The One Belief Quietly Draining Your Efficiency as a Physician

As physicians, you have gone through rigorous training. In the school days, you were supposed to get straight A’s, perfect scores, the best of the best. That being perfect mentality is carried into your career. Each patient note has to be perfect, including all the necessary information – with the most accurate grammar. You are supposed to know everything – whatever you are not sure, besides beating yourself up, you look for the answer, so that, in front of the patients, you know it all. You are supposed to keep the scheduled patients on time. If you are running behind for whatever reason, you will find a way to make it up. There are many more examples, probably some of which you are experiencing firsthand. The listed ones are the ones I experienced.

What is holding up the façade of perfection costing you? I thought being perfect was the way to go, the only way to go. Anything that hindered it (or at least the appearance of it) was an obstacle. I was upset about how some physicians would document “continue current management” as the only assessment and plan that I vowed to write patient notes with all the details. By “all the details”, I went to the other extreme that really included a very comprehensive history, such that if someone were to only read my note, they would know the life story of the patient. It was time consuming by including details that probably are not pertinent to my management plan. It was exhausting to write up each chart.

What added to the blazing fire was that I believed I had to keep the patients as close to their scheduled time as possible. There is nothing wrong with valuing punctually, but for me, that was at the expense of my own time. It takes time to write each detailed patient note. Prior to coaching, there was no way for me to see a patient and complete the orders and note all within fifteen minutes. As the day went on, I was falling more and more behind. The “solution”? In order to “get back on track” and keep my patients on schedule, I would do those patient notes after hours. That made total sense to me at the time except that, after seeing the last patient, I was beyond exhausted. To see that I still had ten unfinished charts to complete, I felt helpless, frustrated and annoyed. My brain was involuntarily shutting down, and I was spending more time completing each patient’s chart.

Striving for perfection seems to be the right thing to do. We are upholding the ultimate standard. It is great to hold yourself up with high standards. The important thing is – what is it costing you? For me, it was extra time and energy. I ended up charting an extra three to four hours a day. I felt drained and exhausted. I felt guilty because I barely had the time and energy to spend with my family.

What coaching taught me and what I teach other physicians changed my life forever. Always be curious and question things in your life. Do you have to be perfect? The answer is no. This does not mean that you are upholding a suboptimal standard. It means that you accept the fact that you are human and you are not perfect. You are being your best and doing your best, and that is okay. Once I realized that, I included only the essential information in my notes. Writing less means spending less time to complete each note. That itself was already increasing my efficiency.

The second thing I questioned myself was the belief that I had to keep patients on time according to the schedule. Why did I believe that so much that I sacrificed my own time to achieve it? It was more than just punctuality. It was the concern of what patients would think if I was way behind schedule. Patients would think I did not respect their time, or that I was incapable. In order to allow the patients to think otherwise (as if I had control over what they think), I piled up work to do at the end of the day instead of seeing one patient and taking care of everything about that patient, one at a time. That toll was immense.

Is it alright to allow patients to wait a little bit? If the next patient waits for an extra seven minutes so that you get to finish the current patient’s chart and orders, is it so bad? In fact, there is more efficiency to do it this way. First, your mind does not have to wander about previous patients or things you have to do for them. Second, you now have 100% focus to offer the next patient. Third, when you do the patient documentation right away, it is unlikely you will forget the content as it is still fresh in your mind.

Accepting that I am a human being and I am not perfect is the most transformational belief I have experienced. It allows me to hold high standards yet not beat myself up if I did not achieve perfection. It is a ripple effect of efficiency and well-being.