Among physicians, self-care is booming.

This week on Twitter I pick this up from Esko Kilpi, Helsinki-based management guru:

Our moral structures have been based on individualism emphasizing self-fulfillment, self-actualization and “fixing yourself.” What we would really need is a relational mindset emphasizing interdependence and connectivity.

Maybe there are takeaways for medicine here. One popular antidote to the burnout epidemic is laser-focused, unapologetic self-care. Approaching buzz word status, this mindset suggests that you shut out the world around you and look out for number one. No one, it seems, is as quite precious as you and your spa slippers.

But as Kilpi suggests, the solution to our burnout problem as physicians may be with our broader community rather than the inward-facing self-care now promoted by so many. Perhaps we need to start to think about the healing that comes from ‘us’ rather than ‘me.’

He may be on to something.

And medicine’s future may be in we care rather than self-care.

If you’re interested, here is more 33 charts writing on Burnout. And if slow medicine is your thing we’ve got that covered. Every post here includes tags that will bring to to related content. These tags are manually created and the content curated. No algorithms in our tag assignment. So poke around and enjoy!

Image via Unsplash.