How Reflection Can Change Your Workday

The short-staffed days continue. Today, I took care of twenty-four patients. The first patient was scheduled at 8 am and left the office at 4:15 pm. For a hematologist and oncologist, I think that is pretty amazing. I went home with no work to catch up on. It was a busy day and I want something similar to what happened today if another busy day comes by – which is almost every workday.

As I look back on today, the first thing I did was to celebrate, to celebrate that I made it – finished another day on time, took good care of the patients. I celebrated that I was organized, focused, kept doing one thing at a time. I celebrated that even though I was interrupted by my staff several times, I was able to keep my composure and ask them politely to wait a minute or two for me to finish what I was doing.

Then I examined carefully to see what factors contributed to this efficient day. As usual, I started the day with a goal in mind – to do my best to take care of the patients and finish by 5 pm. As always, I set the tone for the day that it was going to be a good day no matter what (even when we had short staff). I emphasized team work with my nurse and medical assistant. I made sure I communicated well – with my team and with the patients – not long-winded conversations, but saying things from the heart, to the point.

I decided in advance that I would not invite overwhelm to hang out with me. I was going to make it work out the way we wanted – with my team. I paid attention to the time throughout the day, while not feeling rushed.

Distractions were minimized by not having audio notifications of messages and not checking my personal phone messages every five minutes.

I kept a light-hearted attitude while dealing with serious diagnoses. I poured out my heart while being mindful of not running on empty.

Next, I reflected on what could be improved. For example, I could have communicated even more clearly about a new patient’s blood draw orders. Or set clear boundaries on punctuality of patients. The office I was at had computers that would take at least five minutes to load up – so I decided not to even attempt to use the exam room computers. If I were able to use the computers, without having to wait for each computer to load, I would have likely finished my notes even faster. The other office I work at has newer computers and I am able to take advantage of the face-to-face time to write at least part of the patient note.

There were minor moments of frustration because I was annoyed that I had to cover extra patients and extra messages for the two colleagues who are on leave. I did allow that emotion to be processed. Then I switched to the mode of “let me see how I can help”. Allowing myself to feel all the feelings is helpful.

It is important to reflect on the day – no matter what kind of day it is. Reflection allows us to examine the day carefully, instead of just going through the motions. You want to do more of what is working. You want to know what can be improved. You want to learn and grow from your experience, so that you become better and  better.

Make reflection your daily practice. It does not have to be long – even five minutes will do. Reflection is more than just looking at the events that happened. It is about how you think of the situation, how you feel about the situation, what actions you take and what your results are. Knowing what we think is an important step, because that is what we can control. To manage our thinking, we need to know what we are thinking first. This seems simple, but if we are not mindful, we will encounter instances when we “do not know what we are thinking” and experience emotions we do not necessarily prefer.

Reflect in a helpful way that is constructive and not tearing you down. Do it in a non-judgmental way. Do it with compassion and not comparison. If you are going to compare yourself with someone else, use that person as what is possible for you too.

The next question to ask yourself is, how would you do it differently? In other words, how can you improve the situation next time? Are you doing things in alignment with your values?

As we live in this world, our experiences help shape who we are. Those experiences help us the best by reflecting on them. What went well? Keep doing more of what is working. What can be improved? Come up with strategies to tackle it so you are prepared next time. Another important thing is, as you are reflecting on your day, be grateful. Be grateful for what is good and what is bad. Not that you necessarily want to have more of the bad experiences, but it is what you get to learn from it. Every day is an opportunity to learn and grow, to become a better version of yourself while you are holding on to your values.

How was today meaningful to you?