Blog Post Focus – Life Balance in Medical School
This blog post will discuss thoughts on life balance in medical school. It can be very challenging, but there are ways to improve life balance. If interested, checkout the similar past post for life balance in undergraduate education. Remember, others have made it through and so can you. Take care of yourself along the way.
Personal Experience—(im)Balance in Medical School
Medical school was an experience that ranged from stress-filled and anxiogenic to fun, rewarding, and interspersed with family and friends. I felt my balance was as good as anyone could really desire with medical school. I had my ups and downs and it appeared everyone else did too.
Support System
I went to medical school not too far from my family and childhood friends, so I was able to utilize my support system. I also felt I found a great group of friends in medical school, so I often had chances to be with these new, great people I had met. I had made a pledge early in my life to prioritize the relationships in my life, but I would put my needs first. So, I made great friends and generally succeeded in putting aside time for myself when needed.
Used to Hard Work and Busy Schedule in Undergraduate, but a Whole New Experience
Having been a student-athlete in college where I was always traveling or injured kept me to such a tight schedule and high level of stress that medical school was actually more balanced than my undergraduate experience. However, as far as the stresses of medical school went, they were still pretty severe in certain instances.
Boards Preparation and Residency Applications Were Very Stressful
Boards preparation, residency applications, and clinical rotations were all difficult to achieve balance in. Some rotations were depressing and loathsome, while others were quite enjoyable. Boards preparation for STEP 1 and 2 and LEVEL 1 and 2 were more stressful than they should have been because I still hadn’t understood good studying habits.
Residency applications were stressful because this was a decision that would alter the rest of my life. So, it is not like medical school was always balanced or filled with enjoyment.
External Sources of Stress and Utilizing my Support System
While I felt that medical school was extremely stressful for me, some major sources of stress came from sources external to medical school. Regardless of whether my stressors originated mainly from within or without medical school at certain times, I utilized my support systems as I was able.
Family and friends made a huge difference with my experience. Without them, I don’t think I would have found much joy in medical school. Outside of my support system and medical school, I tried to keep up with all my different hobbies.
Ironically, this was a source of imbalance and discontent as with the time demands of medical school I could never hope to maintain the majority of my hobbies or go off and get into new hobbies as perhaps I could in the past or with a different profession. By trying to do so much I was stressing myself out. My own desire for equilibrium between medical school and outside life often made it a more difficult time for me.
Expectations – What is Balance? Can one always have it?
Balance Looks Different to Different People
Balance looks like a lot of different things to different people. However, it is generally described as a state when someone handles each area of their professional and personal lives in such a way they feel is controllable and satisfying. This is unrealistic.
Balance Is Meeting Needs
Balance is more just trying to meet the needs of each part of your life such that you don’t go without certain needs for any time or too long a period of time. We have physical needs, social needs, emotional needs…and more. We have a lot of needs.
It is hard to meet these needs and we feel bad when these aren’t met. Anyone unable to meet their social needs feels isolation. Anyone not meeting their physical needs may feel exhausted, or sick, or distressed. Foregoing needs for rest can make our minds feel overwhelmed.
Balance in Medicine
With medical school – and medical education and the profession of medicine in general – balance does not look like always having everything as we want them. Instead, it looks like growing to a point where we realize what we need or are lacking and meet those needs. There will be periods of time – expect prolonged periods of time – where we will be disbalanced. Certain portions of our life will be depleted as we try to meet the most pressing needs of other areas of life.
One can have balance in the sense of being able to meet one’s needs. We can recognize when we need to move, to sleep, to set aside time for family and friends. At least in medical school or residency (but likely all medicine) one likely will never have balance in the sense of feeling like all things are as they should be—spending hours a day standing, sitting, operating, performing procedures is hard on the body and necessarily detracts from exercise, from travel, from time that could be spent with family and friends.
Conclusion – Expect Imbalance, Our Forebears Made It Through
Balance can be met in medical school by developing an intimate sense of one’s needs. Knowing when to switch focus from one area of your life (such as studies) to another (such as socializing) is essential. However, expect to have prolonged periods of disbalance. Disbalance is focusing on one need or set of needs more than others. Eventually those other needs are lacking and then become more pressing.
It is not ideal, but it is something that our medical ancestors have done before us and most people outside of medicine deal with as well. Professions place demands on us, our bodies, our minds, and every aspect of our being that make it difficult to meet all our needs in a balanced fashion.
When you feel disbalanced, reflect and recognize what it is you need. Do you need a physical break? Time with loved ones? Regular exercise? Once you determine your need, find a way to meet it. Don’t expect to always be in balance, but make sure you are meeting your needs.
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