Traditional health care losing its appeal?
Are you a GP, nurse or other health professional struggling with your current position within the medical model?
There's an awakening (without being woke) from the general public and healthcare professionals that maybe there is more to medicine than what we have been led to believe.
And this is causing a gentle, but fast passed uprising from people who want better knowledge, better prevention and better, safer forms of treatment.
And some physicians and nurses and wondering 'Where does this leave me?'
When you have dedicated your life to your profession and spent years doing what you do - coming to the realisation that perhaps the way we have been taught - isn’t necessarily the way it has to be done - is somewhat… unsettling.
More and more physicians, nurses and health professionals who work with chronic disease and mental illness are beginning to ask:
Is there a better way?
I believe the mass exodus from healthcare isn’t simply from overwork or underpay. It’s the combination of many of the causes of burnout (which for healthcare workers hasn’t been clearly defined) - including a sense of powerlessness.
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was given the endless task of pushing a boulder uphill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Needless to say, there is something intrinsically exhausting about the endless repetition of behaviours that appear to have no impact.
“Burnout is not only about long hours. It’s about the fundamental disconnect between health workers and the mission to serve that motivates them.”
Murphy 2022, Confronting Health Worker Burnout and Well-Being
Burnout now appears in the ICD-11’s section on problems related to employment or unemployment. Symptoms include:
1. feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
2. increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
3. reduced professional efficacy and personal accomplishment.
In our current healthcare (disease-focused) model - there is a fundamental disconnect between what we want to do (ie help people & change lives) and what we end up spending a lot of time doing (placing bandaids & ticking boxes).
In acute medicine, surgery and other forms of emergency medicine, diagnostic tools and treatment are foraging ahead and have made some amazing advancements.
In treating chronic conditions and mental health - general medicine and psychiatry are fast failing.
I’ve recently come across a new paradigm of health care - among some of the more established ones. PreKure has been around for a few years with a focus on a preventative medicine movement.
“PREKURE exists to change the face of healthcare, to put prevention before cure and extend the human healthspan. We’re championing a Preventative Medicine Movement and educating people to prevent, manage and reverse chronic lifestyle diseases & mental health issues”.
(From the website: www.prekure.com)
More recently, David Beaumont (also in New Zealand) is championing a Positive Medicine Movement - also with a focus on preventative medicine, training physicians to take a whole-person approach to medicine and emphasise the empowerment of individuals within the healthcare model.
Both of these companies in my mind are music to my ears.
“Burnout manifests in individuals, but it’s fundamentally rooted in systems.”
Murphy 2022, Confronting Health Worker Burnout and Well-Being
It’s time our medical system changed. It needs to be uprooted and overhauled. In order to do what we came to do - we need to be prepared to change the way we do things.
How do we do this?
Unfortunately, it largely comes down to the individual to upskill him or herself. Which can be costly and time-consuming. However, the benefit of this, is that learning a new approach can be empowering for the consumer and the physician.
Upskill - You can take one of the webinar courses I’ve put together or one of the courses on nutrition and mental health (see: The Food & Mood Academy or Julia Rucklidge’s Mental Health and Nutrition course). ACNEM (Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine) may also be a good resource for upskilling in specific areas.
Join like-minded communities - if you are a healthcare professional in mental health - join the Facebook group: Integrated Mental Health for Health Professionals. You can sign up for PreKure and Positive Medicine updates, conferences and courses.
Attended conferences: AIMA (Australasian Integrated Medicine Association) has an (in my opinion) amazing annual conference in Auckland. PreKure now also have an annual conference, The Future of Medicine Conference.
The change may come through slowly - but the impact this can have on our lives as health professionals and the lives of the people we deal with will be like nothing we have experienced before.
References:
Murthy, V. (2022) N Engl J Med 2022; 387:577-579
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2207252 Confronting Health Worker Burnout and Well-Being. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2207252De Hert, S. (2020). Burnout in Healthcare Workers: Prevalence, Impact and Preventative Strategies. Local and regional anesthesia, 13, 171–183. https://doi.org/10.2147/LRA.S240564
Drummond, D. (2015) Fam Pract Manag. 2015;22(5):42-47 https://www.aafp.org/pubs/fpm/issues/2015/0900/p42.html
Helen is a registered nurse, specialising in mental health from a holistic perspective. She is passionate about supporting people to have optimal mental health and well-being.
Based in New Zealand, Helen is available for speaking, education sessions and one on one appointments.