Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of all of Shore Regional Health – its Board, Staff and Volunteers – best wishes for a Happy Doctors’ Day March 30, 2022. Thank you for all that you do for our patients and our health care team.
As we see the latest COVID-19 surge wane and prepare for a potential next one, the only certainty in health care today is that it is changing at a breathtaking pace, and less and less of our time is spent taking care of patients in the manner we may wish to.
Here are five rules for frontline physician sanity written by internist and author Dr. Suneel Dhand (but significantly ‘abridged’ by me):
- Try to spend as much time as possible with patients.
- Take regular breaks.
- Make friends with those you work with. Any job is a whole lot better if you get to know, and ideally befriend, those around you – not just colleagues – but also nurses and ancillary staff.
- Empower yourself to improve the system. PLEASE give feedback! Your input is critical to our improvement and journey to high reliability!
- Have some great hobbies and lead a healthy lifestyle outside of your profession. Do something that truly relaxes you and gets you away from it all.
All of the above is, of course easy to read, but difficult to do. Again, please accept my best wishes for the happiest Doctors’ Day for you and all doctors serving our five-county region.
Sincerely,
