I’ve been thinking a lot about how so many women in medicine struggle with overworking and having open charts and an overflowing inbox.
I’m starting a series of blogs discussing all the different mistakes that I can come up with that create this situation. I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind for me.
I’m going to list them here today, and then over the next several days, I’m going to discuss each one in more detail.
If you can add anything to my list, please do so by commenting on this post or emailing me at mindfuldocmom@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you and expand this list.
Together we can help empower women in medicine to look out for and avoid the things that are holding them back and robbing their joy.
Mistakes that keep you with open charts, an overflowing inbox, and working too long:
- Focusing on things outside your control
- Perfectionism
- Procrastination
- People pleasing
- Not leading the visit
- Lack of confidence/imposter syndrome
- Getting distracted/losing focus
- Poor planning
- Trying to do it all alone
- Working below your degree
- Time beliefs
- Patient beliefs
- Not defining for yourself what it means to be a good doctor
- Not setting boundaries
- Not committing to charting and closing as you go
- Not using your EMR to your advantage
- Avoiding judgement
- Negative self-talk
Those are just 18 mistakes that I can come up with that I have personally experienced during my career. I’m sure many other women in medicine can relate to at least some of these.
Over the next several days and weeks, I’ll be sharing more about each of these concepts, the beliefs behind them, and the problems they create.
While my focus will be on how these mistakes contribute to having open patient charts, I think these concepts can apply to so many areas of our lives. By recognizing them and bringing attention to these issues, we can use that knowledge to our benefit and uplevel many different aspects of our day to day experiences in medicine, at home, and everywhere we go.
