How Do We Prevent ‘Burnout’? Create.

by Neel Desai, M.D.

We have been doing The Happy Doc project for over 2 years now. We have interviewed over 50 guests and written about multiple physicians, interns, residents, medical students, pre-medical students, and health professionals in different spaces and different levels of training. When we started this thing, we wanted to find out 1) are there happy (a.k.a fulfilled) docs out there, and if yes, 2) what was their ‘secret sauce’, so to speak, and 3) how can we teach our followers how to use this so they don’t end up in those dark, disconnected, disillusioned places Taylor, I, and so many of our guests have been in? And then it struck me. Like Steve Jobs once said, you don’t really see things until you are there and can connect the dots looking backward. 

So what is the common thread connecting all our guests, medical influencers, Taylor, and myself in getting us out of those ‘burnt out’ spaces? Creativity. Both at micro and macro scales. Medical training and Mainstream Medicine tends to suck the creativity out of us during our medical training. As many of our guests have said, we get very little training in being entrepreneurial or creative types of thinking, yet in every other industry we are seeing innovation and creativity explode today. This may be the reason you see such staggering rates of ‘burnout’ and physicians telling their children not to go into medical careers. How can we thrive and be happy and fulfilled medical professionals if we don’t know the paradigms and rules to do so have changed over the last 20 years?

I think we might be on to something though. We have observed those who re-discover creativity find themselves and their calling. They find their authentic humanity and rediscover their purpose.

Why? Because when we create — whether it be a podcast, blog, vlog, side business, book, or whatever — we regain our autonomy. Regaining autonomy is something we all are craving in today’s confusing healthcare landscape. This allows us to connect, collaborate, contextualize, and amplify at scale . As we’ve said, so many of the creative outlets and passions we have that got us into medical school and training were the same things many of these ‘burnt out’, exhausted, and disillusioned health professionals let go by the wayside during their medical training and career. 

However, an interesting phenomenon started to occur when these physicians, students, residents started a creative endeavor. They were re-charged, re-focused, and more engaged in their day to day practice of medicine and studying. Creative outlets made their lives in medicine much more fulfilling. These creative endeavors were actually not only re-charging spaces, and release valves to decompress, but actually acted as energy boosters in a way. Why was this?

There are several reasons for this. First, it gives him or her autonomy back. They can explore and do deeper dives on topics in medicine they find appealing to them.  Second, if there is a problem they see not being solved in medicine and it is affecting them personally, they have the opportunity to be part of the solution, ‘scratching their own itch’, so to speak. Finally, doing this allows someone to create their own supportive community. This attracts people who are dealing with the same problem (your ‘tribe attracting your vibe and vice versa). This can lead to cross-collaborations, which may lead to business opportunities for monetization, research opportunities, medical conferences and potential lifelong friendships. Doing all this can result in positive attention, support networks, and encouragement for doing something that comes naturally to that person. Consequently, the person feels energized, reassured, and excited about creating a new path in medicine. 

The timing to create has never been easier with the growth of the Internet over the last 20 years. The Digital Revolution has democratized our ability to create, connect, and be easily accessible.  The Internet is the new gatekeeper. We can now create our own curriculum outside of formal medical education. We can meet our patients where they are to discredit scientific misinformation. We can now create our own career paths. We can diversify our skills, talents, life experiences, clinical experiences, and ambitions to create a unique niche. This allows us to create our unique digital fingerprint and control the narrative of our reputation (also known as “branding” in the business world). Being able to create in these digital spaces give us an open and blank canvas to literally allow each of us to practice our “art of medicine”. It allows us to double, triple, quadruple down on what makes us each uniquely human, share it with our peers, patients, and communities, and receive the positive attention and energy we all have been so sorely missing. 

This has led us to reach the following conclusion:

 It is time for us to start learning, teaching, creating, and practicing medicine in the century we live in. 

And this is exactly what we intend to do – create new opportunities for teaching, learning, and practicing medicine by leveraging modern day communication platforms.

So what are you waiting for? Create! Go create something today – a blog, a podcast, a Vlog, a side business, a YouTube Channel, a book, whatever gets you excited! Find a way to integrate your life experiences, clinical expertise, talents, passions, and aspirations to create your career, opportunities, education, community, and a fulfilled and happy life. It’s what our interviewees did. It’s what our Medical Influencers did. It’s what Taylor and I  did and are doing. Hope you join us over here on the other side. The view is amazing!

Neel Desai is a family physician, active contributor to The Happy Doc, and creator of mischief, Dad jokes, and texts that still look like they come from a teenage girl.