How to Stay Positive With a Busy Caseload

Jenna:  "How do you stay positive with a heavy caseload and be as passionate as possible to give your best to your patient?"

Phil:  We've got to recognize that healthcare in general is burnout prone and that feeling is real.  There's nothing you can do to just magically get that to go away.  I think the key things are, first, make sure you have your purpose, your overall big purpose in mind -- what that exactly looks like for you, and remind yourself of that, going back to that on a daily basis.  

But, that only goes so far, though, I will say.  You need to also make sure that your physical activity is where it needs to be.  I find that for me personally, the busier you get, the harder days are, it's harder to get physical activity in. It's harder to eat well.  So you need to make sure that's dialed in because that will fuel what you need to do. 

The other thing I would say is to make sure you're getting around and meeting with people who are trying to develop as people, develop in their career.  Because I think a lot of times we get stuck because we're doing the same thing over and over, and we're no longer learning.  So what are you going to learn about?  What are you going to take on that's going to cause you to grow?  Because if you're not learning, that causes you to be a little bit burnt out in a position. So what are your thoughts Jenna?

Jenna:  So I agree with all that.  I think on the same side, when you have that heavy caseload, I really feel for people that are seeing very high volumes of patients.  I think one thing that sometimes we don't think about as much is, like, if you're going to have a heavy caseload regardless and you don't want to leave where you are, see if you can change what that caseload is. 

If I have an entire day of active individuals, that feels a whole lot less than another population that I may not be as passionate about.  So I think if you can try to create more referrals, create more people requesting you and create that better caseload. I think that could help at least make the day more enjoyable, even though it is a heavy caseload. 

Phil:  Yeah, that's a really good point, because I think that's the key thing is . . . we know this very strongly, some people give you energy and some people sap your energy.  And it's not necessarily  whether they're challenging or not, or whether the case is challenging or not.  You can be exceptionally challenged, work exceptionally hard, but feel energized from it versus just working really hard and feeling drained from it.  And you'll always have patients that you're drained by.  But with that said, if you can have more patients that you're energized by to balance that out, that goes a long way. Great answer.