of wellbeing has significantly expanded the study of the spectrum of human experience. Instead of having only two polarizing options—wellbeing and illness—there are intermediate states where neither true wellbeing nor illness are present.

Physicians on Purpose: Burnout Prevention Superpower!

Back on the blog again with another episode from one of our favorite podcasts! After Harjot spent time on the podcast at the first of this year, Dr. Dike Drummond had to schedule him back to chat again. In episode 17, Harjot and Dike chat about what superpower you need to prevent burnout. You’ll have to watch to find out!

What Happens to Organizations WITHOUT Effective Engagement Programs?

The verdict is in. The research is clear. Individuals who are actively engaged in their work have higher levels of personal wellbeing and productivity, plus lower levels of burnout.

Physician leaders looking to engage their team should avoid these mistakes and ask the important questions.

In an ideal world, leaders are able to work with their organization to build an effective engagement program. But alas, we are often not in the utopia we dream of.

So we ask: what happens when organizations refuse to create effective engagement programs and invest in their employees?

Physicians on Purpose: A Conversation with Dr. Harjot Singh

This week I’m sharing an episode of one of our favorite podcasts! Recently, I spent some time with Dr. Dike Drummond talking about one of my favorite topics — wellbeing. In our chat, I outline four levels of wellbeing and discuss the growing field of the science of wellbeing. Dr. Drummond is a delight!

What is "Flow" and how does it contribute to Physician Engagement?

Since we’re already well-versed in why low levels of engagement are a problem, let’s move on to what’s needed to create engagement, i.e. flow.

Engagement at an individual level has been studied for nearly five decades and there is significant research to bolster this claim. Positive psychology has contributed the most to studying the connection between engagement and flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi popularized the concept of flow as he researched creativity and productivity and conducted interviews with people who were successful in a wide range of professions.

Lack of Accountability

But this isn’t just a “doctor problem”, it exists on the leadership side as well. Physician leaders are pressured to put new initiatives in place and check boxes that they’ve provided “programs” (there’s a vague word) for physician engagement. Rarely are they asked to collect and analyze data about how these programs perform or how they impact the team’s quality of life.

Lack of Engagement: That's Your BEST Effort?

Pivoting from our look at the multi-faceted issues caused by a serious lack of communication in the healthcare industry, today we’ll begin to explore the wide-spread lack of engagement many physicians and clinicians experience at various points throughout their career.

The Athlete Needs a Coach

You’ve hit a dead end. Are sailing along at the same level, neither improving nor falling flat. You’re not content and unsure how to level up. Your goals are unclear, your future is fuzzy, your potential feels…untapped.

Step Zero: Don't Join the Empire!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived an angsty teenager named Luke Skywalker, who wanted nothing more than to attend the Imperial Academy and become a fighter pilot for the Empire.

Wait, what? That can’t be right…

This S.O.B.'s a Princess!

There are things that will only motivate you for a finite amount of time. It takes a special combination and renewed sense of purpose to create a true leader, bringing a dream from conception to reality. Without the proper combination of core and vision, it’s easy to fall into the trap of the drifter, sleeper or dreamer, instead of realizing one’s true potential as a leader.

Diversification in Action

We know that a trusted method to fight stress, overwhelm and burnout is to diversity our lives by having more than one support structure, many power initiatives and several career enhancement methods in place. (See our previous post if you missed it!) Yet, that sentence in and of itself may seem a bit overwhelming.

The S.O.B. Despises Diversity

Diversification is an invaluable tool in our fight against stress, overwhelm and burnout. It’s the golden rule of investment AND the key to healthy living. In 1952, Dr. Harold Markowitz wrote a groundbreaking paper which launched modern portfolio theory and eventually awarded him the Nobel Prize for Economics.

The Law of Diminishing S.O.B.'s

The thing about stress, overwhelm and burnout that’s imperative to understand is that at some point, the MORE we work, the less productive we become. I call this the Law of Diminishing S.O.B.’s. It’s like trying to scale an ever-increasing incline or a run up an exponential curve – eventually, you’re just falling backwards.

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