How to Establish Work-Life Balance as a Medical Professional

The medical field is more than a career stream.

It becomes a part of your lifestyle.

Once you’re in the thick of your medical profession, you may feel that after committing endless hours to your field, you have no energy to focus on anything else in your life.

If you’re unable to manage your work-life balance as a medical professional, you could run into some trouble.

While investing your heart and soul into your career is an excellent display of commitment, forgetting to tend to other facets of your life could do you more harm than good.

Without a balance of personal fulfillment with your career world, you may encounter emotional or social struggles that could impair your ability to advance or meet your potential as a medical professional.

If you’re not taking care of yourself with enough sleep, social interaction, self-care, your poor health and moods will seep into how you work.

You’ll end up treating patients while feeling tired, foggy minded, stressed, anxious, depressed, and become more prone to illness.

This could lead to making mistakes, having more conflicts with coworkers, and struggle to be productive during your shifts.

While you may feel you don’t have the time or energy to focus on anything other than your medical work, you will find that a few simple tweaks could make an enormous impact.

Here are some tips that will help you take care of yourself and manage a work-life balance as a medical professional:

Make a Schedule

Whether you have a set work schedule or receive a new stream of shift times every couple of weeks, you will usually have an insight of what your work hours will look like and input them into your personal calendar.

With awareness of your availability, you can schedule activities in your personal life and add those to your calendar.

Treat these events like your workdays and show up. Include specific timeframes if necessary.

The personal events you add to your calendar should mix social interactions and individual activities.

The ultimate goal of work-life balance is to find balance in your personal life where you can tend to your social needs and personal needs.

By creating a calendar, you can visualize this balance to ensure you tend to value relationships in your life with a lunch or dinner with people you love, for example, and then leave time to take care of yourself with a committed spa night or workout session.

Make sure your schedule is realistic.

Don’t book events within minutes of completing a long day at work or book activities for every night of the week.

Allow yourself time off by leaving nights or entire days open for relaxation and recuperation.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is the root of your wellbeing.

You’ll notice more balanced emotional levels, improved concentration, and high energy and efficiency functioning throughout your days with enough sleep.

No matter what you fit into your scheduling, you need to set yourself up to get between 7-9 hours of sleep on average.

That way, you will wake up refreshed and clear-minded so you can remain productive throughout your workday.

You’ll notice that by the time you get home to your family or where you live on your own, you will still have the energy levels to take care of yourself or enjoy social interaction.

Set Boundaries

One essential task required when establishing your work-life balance as a medical professional is to set boundaries between both facets.

You may feel that continually saying “yes” in work for covering shifts, leading workplace initiatives, and more will lead to your career advancement.

In some ways, they do, in fact, demonstrate your reliability and dedication to the field.

However, if you are burnt out while committing extra time, accepting extra hours of work could be redundant.

These may be when you make more mistakes or find yourself too irritable to work well with others.

This is why learning to say “no” to extra work on occasion is important.

Inversely, you need to set boundaries in your personal life, too.

Learn to say “no” to too many social commitments.

Leave room in your personal life to take care of yourself and let yourself rest.

While at work, your duty is to administer proper care without any distractions from outside of work.

Make your workplace your place for work, and your home your place for tending to personal needs.

Be Present in Your Personal Life

Committing time to be social or take care of yourself with healthy habits like exercising, healthy eating, and getting enough sleep seems to be enough to establish your work-life balance as a medical professional.

However, while distracted or concerned about work, performing these personal activities will limit the rewards you could gain.

Showing up is only one piece of the puzzle.

To help you stay in the moment and gain from your social interactions or self-care, try practicing gratitude or mindfulness.

You will learn to savor every moment of your personal life, which will improve your quality of relationships with other people and your overall self-fulfillment.

Mindfulness will not only benefit your personal life but your professional life, too, as you can cope with stress better and remain focused and level-headed through your long days at work.

Leave Time for Learning

By establishing your work-life balance, you will feel more productive through your workday and in your free time.

With more energy and a positive mindset, you can take care of your health and wellness to manage personal fulfillment, elevating how you perform as a medical professional.

You’ll notice that when a shift ends, you’ll be thinking, “what’s next?” as you look for activities in your personal life that support your growth.

Conclusion

Once you’ve established a work-life balance, you will have more time to commit to learning and earning certifications to bring you more success in your field.

With ProMed Certifications, you can gain your ACLS, PALS, BLA, and CPR certifications, which will make you an asset in your field.

You can choose when to commit time to your courses with our efficient online platform, so there’s no sacrificing your time for taking care of yourself during your free time.

Start your ProMed courses now and receive your certification within hours from anywhere in North America.