By Nice Speech Lady / November 23, 2019
It is another day, another schedule to fit together, like a Tetris game.
Fit the patient in here, fit another patient in there. Stack them up so everyone gets covered.
Start early, end late.
Push through lunch, no time for breaks.
And, when in all of that did I take time for myself?
When did I fit into my day what I needed, first?
I ask myself today: “Do I truly care for myself with the same fierceness as I care for others?”
It is the same martyrdoms that is seen in other helping professions. Nurses, teachers, and others: give, give, give, give. Give until you have driven yourself into the ground.
It wasn’t until I had a peer professional take me aside last year and tell me a hard truth. “Bekah, there will never be enough of you to fill the state’s need. The need is insurmountable, and there will always be more demand that supply. There will always be those waiting. And, in the process of serving others you have to serve ‘numero uno’ first. There will always be needs out there in the community.”
I live in a state where access to health care in many capacities is hard to come by. Therapy services, be it outpatient or home health, can sometimes be hard to cover. Other medical services such as mental health services even, have waiting list after waiting list. The need far outweighs the availability of providers in many capacities.
It is true. In my own power, I cannot solve the problem.
I can run myself ragged to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, but to what end, to what good? I can deny my own physical needs at the expense of coverage, again and again, and at what cost?
I can say “tomorrow I will exercise, I just don’t have time today.” I can say “tomorrow I will have a balanced diet, it just isn’t convenient today.” I can say “tomorrow I will get a better night’s sleep, it just won’t work for me today.” I can say “tomorrow I will come up with a plan for finding balance in my life, right now I have to push through.”
But there will never be a tomorrow that will be convenient. There is only action today.
To achieve therapy objectives and case manage, I pour myself into sessions with patients. I am 100% present, focusing on their needs, their goals, their desires. I problem-solve, consider all options and do all that is within my power to do whatever it takes to care for achieving their outcomes.
But do I do the same for myself, with the same fierceness?
If I do not take the time, first, every day to establish my own well being and take steps and plan for my own health for throughout the day, I won’t be available to pour myself into sessions with patients. There won’t be a “me” to do anything. The burnout rate for SLPs is rising. The groups on facebook for alternative careers to SLPs are growing. SLPs are leaving the field. And, outside of leaving the field, my health is worth too much to ignore. The mortality reality of what stress and burnout can do to a person’s health mentally and physically is incalculable — and I cannot be another statistic. And friend, if you are like me, you cannot be another statistic.
So, each day I will read this post to myself, as a promise.
I will first each day, take time for myself, and “pour myself into sessions” with myself by planning self-care in taking care of my physical and emotional needs. I will be “100% present, focusing on” my “needs, goals, desires.” I will “problem solve, consider all options and do all that is within my power to do whatever it takes to care for achieving” my own personal “outcomes.”
It is time to turn the fierceness I direct toward others into the mirror and into myself, not for a day, not for a season, but for a pattern that will stick into a lifestyle.
In the past year, I have experienced a taste of this fierceness. And now I want a full meal. And I know that through it all, I will thank myself for it.
So, SLP, will you join me? Come along.
You will thank yourself for it, too.
Bekah Wilson Nice, M.A., CCC-SLP, is the owner of nicespeechlady.com.
Nice enjoys blogging and writing news articles on medical SLP issues; she also created nicespeechlady.com as a platform for medical SLPs to have free access to practical resources.