How to manage stress as a doctor. When it comes to being a doctor, it’s certainly no secret that those who work in this particular profession are likely to face increased amounts of stress than a more average person. In fact, a recent study determined that approximately 28% of doctors ended up experiencing an above average amount of stress as opposed to 18% of the general population who typically report this amount of stress whenever they’re on the job.
Many factors can contribute to this type of stress, including an increased amount of administrative demands and longer working hours, leaving doctors to face even more stress than ever before, as well as trying to find ways to manage it. However, if this type of stress ends up going unchecked, it can lead to all kinds of negative consequences as a result.
The most important thing to make note of first and foremost, though, is that stress isn’t always considered to be a bad thing. In fact, stress can sometimes be motivating, but only to a certain point. Once that point has been reached and the stress itself continues, an individual’s performance will end up drastically dropping as a result. Unfortunately, the biggest issue is that doctors are typically on the high end of this specific curve – generally 30% to 40% of doctors can be within the yellow and red zones for approximately two hours, which is never good stress.
Additionally, it’s also common knowledge that prolonged stress can also have very real consequences as well, such as the following:
*Compassion fatigue
*Emotional exhaustion
*Reduced personal accomplishments
*Burnout
Thankfully, there are many different ways in which doctors can manage stress in a more effective manner. Here are a few useful tips to make note of.
*First and foremost, take the time to make small changes as a way to help deal with factors that you know will cause you stress. For example, interruptions such as phone messages, medication refill requests, and referral paperwork can often be mistaken as urgent actions rather than being viewed as what they really are, which are requests that are not as urgent. Rather than taking care of each of these tasks individually throughout the day, you should instead consider putting them together and taking care of them all at once twice per day. This is a process that is known as batch processing.
*Another useful tip to make note of is to take care of yourself in the same manner in which you advise your patients to take care of themselves. For instance, you will always want to make sure that you get enough sleep, eat enough healthy food, get enough exercise, and partake in plenty of activities that will easily help you manage stress. These activities could include riding a bike, yoga, painting, and more. Self-care is something that will not only help you as a doctor, but it will also help you to take much better care of your patients as well.
*One other useful tip to consider making note of is to take the time to streamline tasks, such as patient education. This means that rather than providing patients with verbal explanations or sketched diagrams, use a more advanced tool in order to show your patients exactly what they can expect in a more visual manner. It’s important to note that this is something that doesn’t actually take the place of actual doctor-patient interactions, but it will enhance your time with patients instead. Additionally, it will also provide them with the chance to share the information with their family members and make them feel as if they’re truly taken care of.
How to manage stress as a doctor. Quick Claimers has always listened to the physician, learned their challenges and over 20 years has implemented solutions. We go the extra mile. We strive to build a relationship of implicit trust through transparency, ethics and accountability. Let us be the medical billing company that take the stress away from the medical billing process.