The recent BBC adaptation of Adam Kay’s memoir of his time as junior doctor, This Is Going To Hurt, was extremely powerful. For me, it hit home personally (as did his novel), remembering those early years of my marriage, which coincided with my husband’s years as a junior doctor.
With @afinebalance_blog in mind while watching it, I couldn’t help but think of the driving forces behind the main characters’ choices and prioritisations.
I wonder how much things have changed since those days. Are junior doctors today just as wedded to their work and studies? Has the level of support offered to medics increased? Since the pandemic days of Thursday night clapping for “NHS heroes”, do staff feel more appreciated and valued?
It got me thinking of the story of the medic I interviewed, Matthew (*not his real name), who featured on this blog. Matthew described taking a pragmatic and logical approach to finding his balance:
The care and responsibility he carries for his patients, colleagues, and the wider impact of Coronavirus on his organisation and profession, have the potential to be all-consuming and anxiety-inducing. So he disciplines himself to detach from work once his immediate tasks are taken care of.
He makes a point of not staying on site later than necessary, and is mindful of how many extra projects and responsibilities he voluntarily takes on above and beyond his surgical duties. When it comes to his private practice, he sets himself clear boundaries about committing to extra cases on weekends and evenings.
Extract from the blog post entitled: Matthew’s Story: “The Work-Life Balance Logic of a Full-Time NHS Key Worker – It’s a Science, not an Art”, 23 December 2020.
His concluding thoughts on his career sum it up nicely:
“Life is precious: no one on their death bed wishes they’d spent more time at work”.
This Is Going To Hurt is a brilliantly made series that moves as much to tears as to laughter. And it’s also one that has a sobering statement on the impacts of a toxic workplace culture, and the depiction of individual struggles to find balance, the consequences of which are utterly devastating.
What work:life ratio do you think would match Adam and Shruti’s work/life values and choices…?