We healthcare professionals today often feel besieged, morally distressed, emotionally exhausted, and on the edge of burnout. Behind these powerful sentiments are occupational factors seemingly out of our control: high patient loads, staffing shortages, diminishing autonomy, consuming documentation requirements, bewildering insurance demands, disrespect from leadership, stagnant pay and reimbursement, and growing workplace threats, even violence. Understandably, many of our colleagues are emotionally detaching, socially withdrawing, and even leaving healthcare behind.
Where can we find hope? Standard advice includes prioritizing sleep, maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, counseling with a professional, engaging in meaningful hobbies, perhaps taking a sabbatical.
I want to add another powerful pathway to renewal: Therapeutic Giving
In his landmark book, Give To Live, Douglas M. Lawson, PhD, reveals the findings of extensive research on the health effects of giving. It didn’t matter what people gave away. Gifts of time, money, or material possessions all had a similar affects. The factor that mattered most was the frequency and the attitude with which people gave. Those who made giving a regular part of their lives experienced improved relationships, better sleep, longer life expectancy, and significantly less depression.
One brilliant example of giving in healthcare is illuminated through the life of Jordan Crawford, a recent physician assistant grad. “The INMED Humanitarian Health Conference gave me opportunity to hear personal stories and observe the life and passion of people who have a heart to engage the disadvantaged,” observes Jordan. “It provided me a lens to appreciate what is happening in both locally and globally, The Humanitarian Health Conference encouraged me to consider what it would look like for me, personally, to begin my medical career in serving the least, the lost, and the lowly — the truly marginalized in Kansas City and the world at large.”
Jordan actively pursued that vision, earning his INMED Graduate Diploma in International Medicine and Public Health, which included serving at a clinic in Kampala, Uganda – the setting of this photo overlooking the urban community Jordan helped to care for.
“At the Humanitarian Health Conference I became encouraged to discover that I’m not alone in my desires to practice this type of medicine. In fact, it was at the Conference that I first met the man who eventually became my boss at Hope Family Care Center, Dr. Tom Kettler. So, you could say the Conference provided the introductions by which I started my career!” Back in the US, Jordan applied these virtues to his practice at that Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Look-Alike facility in Kansas City’s urban core.
When asked about what personally motivates him to promote healthcare for marginalized people, Jordan replies, “My motivation comes directly from my faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to what I believe God calls all Christians to: serving the least of these as Christ did. This includes the orphans, the widows, the poor, the marginalized, and whoever our neighbor happens to be. This isn’t limited to socioeconomic class, but it is that class of individuals who are at greater risk for death, disease, injustice, and inequity.”
A degree of distress is inevitable in every healthcare career. Managing that stress through intentionally giving of our time and talent is powerfully therapeutic, as Dr Douglas Lawson concludes “Giving is the investment in living that pays the dividends we need: health and happiness. Giving is the secret to living fully while you are still alive.”