Many physicians face challenges beyond clinical work. From leading teams to navigating the business side of medicine, the journey is rarely simple. At Lucens, we recognize that being a doctor means balancing multiple roles, finding purpose, and making a lasting impact.
"Ask The Mentors" offers real-world advice from those who’ve been there. Their responses are candid, practical, and grounded in the realities of the profession—designed to help you navigate your career with confidence.
This week, Lucens mentor Eric Mann MD answers questions from our community regarding a buzzworthy Wall Street Journal article exploring physician burnout and work-life balance.
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“The piece in WSJ felt so timely. I’m constantly trying to balance my work hours with personal life, but I worry it might affect my growth as a doctor. How can I protect my time without sacrificing my development?”
It's very natural to want to balance your work hours and personal life. It's important in anything we do, in any career, that we try to have this balance.
It's normal to worry that it might affect your growth as a doctor. After all, we didn't get through medical school and training by not working hard and advancing our careers. But I really think it's important to protect your time - your personal time - without sacrificing your development.
The best way to do this is to schedule your personal time. It may sound unattractive or not sexy to schedule personal time, but I really think it's important that you do. That might be time with your family, time with your spouse, time for you to have a sport or a hobby. And understand that it's a balance.
Let me give you an example: I play tennis every Tuesday from 6 to 7:30. I see my family before, I see my family after. I work all day - I operate in the mornings, do paperwork in the afternoon. Then I come home, see my family, go play tennis, come home, have dinner, and spend time with them.
But I schedule that. And when other things come up, I say no to them. Saying no is sometimes difficult, but sometimes just saying "let me get back to you" allows you to find the right way to say no to something that might infringe on your personal time.
Now, in fair disclosure, you also have to schedule your time for work. Put your phone on silent so you can be hyper-focused on the task at hand. It's hard to multitask - then you do nothing really well. Make sure you schedule time in your career - not only for patient care but to meet with mentors, advisors, and other staff members, to meet with bosses and superiors. Get to know them better and understand their path so that you can achieve and continue to develop as a physician.
“I sometimes feel like I’m just ‘going through the motions’ with all the paperwork and administrative tasks. How did you find ways to stay connected to patient care and avoid burnout?”
Paperwork and administrative tasks are definitely part of the job, and they're important - they do affect patient care. But remember, the most valuable time is your face time with patients. I often see doctors sitting at a computer terminal playing the game of "take care of the patient via computer."
Yes, those things are important. But there is such power in laying hands on patients - healing hands. Patients need that face-to-face contact, that physical touch, that interaction. That has some healing properties on its own. So when you're seeing your patients, you need to prioritize them first.
Figure out tricks such as having scribes, using high-powered mice with multifunction capabilities, and other tools to help with the technology. At the end of the day, you want to focus on your patient - let them be heard, let them feel seen and taken care of. Not only is it rewarding for them, but it will be rewarding for you too.
And it reminds you that medicine is a calling. There were lots of things you could have done. The whole point of what we're doing here is to try to reimagine and reinvigorate that spark that got you into medicine in the first place. That will bring out a more empathic doctor, a more caring doctor, better patient care - and a more fulfilling career overall.
“I’ve heard some older colleagues say that the ‘calling’ of medicine is fading in our generation. For those who felt similarly, how did you reconnect with the purpose that brought you into medicine in the first place?”
The calling of medicine is really something that's super personal to everybody. And that should be understood for yourself personally, without judgment on whether or not how genuine it is or isn't. Some of us went into medicine because our parents pushed us to be doctors - it was part of the family tree. Others went into medicine for the connection with patients and caring for them, and some went into medicine because they were just really good at science and math and it was a natural fit or progression for them.
So you have to really think about what was the reason that made you go into medicine, apply to school. And then what are the things that kept you going and kept you motivated? Not everyone that decides to go into medicine continues all the way. Some people drop out, and we all have a moment where we have self-reflection and we determine what it is that keeps us going. And I think it's important to write that down.
I used to write that down and keep it somewhere in my drawer. And every once in a while, as I was getting burnt out after a rough day, I'd pull out that piece of paper and I'd remember - I'd remember the good things and the good times and the feelings I had, and knowing that what I'm doing in medicine is something that I couldn't do in anything else.
Sure, we're all smart enough that we could have gone into finance, or been a lawyer, or been any other type of professional we would have wanted to be, but there's a reason why we picked medicine. And I don't think that reason really changes from the different generations. Sure, each generation has its own different distractions, and the healthcare system is constantly evolving.
But at the end of the day, we decided to follow the footsteps of generations of healers before us. And whatever that is to you, it's important to constantly remember that. Another little trick that I use is communicating and meeting other people around me. You find you have a natural attraction, you're drawn to other people who are healers with the same type of motivation you have.
There's a reason why there's that saying, "birds of a feather flock together." So having a dinner once a month with a colleague or peer who has similar values could be a good way to reground yourself in the reasons why you went into medicine. Mentors have been a huge help to me in that. I've been fortunate to have them. And when times are tough, it keeps you grounded in the thoughts of why you wanted to become a doctor.
