Fans of the hit HBO Max show “The Pitt” often praise its intense realism, but the series captures another undeniable truth about medicine: the heavy reality of burnout. Few careers are more fulfilling than healthcare. After all, in what other job can you say that you’re literally saving lives? You likely pursued a career in healthcare to make a genuine difference and help people when they need it most. For a while, that noble path gave you profound purpose and joy. However, even the most dedicated professionals can hit an emotional wall. If your ideal position has stopped feeling rewarding, it helps to understand why your passion faded and how you can reclaim your calling.
While it’s easy to put healthcare providers on a pedestal, the simple fact is that, as with any job, healthcare roles can start to feel stagnant or flat. You might stop feeling like you’re changing lives, and start feeling like you’re ruining your own. And that’s an issue you shouldn’t ignore.
Luckily, this growing dissatisfaction needn’t necessarily mean that you should scrap it all and forget about healthcare. But you might want to ask yourself the following questions about why you’re feeling like this, and what you can do about it.
# 1 – Is it a Question of Burnout?
The first question to ask yourself if you’re feeling unfulfilled in any career is, are you dealing with burnout? This is as real a risk in healthcare as it is elsewhere, if not more so. After all, most healthcare roles come with insanely long hours and incredibly high stakes. It’s hardly surprising that between 40%-60% of healthcare workers experience some symptoms of burnout. And if you’re amongst them, then this may well be the reason for your dissatisfaction.
Burnout means you’re stretched beyond your limit, you’re constantly at full capacity, and so you have less time or brain space for each patient. This can lead to a detached daily outlook that means even the lives you save don’t breach your defences. And so, a lack of fulfillment follows. Emotional numbness and compassion fatigue are all sure signs that you’re struggling with this issue, and that taking some sort of break, or an all-important vacation, could help to rekindle your feelings of fulfillment at last.
# 2 – Has Your Specialization Run Its Course?
When you chose your healthcare specialization, you were probably filled with passion and good intentions. Perhaps you wanted to save lives, increase accessibility, or further research and medications. All of these things are undeniably fulfilling goals. But fast forward a few years, and you may well have achieved everything you intended within your specialization of choice. As such, you might have slipped into doing work that doesn’t necessarily interest you, or you may just be lacking that forward drive of progressive excitement.
In this case, you really have two choices. You could try to rekindle your fulfillment by proposing a new project that taps into your interests. Or, you could seek a new healthcare career opportunity in a different field, or with a company that’s doing different or interesting things within your specialization. These switches can leave you with a real boost and an increased drive to double down on your work. And, when you start learning that new specialization or adapting to the processes in that new work environment, you’re sure to start feeling fulfilled all over again.
# 3 – Is There a Misalignment of Values?
Healthcare careers are almost always fulfilling to some extent, but that fulfillment can take a real nose dive if the company you work with is pushing for shorter appointments, increased administration, and cutting corners. If these issues become extreme, then they could see you working a job you simply didn’t sign up for, or even using techniques that go directly against your ethics. And if you know that you’re somehow offering less of yourself to patients because of this, then you won’t feel fulfilled anymore – you’ll begin to feel like you’re failing.
As soon as this thought creeps in, it’s time for a career change. There’s no way around that, because you can’t change how your existing company is doing things, and trying could make the situation worse. You may choose to take a similar job in a company that’s more in keeping with your values, but remember that issues like automation or a lack of face-to-face care tend to be specialization-wide. So, you might even want to retrain or reconsider your job choices to ensure that you can get your spark back.
Healthcare is the most fulfilling career there is, but if you don’t feel fulfilled right now, it’s a sure sign of problems. Ask yourself if any of these issues are to blame, and be sure to take steps to set them right.
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