5 Healthcare Related Hobbies for Physicians Who Really Love What They Do

Some people just really love their job. Being passionate about what you do is the greatest thing one can experience. Tiger Woods once said that in golf, he’s doing something he loves and people are paying him for it. It’s almost like you’re cheating the world, because in your head, you’re thinking, “I love this so much I’d do it for free, but you guys want to pay me, so why not?” Loving your job is a major factor that helps you become one of the best at it, because to you it’s simply play time, while for others it’s a boring chore. You can spend hours working and not feel the time pass because you’re enjoying yourself, while someone else starts looking at the clock fifteen minutes into work, begging the time to pass.

Taking a break can be difficult for people who love their jobs. It’s necessary to take a break, though, because you have other responsibilities to your friends and family, and, of course, you need to take care of yourself. Even ten-year-old kids tire of riding down the slides at the playground. There are a variety of ways to relax and take a brief break from medicine while remaining connected to it. This includes attending medical conferences, reading books for doctors, writing a blog, telemedicine, and more. Let’s discuss some ways you can do this.

1. Starting a blog is a recent trend many people are participating in. It’s fun, because writing helps you relax and disconnect from all the stressors of life. Writing also gives you the opportunity to express yourself and therefore increases your own understanding of your thoughts and motives. How about starting a medical blog, though? You could write about a variety of things. For starters, you could write about interesting diseases and explain them. By doing this, you’ll benefit junior doctors and medical students who read your blog, since it’s fun and informative. Just make sure it’s not too technical, or else there’s no difference between your posts and a textbook. You could also write about your daily life as a physician. This will be like a journal to you, and many people for sure will be interested in reading your articles. Non-medical people are often intrigued by doctors and their lives, and the success of medical television shows can testify to that. High school students interested in medicine can also learn what it’s like being a doctor, which could help them decide whether or not the career path suits them. If your blog becomes famous, it will also gain you publicity and thus benefit your practice. A blog is a great way to relax and disconnect, but not completely. Just make sure you don’t breach doctor-patient confidentiality
2. Reading books for doctors is another great way to relax within the medical realm. There are plenty of medicine-related books that aren’t written with the purpose of conveying strict medical information. These include The Patient Will See You Now and Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. The Patient Will See You Now discusses the future of healthcare and how technology is changing the healthcare system. Eric Topol, a cardiologist, discusses in his book how smartphones are so widely used that they’re certain to play a part in healthcare. He believes soon, patients may have access to their medical records via their phones and might even be able to add clinical data to it. He predicts tests such as blood counts, electrolyte panels, and blood glucose monitoring will soon be done through smartphones. Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science follows Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgical resident, through his day-to-day life as a surgeon. The book is a collection of personal essays and stories written by him. The book contains his experiences as a surgeon and the philosophical questions that occurred to him as a result of these experiences. He also talks about things medicine hasn’t yet been able to fully explain, such as nausea, blushing, and chronic pain. It’s definitely a window into what being a doctor is like.
3. Attending conferences is considered taking a break and at the same time means being involved in medicine. Attending conferences is fun, especially if they’re in another country or in a hotel by a beach, for instance. That way, you can attend the conference for a couple of hours, then relax on the beach for the rest of the day. It’s also a great way to stay updated on the latest in the world of medicine. Another perk of attending conferences is building your reputation and having conversations with prominent physicians in your field.
4. Telemedicine is on the rise. If you’re not familiar with the concept, telemedicine is the use of technology to provide medical care to patients. This involves video calls with patients, sending labs and radiology to other doctors for consultation, and even monitoring patients at home post-op. You could be on vacation in another continent and still remain in touch with your patients through telemedicine. There are lots of applications that allow you to do this. Telemedicine will also boost your practice, since you’re able to connect with more patients for more time. Staying in touch with patients will also improve your doctor-patient relationship, which will make patients feel more secure with you as their physician. Telemedicine can also help you train junior physicians. While you’re at home resting, you could be observing a junior doctor examining a patient through video call and you’ll be able to instruct him/her afterwards, telling them the things they did right and the things they did wrong. You’ll also connect with senior doctors through consultations and maybe, in turn, they’ll consult you when it comes to your specialty. It’s a great and relatively easy way to stay in touch with many of those in the healthcare system while also benefitting your practice. Another use of technology in medicine, just as Dr. Topol predicted.
5. Volunteering is the fifth and last thing we’re going to talk about that lets you take a break from the job, but not from medicine. You could volunteer at a booth in a fair, for example. Through this, you will be able to give free advice to those passing by the booth and answer their medical questions. You can also volunteer at awareness campaigns, such as a diabetes campaign, for instance; through this campaign, you can inform the locals in your area about the nature of the disease and why constant follow-ups are important for diabetics. This will bring you closer to the people in your community and will make them feel like you’re one of them, not just a doctor who only talks to them in your clinic.

Taking a break is necessary, even if you’re in love with being a doctor. Even the best doctors can suffer from burnout if they don’t rest enough. Medicine is stressful, and constant work will eventually have a negative impact on your health and the quality of care you provide for your patients. If you’re passionate about medicine, you should make sure this doesn’t happen.

There are lots of ways to enjoy your break without being completely disconnected. Some people love writing, so they could write a journal or blog. Others love reading, and there are plenty of books for doctors they’ll find interesting and might even open their eyes to new aspects or questions they hadn’t thought of before. Attending conferences is also a great way to change scenery and meet new people. Telemedicine is a new realm many doctors haven’t tried out yet, but you might love it once you do. Volunteering is another way to relax and at the same time give back to your community. There are many ways to stay connected to medicine and at the same time most of these will reward you by boosting your image as a physician and helping you gain more publicity.