I have often found myself (as a med student, resident, or beyond), wondering why, in a place we call healthcare (riddled with huge emotions), we have not been taught, or are not allowed, to discuss our own emotional response to what we witness.
It could be because I was raised in Mexico. We tend to be a very expressive culture, with a rich language that includes double meanings to common words, a play on words, big emphasis on humor to many situation, and a welcoming place to voice an array of emotional states.
However, in medicine, many times I felt as if we were taught to push through motions, move on, never get too involved, and continue.
I can see a benefit to not getting caught up with every pain, sadness, anxiety of every patient, as this will leave us drained.
However, our interactions with patients, our struggles, our patient complications we experience, sexism, racism, abuse, implicit bias, exhaustion from long hours produces a plethora of feelings we don’t seem to have a place to discuss in healthcare.
In #medicine, many times I felt as if we were taught to push through motions, move on, never get too involved, and continue. Click To Tweet
We make so much time to discuss research, complications, metrics etc, but even within those meetings there is zero built in time to check with each other.
I often wonder why.
Why is this ok?
Do we truly think we don’t have time, this is not a place, all our experiences are not affecting us in some way?
All unprocessed emotions and feelings have a way to show themselves in one way or another.
Whether we then use drugs, alcohol, eating, social media, buying material things, we find a way to distract ourselves from dealing with our emotions and keep on marching.
Again, a good solider has no time to step out of the marching line and rest.
We have a goal to reach, a metric to achieve.
Stopping to take care of us somehow states we are not a team player, others are waiting and marching and we must continue.
The irony is that in a team, we need to make sure everyone is well before we can continue.
The irony is that in a team, we need to make sure everyone is well before we can continue. Click To Tweet
This holiday season, I hope we stop and think about all the things we are feeling and check in with ourselves.
Holidays tend to bring up many feelings, anxiety, dread, excitement, hope, peace or a mix of all.
Check in with yourself and colleagues because we have done 20 months of COVID and I am still waiting to see where is the discussion of how we all are? How are we coping? What are we doing?
I hear lots about metrics on appointments, closures, changes, or staff. But healthcare has not left a place for us to discuss what makes us human: our emotions.
I hope these holidays it will give you pause to embrace what makes us human in medicine. Emotions are not a weakness. Acknowledging them, finding out what they are, expressing them is so important as again, they will find a way to surface.
