Doctor’s Notes: What is Slow Living?

As physicians, we are no strangers to a frantic lifestyle filled with triaging hundreds of decisions quickly.

Our jobs are demanding, physically, mentally and emotionally.

For many of us, it’s a merry-go-round of rounds, notes, calls, admin, advocating for a patient, rounds, notes, calls, admin…

It can be a draining pursuit to be a healer, especially in a system that already doesn’t have many of them to go around. Between that and progressing your own future, there isn’t any time to slow down.

That is why many in the field are choosing to leave medicine. Last year, we surveyed the reasons why people were leaving their jobs and found five important reasons.

In some ways, a better solution might be to change things up and live the ‘slow life.’

‘But that sounds like one of those hokey new-age things, writer! We’re smarter than that, and every doctor knows they signed up for the hustle.’ Yet, burnout is the top issue that plagues over 63% of physicians who cite clear dissatisfaction with their medical careers.

Living a slow life isn’t just about not chasing after something to the point of complete exhaustion. It also means taking your time and weighing out what satisfies you. As doctors, no one asks us what we need, so we must take charge.

I know slow living isn’t the cure-all. What the healthcare system needs is a full-on reform. But there is some truth in slowing down whether going part-time, taking sabbaticals to focus on research or otherwise and what it does on an individual level, especially in a demanding field like medicine.

So today, let’s discuss slow living, what it means for a doctor, and how to attempt it on a physician’s schedule:

• What it means to live a ‘slow life’
• The medical ‘dog race’ and it’s impact on the physician workforce
• How slow living can benefit doctors wanting to escape the grind

Read More:

• Working in the Time of a Burnout Crisis
• Can I Take A Mini Retirement as a Physician?
• 7 Ways to Find More Work-Life Balance as a Physician

Slow Living: Not Just A Buzzword?

Okay, so where does this whole slow-living business come from?

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Before you say it, this isn’t just a privileged take. I didn’t grow up with concepts like burnout or mental trauma as part of what we go through since it was a different era. Over the past decade, when I look at my colleagues who are considering an escape plan, I see that perhaps it is the wrong mindset.

Slow living is a movement that started emerging alongside the world entering a new fast-paced age, a.k.a. the 1990s. Initially, it was to counteract the idea of fast food, which was considered haptic and unhealthy, as opposed to ‘slow food,’ made with care and generally more nutritious.

From there, slow living became a counterculture — a way to tackle capitalism’s negative effects of hyperconsumerism and a fast-paced life. To live a slow life means to live in the moment, appreciate the present, and prioritize quality over quantity. And that doesn’t mean you do things slowly but at the right time.

This concept was novel in an era when everything was starting to reach breakneck speeds. From food to fashion to money to careers and more, a fast-paced life was how you had it all. But ‘having it all’ didn’t ensure a happy life. If anything, it had the opposite effect.

It turns out that this small movement from a McDonald’s opening in a small town in Italy (yes, really) was the answer to something we’d have to deal with decades later: a way to live a meaningful life without draining ourselves early on.

And no, it isn’t an aesthetic fad that will die on as soon as it gets popular. Extensive research on the merits of living at a more slow-paced scale revealed how it all came to a head during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The entire world was forced to slow down and come to terms with what we’ve known all along:

A fast-paced existence chasing after a specific standard is inorganic, unsustainable, and leads to complete burnout. We needed a break.

Doctors on the frontlines received a speedrun of how quickly motivation to work dies when one is teetering on the edge of sanity.

Doctors are Burnt Out for a Reason

The truth is that physicians were already on the verge of burnout, thanks to a collapsing healthcare system.

First is the physician shortage, with the U.S. needing more than 86,000 doctors by 2036. A considerable part of that is because most doctors in the system are on their way to retirement, leaving too many positions vacant without enough young doctors to fill them.

We simply don’t have enough medical graduates willing to stay in the system. Even now, medical school is not feasible for most people, thanks to high fees and subsequent student debt.

Even if you do graduate and become a doctor, the work environment and low pay in primary care, where most of the job vacancies lie, just aren’t worth the trouble for many physicians starting out.

Stress levels among existing physicians are at an all-time high, with 51% of physicians reporting the burden of working with both administrative and systemic issues getting to them. And the salaries aren’t enough to sweeten the deal for anyone.

And this isn’t just an issue for the medical fraternity. Burnt-out doctors mean a suffering healthcare system. Doctors under such levels of stress from a fast-paced system are more prone to medical errors, endangering both themselves and the patient.

Don’t miss: A Guide to Medical Malpractice

However, the problem lies in the expectations of a hard and fast education. Every missed opportunity might ruin our career down the line. We take on more and more responsibilities, hustling towards a future without crippling debt and a whole host of issues holding us down.

The result is that nearly half of the U.S. physician workforce is left frazzled and quitting medicine altogether.

How Physicians Can Adapt To Living A Slow Life

How do we change an entire system that runs on physicians overextending themselves? We start by working on ourselves.

Glorifying relentless work and staying busy, a.k.a. side-hustle culture (we’ve written about it as well), has only been detrimental to physicians. This idea that there’s always more money to be made and more recognition to be earned if only you put in that much more effort? It doesn’t work.

Doing more work and less life has left physicians burnt out.

A work-life balance is important, doubly so in a field as physically and mentally draining as medicine. But budgeting for it can be hard. That’s where you start slow living first, by taking the time to engage with your community rather than taking the extra shifts at the hospital.

Of course, it takes a conscious effort to be satisfied with what you have, and it isn’t just materialistic. Research shows that the key to happy physicians isn’t only wealth but also the positive impact of their work, connecting with their patients, and motivation to continue practicing thanks to the community they’ve built.

All of this can be achieved by slowing down and appreciating the present. Leading a slow life in modern times sounds oxymoronic, but it isn’t impossible.

Having a routine certainly helps, but so do logging off, going for a walk, and taking up a hobby unrelated to medicine. Research shows that meditation works wonders in how we conceptualize time in high-pressure situations.

So, what else can doctors incorporate from slow living into their professional life? Plenty, actually. From limited use of technology and bureaucratic tasks, to depending on a core team that helps lessen the burden, the key is to rearrange the hierarchy of what’s important. Letting ‘doctors do doctor work’ only is valid here.

We are only physicians when working, and normal humans with needs outside of work. So, why not act like it?