“I need to quit healthcare and find another profession.” I’ve heard several versions of this sentiment from clients over the years.
Our healthcare system is out of balance, no doubt. But you don’t need to change careers to regain psychological equilibrium and passion. (And you’re not going to make the healthcare world less dysfunctional either.)
Here’s how the Jungians might describe provider stress:
When the ego engages the environment, it typically develops a persona at its outward edge. This façade, so to speak, helps balance the ego as it attempts three tasks: expressing its own essence, engaging the functions demanded upon it, and negotiating the limitations of the environment.
When these 3 elements fall out of balance, the persona rigidifies into a stereotyped mask. Then, instead of being a supple protective coating that facilitates daily encounters, it becomes brittle and prone to cracks.[1]
Many of us providers are walking around with brittle masks. The environment has, indeed, thrown things out of balance. Some of our masks are cracking.
Antonio Machado says:
Mankind owns four things
that are no good at sea:
rudder, anchor, oars,
and the fear of going down.
In other words, what used to serve no longer serves, and angst about it doesn’t help.
Thriving in a dysfunctional system requires nurturing your own internal authority, honing your own internal operating system, and developing a deeper sense of agency. Having the cognitive and emotional agility to hold multiple truths. Making work part of your world rather than the reason for your existence.[2]
One could go on and on.
These are the quantum leaps facilitated with Adaptive Development for providers and healthcare executives.
Beyond the ethical priority of simply caring about providers, replacing a physician is expensive. (Estimated to cost between $500,000 to $1 million.) Lifting providers out of stress and burnout (helping them recover their passion) with Adaptive Development is simply a wise investment.
*Especially true of physicians onboarded or promoted to leadership positions.
[1] A paraphrase of Hampden-Turner, Charles, Maps of the Mind, Macmillan.
[2] Mindsatwork.com
