Doctors have been conditioned since childhood to experience not knowing information as a trigger. Daily messages telling you you're not doing it right bring back memories of implied or overt criticism from school and training. There are steps you can take to minimize this effect.

I recently read a story written by a friend and business coach about a time when she volunteered at an event. During the event, she had given away all her food to support others. Now she was hungry and the event was still going on. Instead of being praised (as she had expected) by one of the more senior volunteers, she was told “If you don’t take care of yourself you can become an emergency someone else needs to tend to.”

That’s what has happened to our healthcare system.

It’s become an emergency that someone else has to tend to.

World events have me thinking about boundaries. Boundaries are created over time and they often change for a variety of reasons. So too are our human boundaries. Physicians need boundaries as well to function at their best. We can mean the physical boundaries of our skin or the cell’s boundaries of membranes. Or we mean the psychological or social boundaries that we live with, and sometimes without. These boundaries can protect us from burnout and enhance our sense of well-being.