The Dark Side of Health Care: Dealing with Mental Health
At some point in everyone’s life, you have heard that it is vital to prioritize and take care of your mental health. It is just as important as physical health, yet largely overlooked and underestimated. Luckily, the stigma behind many mental illnesses is being acknowledged and studied more in depth while trying to eliminate negative stereotypes and put more emphasis on self care. However, we often tend to forget that the same people who study and take care of people’s mental health face unhealthy experiences all the time. Going into the field of health is no doubt rewarding, but it comes with a price of putting other people’s needs before your own. This is even more relevant to today and the COVID-19 pandemic, with frontline workers pushed to their limits trying to deal with the rising number of cases.
The quality of life among different health care professionals vastly differs simply starting with their environment. For instance, EMT doctors working long hours in a hospital and witnessing constant trauma is extremely draining and takes a lot of strength to overcome the burden of having no choice but to move on from each death. Nurses are some of the most underappreciated healthcare professionals, with intensely long hours and not being treated with the respect they deserve from their own coworkers and the condescending attitudes that patients have.
On the other hand, a family physician working more stable hours in a clinic has the chance to maintain their mental health better. And of course, we can’t forget about the therapists and psychologists. Their entire career revolves around mental health but we fail to recognize that the stories and patients they deal with also take a toll on their health and it can be draining to be exposed to a consistent depressing environment let alone trying to ensure that their clients are coping well.
Studies show that a person working long hours, especially with minimal to no breaks with higher blood pressure due to a fast paced environment will be more at risk to make irrational decisions unintentionally due to stress. The last thing a person wants to do is deliver a subpar quality of care to someone, but it is very difficult and exhausting to meet the expectations of your shift while doing the latter.
Ultimately, a person has to know and understand what exactly they are getting into when they choose a position in the field of health care, especially in medicine. Being a student in graduate schools that are related to medicine or dentistry is not easy for anyone, but some people can cope with it better than others. The study length for each occupation varies, and so a person needs to evaluate what kind of life they want if they choose to pursue that particular job. For instance, studying to become a surgeon versus a dentist have vastly different outcomes in terms of a work-life balance. The question comes down to what does a person value more, and if a balance can not be found then sacrifices naturally have to be made in that regard.
