Vacation Rx
“What I realize (and our patients will never know), what they don’t teach in medical school is how to really take a vacation.” Pam Lenkov, MD from her poem "Away Time" in her commentary “How to Take a Vacation.”
When is your next vacation? And the one after that? In our fast-paced professional world, we often find ourselves in a perpetual state of unending demands and “to do’s”, making the need for quality downtime not just a luxury, but a necessity for well-being and sanity. Yet many find it very challenging to do exactly that, often waiting until they “need” a vacation before scheduling one, if even then. Yet, if you wait to take a vacation until you “need it,” you’ve waited too long, because most of your vacation will be spent in “recovery” rather than “rejuvenation” or “renewal.” While recovery is sometimes required, prevention of the need for recovery is much preferred.
Indeed, we clinicians are notorious for taking little if any vacation, and in many groups, the importance of taking regular vacation has not been role-modeled or encouraged. Our reasons for not doing so are many, and on the surface seem rational, including patient care commitments and our sense of dedication, staffing shortages, financial considerations, poorly coordinated coverage, the inability to truly unplug, and the dread of returning to all the work that has piled up while we were gone.
Yet we know vacation improves well-being by lowering stress and restoring perspective. A recent study reinforced this by finding that most physicians take three weeks or less off each year, and many continue working while away. Not surprisingly, taking time off with true coverage helped to reduce occupational distress, while even small amounts (as little as 30 minutes) of work during vacation increased it. This, of course, is not good news.
My own experience amplifies the data: when I truly disconnect as I did last week, I come back with clearer thinking, more patience, and a deeper sense of the why of my work. Not because I escaped it, but because by stepping away I was able to re-enter it with more of myself available. But having coverage is key. In my group, we have “vacation buddies” who cover for each other. While this might increase our work burden when covering, it is totally worth it knowing we won’t be returning to such a deluge of work that any post-vacation glow is immediately lost.
So, back to my original questions: When is your next vacation, and the one after that, and who is covering for you? If you already have them scheduled, kudos to you! If not, there’s no better time than now to add “taking regular extended time for rest, restoration, recreation, and relationships” to your professional toolkit. And by making plans now, you can leave plenty of time to be more intentional about schedules and coverage. Remember that taking “unplugged time” is not simply an important break from your responsibilities but is also an integral part of your professional commitment to health – both your patients' and your own. And if anyone asks, just tell them it was doctor’s orders … then ask them about their next vacation.