The perils of perfectionism in healthcare
By Dr. Phoebe Long Franco
Are you a perfectionist?
Do you feel like nothing you do is good enough for your own high standards? Do you assume other people expect you to live up to impossibly high standards as well? Or maybe you expect other people to act without flaw?
In medical professionals, perfectionism shows up when we chart so excessively that our administrative work encroaches on our personal time, even though no one will read everything we write.
Perfectionism can make us feel like patients or colleagues expect us to have an answer to every complex question they have or that we’re useless in our jobs if we make even one mistake.
And it impacts the way we work with others: we might have a hard time delegating tasks to our teammates, because we think they won’t do them correctly.
Expecting ourselves and those around us to act without error makes sense in healthcare, where the costs of making a mistake are so high. Patients' well-being and lives are at stake, after all!
The bad news about perfectionism
But actually, having overly rigid and unrealistic standards can cause us to make more, rather than fewer, mistakes. Perfectionism decreases the chance we’ll reach out for help, ask questions, or approach challenging learning opportunities that are important for our growth.
And the high levels of mental and emotional energy it takes to monitor ourselves and avoid failure can suck the joy out of work tasks and interfere with making connections with our patients and colleagues.
In fact, perfectionism is associated with physician burnout—the feeling of exhaustion, cynicism, and low personal accomplishment that can lead people to leave the profession.
Many medical professionals have gone through competitive training programs and are high achievers who want the best possible outcomes for their patients.
While in controlled environments it may be possible to achieve perfection (e.g. you could get a 100 on an exam), human interaction and patient care is a lot more complex.
Each patient has a distinct history, family, and access to resources that can impact their course of care. In an environment where complexity abounds, change is constant, and new evidence and standards are being acquired all of the time, the belief that it is even possible to act perfectly may make us feel like we have more control than we really do.
How do we stand up to our perfectionist voice?
If you struggle with perfectionism, you are not alone. So what can we do when we notice our rigid standards are getting in the way of feeling joy in our work?
Focus on learning and improving
When we’re solely focused on performing perfectly, we can overwork ourselves to meet standards that aren’t actually necessary for good patient outcomes.
Taking what’s called a “mastery-oriented” approach to our work means we focus on learning and growing in relation to where we are now.
This approach motivates us to seek help when we need it or ask questions, and to see failure as a learning opportunity that can help us grow.
Success is defined in relation to incremental growth, rather than perfect performance, which can help reduce anxiety and make us feel more satisfied in our roles.
Practice self-compassion
Self-compassion can counter perfectionism by helping us maintain a consistent source of self worth, regardless of external performance.
While self-esteem is gained by feeling better than those around us, self-compassion helps remind us we are not alone.
You can offer yourself self-compassion simply by considering how a good friend might talk to you when you’re struggling with something. Or, try a self-compassion exercise, such as the self-compassion break.
Attend to our own needs
Perfectionism can make us overwork to the point of exhaustion, which is probably why it’s linked to burnout.
Our bodies have a limited capacity and need regular breaks and fuel to function. Errors are more likely when we haven’t eaten or slept.
Scheduling regular breaks throughout the day to ask ourselves the question, “what do I need right now?”, can help us avoid overworking and abandoning ourselves in the pursuit of perfection.
Improvement, not approval
As Brené Brown notes in her book Daring Greatly, perfectionism is often about earning approval from others, rather than improving oneself.
The techniques offered above can help us stay engaged with our goals and pursue high standards for ourselves and patient care, while avoiding the pitfalls of perfectionism.
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