Mastering the Unpredictable: A Mindset Shift for Physicians

Clinical medicine is unpredictable. Even when you are in the outpatient setting with a set schedule, things happen.  A patient may come in with an unexpected complaint. The internet may be down. If you feel like you are barely staying afloat, here are some strategies for you to be in more control in your clinical day.

The preparation starts the night before. The first strategy is to get adequate sleep – ideally seven hours a night. Your immediate thought may be there is not enough time of the day to do the work you need to do, so sleep is the thing to sacrifice. When you do not get adequate sleep, it is difficult to concentrate. Your mood changes easily without you realizing it. I still remember when I was still charting late at night. I wanted to go to bed but there were still incomplete charts. I chose to finish them. It took me at least three times longer to finish those charts compared to if I had done them earlier in the day. When you are rested, you focus better. You think better. You are less likely to be distracted.

You may ask what to do if it is late at night and you still have unfinished charts? There comes a point when it is better off if you go to bed and start refreshed in the morning rather than to finish your work. There are always strategies to learn for charting efficiency, which I have shared in other blogs.

When you wake up in the morning, what is your very first thought? If your initial thought is that you do not want to go to work, for example, then everything you do to get you to work, while you are at work will upset you. Our brain is capable of thinking many different thoughts, many of which we are not aware of. We can learn to be more conscious of our thoughts. We can also choose what to think. Instead of thinking you do not want to go to work, or other negative thoughts about your day, what is another way to think about it? For example, you can think that today is a manageable day. Or I am capable of handling today. When you have a more neutral or even positive perspective, you feel better. You may feel hopeful. You may feel calm. You may feel confident. Your emotions drive what you do and how you do things.

As much as you prepared for your day, there are always going to be surprises. Allow them to happen instead of arguing their existence. Instead of thinking that those things should not have happened, use that mental energy to focus on what to do about the situation. This is the exact moment when it is important to remind yourself how you started your day – that you are capable, or the day is manageable, or whatever thought you have that is helpful. Adversity is an opportunity to grow. The more you focus on finding a solution, the sooner you will find it. By it I mean there may be more than one way to solve your problem.

Preparing for your clinical day is more than just having the medical knowledge for your patients. It is more important to prepare your mind for a day full of unpredictable events and full of important decisions to make. Leading healthy habits is important and it starts with getting adequate sleep. When you are rested, you can focus better and you can think more calmly. When you wake up in the morning, choose a thought that is helpful for the day. You cannot control all the events of the day, but you can control how to think of them and what to do about them. Finally, let the unpleasant surprises be your opportunity to learn and grow. The more unpleasant situations you deal with, the more prepared you are for future unpleasant events. When you prepare your day like this, you will have a better energy source to fuel your day. You will be more efficient. You will have more capacity to explore what other things you can do to enhance your workflow.