Learning How to Juggle with Dr. Aditi Singh
Aditi Singh MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Medicine. She also serves as the director of the internal medicine residency program. Dr. Singh completed residency and chief residency at the University of Nevada—Reno School of Medicine. She is an active member of the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine, frequently presenting medical education related sessions at national and international meetings. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Leonard Tow Humanism Award and the Nevada Chapter Volunteerism and Community Service Award, amongst many others. Dr. Singh has several peer-reviewed publications, including in the International Journal of Cardiology and JAMA Internal Medicine. Are you good at juggling? Today, Dr. Aditi Singh shares an analogy she learned after listening to a speech by the CEO of Coca-Cola. We’re all juggling multiple glass balls: Work, friends, family, hobbies, career. The one that drops—shatters. In medicine, we have to decide which balls to juggle, and how to do it well. Dr. Singh explains how important it is for us to identify what we need to keep in the air, and what we are comfortable dropping. And part of this is reflecting on our personal priorities, and then making sure to carve out time to meet those expectations of ourselves. The question we should be asking ourselves is: What is most important to us? Pearls of Wisdom: 1. Identify the difference between tiredness—and burnout. As a physician, you have a role in removing the stigma and create an accepting environment to be able to communicate about well-being. 2. You can’t juggle every ball. Identify what the most important things in your life are, and carve out time for those things. Know what balls you want to keep juggling, and which you are okay with dropping. 3. To become a master of bedside skills, teach other students and trainees how to be excellent at the bedside, too. 4. Two predictors of success are compassion for patients, and having the innate desire to work hard.