Hey guys, my name is Jamie and I'm a first year emergency medicine resident
Thank you guys for tuning in to another video today and
today's video is going to be all about what I learned about wellness in
residency or the tips that I employ to stay positive and be as happy as I can be during my first year of residency
I just want to be upfront with you guys
Residency is hard
Especially intern year because every day you walk into work unsure of how your day is going to go
whether you're going to know how to treat that sick patient or whether your seemingly healthy
patient is going to crash right in front of you and it'll somehow feel like it's all your fault
On top of that the schedule is crazy, and it can be really hard to find yourself or find life outside of work at times
So my tip number one is ask yourself
Ask yourself: what will make me the happiest?
This mostly applies to the little free time that I have
Often after coming home from work, all I want to do is nothing
Even if I have time to do something else
I feel like I just give in to eating delivery food and watching TV until it's time to go to bed and
this is especially true if I work a bunch of night shifts
I usually wake up early enough in the day that I have maybe four to five hours before having to go to work
but a lot of times I would spend those precious hours just thinking about how much I don't want to go to work
and I fall into the same pattern of sitting and scrolling through my phone or watching TV
that doesn't even make me happy
Now the answer to the question what will make me the happiest may not be exactly what you want to do at the moment
Often the answer to this question for me is going out for a run or working out
Sometimes it's cleaning my apartment or making some really yummy food at home
Sometimes the answer really is ordering some delivery food and watching some TV show that I'm really excited about
The point here is to be deliberate with your decision and your time
Your free time is really limited and
taking the time to ask yourself how you can make your life a little better
and having just a little bit of discipline to follow through with it really pays off in the end.
Tip number two is plan vacations and free time
We all know about decision fatigue and sometimes after working so many days
when we finally have that one free day, it feels like
there's just so much to do and we become overwhelmed with making the decision of what to do
So the cure for that is planning ahead
Whether it's going to the movies or dinner out with your friends or finally
checking out that store that you've been meaning to go to, whatever it may be, if you plan ahead
You'll look forward to that off day so much more instead of just stumbling into it
I think this is especially true when it comes to vacation times
Most residents in the US get the equivalent
of four weeks off in one year. Sometimes that's four one-week vacations
For me it was two two-week vacations
and you guys all know that I recently went to Utah and Arizona for my second vacation
It took a lot of work to plan especially with six people
but once we had the flights and
Airbnb booked and the itinerary all sorted out
I found myself really counting down and being really excited for my vacation
And as soon as my vacation was over I found myself wanting to plan my next vacation
It just made all the hard work so worth it
and it made me really happy that there is something that I can work towards,
and that there's going to be a real reward at the end of the tunnel.
So plan your off days and plan your vacations to have something real and tangible to look forward to
Tip number three is bring a little happiness to work
There's a lot of things we can do during our off days to make ourselves happy
But the truth is I spend most of my days at work. So, how can I spark joy at work?
Well, I think sometimes it's still little things. I like to bring my favorite tea to work in my favorite thermos
It's something I can sip on all throughout my shifts and it's something small, but something deliberate that I did
for myself that makes me smile
Same thing with favorite socks or favorite hand lotion you can use
A bonus tip is bringing a favorite snack that you can share with another person
There's double the joy in sharing and giving. This way you can brighten your day and someone else's too
Tip number four is invest in relationships outside of work
I think in residency and in med school also, it can be
really easy to get trapped in the medicine bubble and lose perspective
Everyone we see is in medicine, everyone we interact with has sick patients and deals with life and death on a regular basis
We live and breathe the all-consuming life that is residency
Of course, we value friendship that we form in residency and the ability to talk about things that only they understand
But there's a whole world out there outside of the hospital and the medical field
There are people who have really interesting jobs that have nothing to do with healthcare and they have their own set of hobbies
and things that they like to do outside of their work
I think something that really helped me get my
life perspective was staying in touch with friends outside of medicine and
Talking about their world and their interests and even their struggles and things that stress them out
I think it made my life outside of work a much richer experience
And helped me become a more compassionate person in and out of the hospital
The last tip is physically move
This is kind of going back to tip number one and really doing things that make me happier
And guess what, if I sit all day and do nothing on the couch day after day,
It's really depressing. No matter how interesting the TV show is and no matter how good the takeout food is
I always find that if I do nothing all day, but if I have one good workout, I feel like I accomplished something that day
And I think that sense of accomplishment can be sometimes hard to come by as a new resident
You're constantly learning on the job and you need more help from others and you're helping them
And I think exercise can be a really good way to show yourself some love and feel really proud of your day
You are, in one way or another, becoming a better version of yourself
And if it doesn't feel like that self improvement happened at work, then you can make it happen
at the gym, or at the park while you're running or biking or climbing or whatever it may be.
So that's all the tips I have for staying happy and keeping my wellness a priority during my first year of residency
If you have any other tips, please share them down below in the comment box
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Thanks again for watching and I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye