From Burnout to Breakthrough: Reconnecting with Your 'Why' as a Health Care Clinician or Coach

How can your life and prac1ce as a Registered Die11an or other health care professional feel different this new year? Maybe you’re finding it difficult to get back in the saddle a@er the holidays, or when you consider returning to work, you feel drained and hesitant. What are these internal clues telling you about your life?

Do you ever wonder or struggle to feel like you are making the impact you hope for?

For many, we lead hectic lives. We run from activity to activity, but we wonder if we are making the impact we’ve hoped for. At times, we feel sensitive about how others relate to us or reflect our value to them, the healthcare team, and beyond. Without self-reflection and 1me to consider deeper aspects of life, we can burn out and experience spiritual fatigue. Our “personal barriers” get de-charged, which can feel stressful and scary with the demands that keep coming.

Learn to turn to what's deeper inside you.

Right now, consider some new ideas. We want to reconnect with “our why” for practicing as a healthcare provider. Each of us has something deep inside us that inspires us to take the step to become a registered dietitian or another healthcare provider. What we are doing is based on altruism; we want to make a difference in other people’s lives and the healthcare systems where we work. What we do is not just a job. We are not people who function as dietitians, nurses, or physicians for 40-50 hours a week. What we do forms who we are, making what we do a vocation and not a job.

We are not determined by what we know or do, but by what we become!

Moreover, we are defined not only by what we must know and do but, most importantly, by a profound sense of what the RDN, or other clinician, can become. We are not technicians. This means our understanding of ourselves must grow to include more than just our propensity to be experts in evidence-based nutrition or medicine. As practitioners, we must grow in self-awareness of our values, needs, emotional reactions, and spirituality. Our capacity to be healers depends on our moral and spiritual development and character.

Spirituality is what gives people ultimate meaning and purpose in living, a deeper grounding in something greater than themselves. Spirituality is the basis of our compassionate care of patients and what moves us to be present to someone else who is suffering and struggling.

Pay attention and notice what happens

To get started, whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual, or nothing at all, give yourself a jump start with some spiritual practices and see what happens. We want to cultivate an ever-growing daily awareness, a sense of gratitude, and even a celebration of our vocation or calling as Registered Dietitians or other Healthcare providers. If we do, we can have greater confidence that the care we provide to clients will more likely promote transformation for them and for us.

For the next few days, ask yourself one of the following and journal your responses:

What gives my life meaning?

Why did I choose this profession?

How do I care for my deepest self?

How am I restored after a day surrounded by suffering and loss?

Holis1c care of others comes a@er we learn to care for and cultivate our own lives. Personal and even spiritual growth comes when we become simpler and more focused on what matters most in life, on becoming people who are grateful and appreciate life and beauty even in the midst of difficulties. This year, cultivate your deeper why and your spiritual sensitivity toward life and others.

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