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00:00:01
Burnout
30 Plays6 months ago
About the Hosts:
Savanah Craig, DDS, is an accomplished dentist with a strong emphasis on continuous learning and patient care. Known for her excellent organizational skills, Dr. Craig enjoys planning and taking part in travel and vacation activities, a testament to her belief in the importance of work-life balance. As an early-career dentist, she balances her professional responsibilities with personal interests, including spending time outside her home exploring new places.
Ronnetta Sartor, DMD is a fellow dentist and advocate for self-care to prevent professional burnout. She has transitioned from working as an associate dentist to owning her practice, a leap that represents her ambition and commitment to the field of dentistry. Renetta believes in the power of gratitude journals and personal wellbeing routines as crucial tools for maintaining a balanced and fulfilled professional life.
Episode Summary:
In this latest episode of Beyond Graduation, Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor delve into a candid discussion on burnout, the significance of taking vacations, and the art of achieving a gratifying work-life balance. The episode serves as a reflection of their early career journeys and the importance of taking control of one's personal and professional health.
Savanah outlines her proactive approach to scheduling getaway trips, emphasizing the value of stepping away from the demands of dentistry, while Ronnetta shares her personal challenges with taking vacations and her plan to implement what she's learned. The conversation pivots to consider the signs of approaching burnout and the strategies.
Key Takeaways:
- Acknowledge and act upon the early warning signs of burnout – such as a lack of motivation to work, emotional exhaustion, or a negative mindset toward patients and colleagues.
- Creating and upholding personal routines like workout sessions, gratitude journaling, or gardening can help maintain personal wellbeing and professional performance.
- Proactive vacation planning can ensure meaningful downtime, but it’s essential for dental professionals to execute these plans to truly benefit from their time off.
Connect with Savanah Craig: @savanahcraigdds
Connect with Ronnetta Sartor: @dr_sartor
Connect with FutureDentists: @futuredentists
Connect with Future Dentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
-books for further reading sponsored by IgniteDDS:
- Dental Residency Guide and Beyond Graduation eBooks: igniteDDS.com/eBooks
For a more in-depth exploration on preventing dental burnout and to hear the full conversations between Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor, be sure to listen to the entire episode of Beyond Graduation. Keep an eye out for future episodes full of insightful discussions and practical tips designed to support dental professionals as they navigate post-graduation life.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Episode Focus
00:00:00
Speaker
Join Dr. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years in our careers. There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry.
Preventing Burnout: Planning Breaks & Vacations
00:00:16
Speaker
Hey guys, for this week's episode, we will be talking about burnout and how to prevent it. Um, plan a vacation time and just time off to not do dentistry. Savannah is a lot better at this point. So I am going to give her the floor to begin at this. This is something that I definitely struggle with.
00:00:46
Speaker
Oh man, no pressure. I don't know, I just like to travel and do vacations. I think especially this year being in South Carolina, we've wanted to
00:01:04
Speaker
you know, hit a bunch of weekend trips and see a bunch of places. So we've really made that a priority. But yeah, I think Adam and I have always been really good at, well, I plan them and Adam goes along with it.
Travel Habits & Relocation Reflections
00:01:21
Speaker
So I'll be like, we have nothing planned this weekend. Let's go do something. And he's like, can we just sit at home? I'm like, absolutely not.
00:01:32
Speaker
There you go. Do you think it will change when you guys are back in Ohio since it won't necessarily be a completely new place?
00:01:42
Speaker
We were talking about that. I think it'll be different, but I mean, this is also just how we've all, I have always been, you know, whether it's a weekend trip home to see family or we'll have friends not very far in like Cincinnati and Cleveland. So I don't know what it'll be.
00:02:05
Speaker
you know, it won't be going to the beach on weekends, but I think we'll still get traveling around. I was hoping my work schedule would, you know, be more conducive to weekend trips, long weekend trips, but my day is Wednesday, so I'll deal.
00:02:31
Speaker
When I was in residency, first leaving residency as an early associate, I feel like I planned, you know, every weekend was booked of like fun things to do and
00:02:46
Speaker
then COVID happened and I just kind of got used to like being home. So I need to do better at like just planning ahead for the time off. So I'll of course plan time off for continuing education because that's fun to me.
Benefits of Short Getaways & Leisure Balance
00:03:07
Speaker
And the team at our office, we look at the calendar and we actually plan
00:03:13
Speaker
vacation days um so that since we're a smaller team two weeks out of the year we'll plan together which weeks we'll have off and so um one of those weeks is coming up and i let time kind of get away from me and i don't have any plans um so i'm gonna work on that i guess i've got time to
00:03:41
Speaker
I think the big thing with stuff like that especially when it's coming up so soon is like you know it doesn't have to be a huge trip like we're going away this weekend because of course we are and we're just like getting a cabin up in North Carolina and we're really only going to be there like all day tomorrow and a little bit on Sunday but
00:04:10
Speaker
I have to be out of my house and not able to check my planner, leave my laptop, and that's the only way I can turn my brain off. So I think that lets itself more to me wanting to take more trips. I understand. Which is bad for a bank account.
00:04:36
Speaker
It's funny, I think during the summer and spring and part of fall, while it's really nice out, a lot of times I don't want to leave home because I love to garden.
00:04:49
Speaker
And so I'm just like, I guess that's a corny excuse for like not playing a vacation, but yeah, I spent a lot of time. That kind of helps me when I'm feeling like I'm going to get burnt out or anything like that. I just, I spent a lot of time out in nature. Um, but I do need to like playing because I, I have the ability to like leave, like you're saying for a weekend trip and
00:05:18
Speaker
and do those things, but... But I think that could be a good thing, don't they? Isn't there a quote about, like, building a life you don't need a vacation from? So, you know, having your garden and, you know, you have a home that you designed to make a place that you, you know, don't want to leave versus, like, we live in an apartment and we were only here for a year, so...
00:05:46
Speaker
I think that's different too. And as long as you're taking time to step away from dentistry, CE is not a vacation. I know. I know. Yeah, I did this wild thing last year where I went to a conference that was in Orlando. So we planned a family trip that would include me going to my classes, but doing all of the Disney things.
00:06:16
Speaker
outside of it. It was nice in theory, but I came back needing a vacation from my vacation. So yeah, I will not be doing that again. You tried it. It didn't work.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's my I'm excited for our honeymoon obviously, but i'm worried that i'm gonna need a vacation from the vacation to Um just because we've tried to pack so much in but we'll see Pretty good. Yeah, where are you guys going for your honeymoon? We're going to croatia for a week and then a greek cruise for a week
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, where our thought was, you know, sort of traveling around Croatia more, you know, active and having to, you know, catch the bus from here to there whenever versus the cruise of like, it's sort of all included, and you just get on the boat and go and wherever it stops, you explore sort of deal.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, on a cruise, you guys probably is less hustle and bustle, so you'll be able to relax, it seems.
00:07:32
Speaker
That's the theory, at least. That's pretty good. So how do you, I know you mentioned you guys do a lot of like weekend spontaneous type trips.
Transition from School to Professional Life
00:07:49
Speaker
Do you do any planning like calendar year type of planning for time off? We haven't up to this point.
00:08:02
Speaker
Well, I guess in dental school, your calendar was your dental school breaks. And so just knowing that, okay, you know, we've got the month of August off or whatever. And then residency sort of had its own
00:08:19
Speaker
Schedule, you know, we got time off around the holidays and things like that So I feel like my life has always been dictated by somebody else's schedule in a way So it'll be interesting You know, there's no
00:08:40
Speaker
dedicated break schedule necessarily in work. I'm sure we'll get, you know, Christmas and things like that off, but otherwise it'll be up to me to figure it out. Understood. I know it's some philosophies and I think they, Dr. Rice, he says it a lot. Like it's three areas that you had to plan time for. You're familiar with what I'm talking about. Yeah. So,
00:09:09
Speaker
I don't wanna mess up his quote, but I know one's for continuing education, one's for fun, the other one's just for things that are, I believe, important to you and to people around you. And so I've tried to plan my year that way. The only part that I haven't,
00:09:33
Speaker
So I plan to time off I just have to get better at actually executing doing something with the time off Yeah, I think that's fair Yeah, I don't know I think we'll have to circle back to this in like January because
00:09:53
Speaker
I mean, residency is July, July, and then, you know, the wedding, the honeymoon. So I feel like this year is planned, knowing myself it won't be. My grandparents are always like, where are you going this weekend? What are you doing? Do you never stay home? And I'm like, sorry, I don't know. They won't mind it when it's to visit them once we're back. For sure, for sure.
00:10:23
Speaker
But, um, so yeah, I don't know if we'll start over in January and be like, okay, plan for the year or how that will work. Adam gets two weeks, like that the company is shut down. So it would be nice. It would make sense to plan around that. But I think the other thing that's really funny.
00:10:49
Speaker
in this transition is like, I'm blessed in that my job doesn't have like a limit on vacation.
Identifying & Coping with Burnout
00:10:57
Speaker
But it's just you don't get paid if you're not there, which makes sense. But so that's like a weird balance of do we really need the money or do I need to take time off or whatever?
00:11:14
Speaker
And I think that's very personal. You know, some people, they're like, I can't take off because I want to save or I want to pay things off. But then kind of what this whole podcast is about is avoiding burnout. But I think an even bigger thing is how do you know when you're approaching the level of burnout?
00:11:43
Speaker
What are some signs for you that you know, okay, it's time that I take a step back and. Yeah, I think.
00:11:54
Speaker
when you don't want to get out of bed and go to work or go and do the things you need to do, just that sense of dread. And I mean, there's a difference between like, I just don't want to wake up today and like, I truly do not want to go do anything. Um, and in dental school, I definitely got to that point and
00:12:20
Speaker
in residency in a different way, like right around Christmas when it would have been Christmas break from college or dental school, all six of us residents kind of got in this funk. And we were all like, what is going on? And we're like, this is the first time in
00:12:41
Speaker
our whole lives. We haven't had at least a couple weeks break right now. And so I think that was a really weird feeling to get through. But I think finding people inside and outside of dentistry that remind you that you're more than a dentist has been really important to me to prevent burnout.
00:13:10
Speaker
And honestly more so recently the people in the profession who can be like, nope, probably taking care of yourself, take a break, you know, moving into this next year and reminding like, hey, find a PCP, find a gym, find
00:13:35
Speaker
You know, think about all of those things in addition to, okay, I got to move. I got to get a job. Remembering that there's more to this. What about you? I think I know that I'm starting to get burned out is just when I like, I shut down.
00:13:59
Speaker
and don't really want to do anything or don't really want to talk because it's so much to do that I just feel overwhelmed. When I get to that point, I need to take a break. What I have found is, like you said, doing
00:14:15
Speaker
things daily so like it might be when I before going to work I do a workout when I get off from work maybe I do yoga or talk to a friend while I'm going on a walk
00:14:32
Speaker
or go out and do some work in my garden to get, you know, the endorphins and stuff going. Um, just a break, like you said, from dentistry because it's an incredible profession. But if you don't, if you aren't taking care of yourself, you can't do your best to take care of your patients.
00:14:57
Speaker
We always said in college, put on your oxygen mask first. And I think another way that I learned that I was burned out and then how I've gotten preventative is like when I start personally, like being more bitter towards my patients or
00:15:25
Speaker
you know being short with my team um I at least in the beginning for sure and especially in dental school took a lot of my patients home with me um because in dental school you're like please show up for your appointment or i'm not going to graduate like I did care more about their mouth than they did because
00:15:51
Speaker
my degree was on the line. And so now in residency and then going into private practice, like there is a point of, I've educated you, whatever, but if you're not taking ownership of this or value in this, I can't take that home with me. I can't care more than you care. And so learning,
00:16:20
Speaker
to like turn that off or like sometimes like call some of my co-residents on the way home and we just like get it all out so I don't take it home to Adam or even I'll call Adam on my drive home sometimes and just like like this is my I have nine minutes till I get home and I'm gonna vent about work here and we're not allowed to talk about it once I walk in the door and I break that rule a lot but I'm trying.
00:16:52
Speaker
Those are really, really great points. I'm guilty. I do the same thing. It's really, it's really tough because we're in a, you know, we're in a health field, but it's also a service field. And I feel like most of us got into the profession because we care very deeply.
00:17:15
Speaker
So it's really hard sometimes not to bring it home with you, especially if it's, you know, a tough situation with a patient or if something maybe didn't go quite as you had planned, it's hard not to take it home, but it's good to also give yourself those boundaries. Like you said, I get nine minutes to talk about it. And then when I get home,
00:17:44
Speaker
I need to set the boundary that, you know, I'm going to shut it off. Yeah. At least until tomorrow. Do it all again. Right. I think part of it too, and that burnout book that we've both read is just like allowing yourself to feel it and get it out. And, you know,
00:18:11
Speaker
There can be unhealthy venting about work and about things like that. And, you know, I do have a sense of gratitude for what I get to do every day. But if I tried to hold it in, then I just like ruminate on it. So it's better to just be like, this was really frustrating and okay, now we're moving on. I guess one of the things that I also didn't say is that I have a, I keep a gratitude journal.
00:18:41
Speaker
And so, you know, on days particularly that can be really tough or on whenever I feel myself getting to that point of burnout, I just write it in my journal because if you list all of the positive things and things in life that you're grateful for, in most cases in the negative, it just doesn't outweigh all of the ways that we're blessed.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah. Do you have a certain time of day you do that or do you carry it with you? I carry it with me. That's awesome. For the most part, I do better to do it in the evening, but on the weekends and that sort of thing, sometimes I'll start my day with it if I need to just kind of debrief from the week.
00:19:32
Speaker
or to get started with a fresh and new mindset for a new week. But it's definitely kind of changed my outlook on things a lot of times. That makes a lot of sense. How do you, and I don't know if you've got this figured out, but like a routine, a lot of people, you know, have a morning routine or a nighttime routine.
Adapting Routines & Planning Ahead
00:20:01
Speaker
And we were talking about how that's all going to change for a lot of us when we enter practice. Any advice on that front? So as an associate, I had a great routine. I started each day with the workout. And then I drove because I would commute for work, drove to work.
00:20:26
Speaker
would come home and go for a walk just about every day. Now my routine as a practice owner, I'm still trying to figure it out because I go to work a lot earlier, which means that I would have to go to bed earlier so that I can get up earlier to work out.
00:20:48
Speaker
Now my routine has shifted slightly, but I agree having a routine will definitely help to prevent it. And just listening to your body. And you made a good point earlier about, you know, you have to first acknowledge what you're feeling. And then once you know what you're feeling, what are you going to do about it to change it? Productively, you know.
00:21:18
Speaker
important caveats do I guess when you were an associate did you still plan your vacations in advance or you know what what did that look like as far as taking time off and like shifting patience and thing like that
00:21:38
Speaker
Well, when I was associated, I did get two weeks of paid time off, but I did try to at least plan those days a year in advance if it was going to be like an actual vacation.
00:21:54
Speaker
But otherwise, you know, I planned it in enough time to where we can make sure that the office was covered. And so I guess since residency, really, since leaving residency, I have looked at each year a year in advance and by October or so. Pretty much I'll be looking at the calendar to see what what days I'm going to want off for the next
00:22:25
Speaker
you know, the next year in this coming year, I'm going to do better about actually executing the planes of the vacation. Um, yeah, well not this coming year, I'm going to, I'm going to do something within my time off that I have approaching. At least you scheduled the time off, you know, that's the biggest step. Yes. At a minimum.
00:22:53
Speaker
For sure. For sure, for sure. Awesome. Well, we will keep working on how to avoid starting off and take vacation time.
Conclusion & Listener Engagement
00:23:05
Speaker
Right. As you all can see, it's an area that we both struggle with. So we just do our best to keep progressing. Send us your vacation suggestions.
00:23:22
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media at Savannah Craig DDS and at Dr. Underscore Sartor. And remember, you are not alone on this journey.