COVID-19 Keeping Strong

Welcome to COVID-19 Keeping Strong blog article.

I would firstly like to thank and congratulate every healthcare professional who has put their life at risk, exhibiting true selflessness and perseverance in communities around the world, so that we may remain hopeful during this pandemic. In a time fraught with fear and uncertainty, we’ve bonded together to take the fight right back to COVID-19, and each one of us should be immensely proud of what we have accomplished. We truly are real-life Avengers—the first line of defence against a global threat—waging a war that is far from over.

As healthcare professionals, we are proven advocates, protecting people from all walks of life. But too often we fail to reflect upon how well we look after ourselves. If working in the medical sector has taught us anything, it is that self-care is paramount for one’s ability to thrive. Our ability to do so is reflected in how much we give to others in times of peril. How can we, therefore, better look after ourselves and ensure that we’ll always be at our best? The answer lies in your quality of life, which is inextricably linked to how much time we have for ourselves, and especially to the control we have over that time. Ask yourself: how much time or control do you have?

Some of us are returning to our private practices that have lain dormant for months, while others are leaving the profession entirely. Maybe you’re at a crossroads, unsure of what’s coming next. While this uncertainty can be daunting, I daresay that it also presents an opportunity. You see, as healthcare professionals, we are programmed to be at our best when we have control over our time, our career paths and our income – a happy practitioner is a better practitioner. Unfortunately, the road to achieving this happiness is currently as unclear as the future of our world.

Since the beginning of the COV-19 pandemic, I have been dedicated to helping fellow healthcare professionals achieve certainty in their futures by applying their specialist knowledge towards the creation of autonomous, supplementary medical enterprises. I created The Wealthy Medic Programme to facilitate our adaptation; just as the rest of society is having to adapt, so must we.

Sadly, careers in the healthcare industry don’t instill the value of adaptability; instead, we medical professionals learn “service”—an admirable and important value, to be sure—but one which, when practiced perpetually, leaves us feeling overworked and under-appreciated.

Burnout is real. But what I thought was burnout in my NHS career was actually frustration; the fatigue of dissatisfaction plagued me so acutely and so frequently during those first two years as a foundation doctor that at one point I actually applied for part-time status. I was looking for a system that was hierarchical and rigid in nature to offer the intellectual autonomy and challenge for which I yearned. Therein lay my error, and until you can fulfil that need, “burnout” in your medical career is inevitable.

I developed The Wealthy Medic Programme not only to exercise intellectual autonomy around my medical knowledge, but also to seek the challenge and improved work-life balance I so craved. The best part was that, by fulfilling these needs, I was truly able to better appreciate and enjoy my NHS role.

The Wealthy Medic Programme focuses on converting your hard-earned expertise into consumable products and ultimately achieving career fulfillment, which I believe consists of three key pillars:

More Time (“Time Rich”)
More Autonomy (allowing for creative expression)
More Income

Those of us likely to thrive in these uncertain times will be those capable of establishing themselves as experts in a field, packaging that expertise and selling it. Why couldn’t that expert be you? The truth is, you’re more prepared for this next step in your career than you may already realise. Even in the early stages of our careers, we healthcare professionals are incredibly well-learned and, perhaps more importantly, universally well-respected as subject matter experts in our given fields. Take, for example, Malone Mukwende, who, as only a second-year medical student, co-authored the black skin clinical signs book, Mind The Gap; a generational work featured in the Washington Post, BBC news and more. I’d posit that medicine is one of only a handful of professions where a student-in-training would have the requisite knowledge and clout to achieve such a feat.

In fact, I believe that with our plethora of knowledge, peerless work ethic and predisposition to the common good, medical professionals are among those most prepared to turn this COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity for personal evolution and professional growth. But we can’t go it alone. Pandemic or no, I created The Wealthy Medic Programme with a simple, yet critical goal in mind: give healthcare workers the tools they need to care for their careers, and in turn we will ensure exemplary care for every patient, every time. Oh, and if we can build wealth in the process, everyone wins.

Interested in learning more about how you can take the first steps toward more time, more autonomy and more income?

Join us on Dr Uche on Instagram where I will explain The Wealthy Medic Programme and start you on your journey towards career fulfillment.