ABOUT THE BOOK

FIST PUMPS

As a practicing urologist, I am excited to share with you Fist Pumps... The Prescription for Physician Burnout. It’s the prescription to help the endless number of physicians and other healthcare providers who are suffering from burnout and who yearn to feel joyful and fulfilled when caring for patients.

The Fist Pump is a universal gesture of triumph or affirmation used by athletes and others worldwide that is both encouraging and uplifting. There’s just something about it that makes you feel great.

Imagine yourself as a provider in clinic, or walking out of the operating room, with your forearm raised and fist clenched, and you are swinging it downward with a vigorous pumping motion. And that you did this several times daily, regardless of your circumstances, with each Fist Pump associated with thinking, feeling, verbalizing, or doing something positive. Wow, in today’s healthcare system, wouldn’t that be something?

In this book, you will learn that every decision, choice, declaration, and action that helps you fight burnout and find joy is the prescription for your success. And that you will give yourself a congratulatory Fist Pump for each one. The gesture will affirm, encourage, and propagate your healthy thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors, and it will become the symbol of your self-prescribed treatment. Taking personal responsibility and helping yourself rewarded with a Fist Pump is the prescription for burnout.

Fist Pumps is divided into 4 parts:

PART 1.

THE CRISIS

The Crisis identifies and sounds the alarm that we have a healthcare crisis… and the crisis is now. Healthcare costs are soaring out of control, quality is deteriorating, and physicians are burning out and checking out in record numbers. Living in the valley of burnout can be devastating, and its causes are multifactorial. A deep understanding of its etiologies and how it affects each individual is an important step in their battle against burnout.

PART 2.

SUCCESSFUL BATTLE STRATEGIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST BURNOUT

Successful Battle Strategies in the Fight Against Burnout discusses strategies that will help equip physicians to fight burnout and find joy. It details solutions and survival tactics that will help make you a great warrior, allowing you to ascend out of the valley of burnout and reach your mountaintop of happiness and fulfillment. The mountaintop is where you find meaning and live out your purpose. It’s that meaningful place in life where you know that all the negatives and stresses associated with the practice of medicine are worth it.

PART 3.

EFFECTIVELY MANAGING THE GREED VIRUS

Effectively Managing the Greed Virus provides additional solutions and survival tactics that will enable you to manage the rapidly spreading greed virus that is killing healthcare and promoting burnout. The seven systems of the body of healthcare include the patients, the physicians and other providers, hospitals, third-party payers, the manufacturers of drugs and equipment, the legal profession, and the government. And each one has been infected with greed, entitlement, and unrealistic expectations which in turn is stressing providers and promoting burnout. Like most viruses, it cannot be eradicated but it can be effectively managed.

PART 4.

FINISHING STRONG

In Finishing Strong we reflect and discuss numerous ways of thinking that help produce healthy emotions, words, actions, and a meaningful life. We will face many of the fears that are pulling us down into the valley of burnout and emphasize that serving others in all five life domains: work, family, friends, community, and personal health, is the ultimate key to success.

I have invited nurses and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) to join us on our journey together to fight burnout and to find joy. "Team Talk" was included at the end of each chapter to apply the chapter’s message to nurses and APPs.

“Journey Moments” were added to stimulate thinking and to provide useful journaling exercises that will aid you on your climb to the summit. Think of them as basecamp where great climbers rest, reflect, make decisions, and then decide to take positive strides forward in their upward ascent.

Self-help was purposely included in the sub-heading of the book’s title. Because it’s in the mirror that you will see who ultimately holds the solutions and survival tactics to your own success. “Self” when combined with commitment and hard work, is the prescription for burnout.

GET THE BOOK