Can you remember how it felt to be a real patient?

Before learning how to treat patients – before putting these letters after your name:

NP, MD, RN, PA, LCSW, PhD…

How often do these make it in your schedule?

Exercise – jogging, walking, yoga, weights, circuit, bootcamp

Goal Setting – Daily, monthly, yearly, 5-10 year

Community Activities – clubs, Meet-ups, religious activities, time with friends and family

Meditation – using a mobile app, community group, devotional, mindful breathing

Morning Rituals – Follow a particular author or mentor’s guidance (Jack Hanley, Hal Elrod, Gary Keller)

Hobbies – reading, cooking, painting, singing

How do you feel when you are stressed out? Getting close to the edge or breaking point?

Do you recognize it? Has your medical or health training helped you? Before, during and after your training have you seen your stress management improve?

Do you think your patients manage their stress well?

Are they stressed?

Do you ask? Do you want to know?

If your patient looked you in the eye and said, “I am stressed out! What can I do?”

Do you have a resource?

Given the volume of self-help books, apps and websites I don’t think we are lacking content.

I think we as a community are lacking guidance.

“Could my chronic pain, nausea, insomnia or irritable bowel be from rare tumors or pathogens utilizing billions of dollars of imaging and diagnostic tests?”

Maybe.

Maybe not.

My challenge to you:

Consider offering stress management advice to your patients.

Try and remember how it felt to be a real patient, before your training, and how great it would be to get some good “life advice” in addition to good therapeutic advice.

Our patients expect us to be experts in our field. They expect us to know our jobs. They should.

They can also expect us to address some baseline stress and anxiety associated with an encounter.

Here is my one page resource – copy, modify, completely change it:

https://orainformatics.com/gaggle/address-my-stress/ 

This is a link of my personal wellness week. How I schedule my days so I feel ready to meet the challenges of the day leaning forward. How I put my health first. Literally first in the day and I invite you to join me.

Putting My Health First

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