Below is a story about a student struggling to understand her inefficiency between juggling, schooling, work/residency and being a parent. She began asking colleagues how they managed their time and documentation. Every doctor explained that they, too, were chronically behind and spent a few uncompensated hours outside of work each day catching up on notes and responding to patient messages. However, efficiency had nothing to do with meeting the basic demands of clinical care. Instead, our health care system actually depends on doctors’ professionalism and donated time. This trend was noted in a 2016 study published in in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that doctors — ranging in specialty from internal medicine, to cardiology, to orthopedic surgery — spend up to two hours of personal time each night completing tasks integral to patient care.

Click the following link to learn more about her story, the stress heuristic, described by Cal Newport, the “right to disconnect”, and how locums can help to relieve some of this pressure of having to constantly work.

By: Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekwu
Source: https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/13/health-care-depends-on-physicians-donating-their-time/