Outer Limits

In medical training, we’re encouraged to pretend that we have no limits. One more admission? Okay, I’m on it. One more work-in visit? Okay, I guess the patient needs to be seen. To do less would be bad form. It would be “not patient-centered.” It would make us look “weak.”

The healthcare industry is more than happy to encourage this perspective. Given the chance, it will keep asking for more from us as long as it can. If we don’t set a limit, no one else will.

This is why roughly 50% of all healthcare providers suffer from burnout. This is why people are leaving the profession at an earlier age, and in larger numbers, than ever before. This is why the rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide in physicians exceeds that of their peers in other professions. 

Everyone has limits. We all have to recognize them, make them as clear as possible, and respect them. When we exceed our limits on a chronic basis, the inevitable result is either implosion or explosion, and neither does anyone any good.