The Covid-19 pandemic has changed all the norms of normal working life including people switching to work from home. Alongside most other industries, the healthcare services advised their doctors to work remotely to avoid unnecessarily human contact.
It is now common for patients to be offered treatments based on triage. Stable patients who do not require acute interventions are seen via telephone or video consultations by doctors working from home.
Perhaps, office working people are habitual of seldom working remotely, but it is something new for doctors-they never thought to work from home before. Doctors may find the prospect of working from home harder to manage.
Lets take a look at some top advice and tips to help doctors manage to work from home effectively and conveniently.
When setting up your video consultation make your patient feel comfortable. Introduce yourself, and tell the patient what you would like them to call you.
If you don't know the patient, confirm whom you are talking to. If it's not the patient, remember there may be issues of confidentiality.
Ask the patient what they would like you to call them.
When you work in an office environment, the brain turns off the home-connected thought process so that you can focus on your job. However, working from home can cause you to experience home and working thoughts together, which can be troublesome and increase error risk.
Additionally, if you opt to work from a comfortable home spot, such as your bedroom or living room, you may struggle to derive a work feeling from a cosy surrounding, and your brain can not switch off home-related thoughts.
To avoid this, dedicate a place in your home with a corner table and religiously use that place only when working from home to give you workplace vibes, and your mind can focus on work.
Taking short rest intervals during work is vital to refresh you, but no one will remind you to take a break when working remotely. If you keep working without any break, you will get tired and saturated ahead of time. Therefore, put an alarm to take rest intervals in which you can eat lunch/snacks, go for a brief walk around the house or phone your colleague to freshen you up and motivate you to keep working.
Working remote does not mean cutting off your contact with colleagues. Instead, speak to them, discuss clinical cases, and share thoughts on topics like you do in the hospital to keep you on track and updated during work.
While working in an office environment, you meet different people, communicate with colleagues, and do random new things daily that keep you productive, fresh, and lively. However, working from home means keep working in the loop within the same environment, putting you at the risk of medical burnout.
Therefore, do exercise, talk to your closer ones, adopt a hobby, and do anything entertaining whenever you get off or on weekends to avoid developing exhaustion.
If you are looking to switch to locum work, get in touch with us today!
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