Leaving family med: Finding mindfulness in helping others reduce their stress

For 30 years, Dr. Mabel Hsin practiced comprehensive family medicine, working diligently for her community in Bradford, Ont.Those three decades took a toll on her mental health, having to deal with everything from burnout to bureaucracy. But in 2019, it was her decision to start helping others achieve mindfulness that allowed her to reduce her own stress and finally find time to breathe.Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Dr. Hsin became certified as a qualified teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction. Initially, she incorporated her mindfulness programs into her practice and was “floored by the amount of positive feedback” from her patients—but faced pushback from her clinic.“Basically, the writing was on the wall, so I made the move in 2019 to leave the family practice at that time,” Dr. Hsin said told the Medical Post. That’s when she made the career switch full-time and offering programs and talks on mindfulness, resilience and burnout.“It was rewarding already being in comprehensive family practice, but much more rewarding after I left. The stress level was much less. There was just no comparison. Now, of course, that also entailed a huge reduction in income,” she said.Despite the pay cut, her new line of work allowed her to work fewer hours per week. While she was in family practice, Dr. Hsin estimates that she would work around 50 to 55 hours per week, compared to 35 hours per week working as a wellness educator.On top of the fewer hours, Dr. Hsin also stressed that there was a huge difference in the “intensity of the hours” when comparing her old job to her new job. “So, in family practice, each hour is super intense. Intense to the point where you don't have time to breathe. You do not have time to go to the bathroom,” she explained.Even with the reduction in hours, Dr. Hsin feels her second career had more “meaningful” hours of work, with far less bureaucratic paperwork to deal with.“The ratio of bureaucracy to actual meaningful work has completely drastically reduced . . .. There's just no comparison,” she said.“I don’t ever complain about having to see patients. My complaint is that for every 10 minutes I spent with the patient, I can easily spend 10 to 15 minutes during the paperwork on that same patient that I only spent 10 minutes on.”Today, even though she describes herself as “kind of fully retired,” Dr. Hsin still gives talks on mindfulness and stress-reduction. Recently, she said she was asked to create a wellness program for Toronto Metropolitan University’s brand-new medical school to help residents.“I just am so glad I did the transition. Now, I do not regret having done the comprehensive family medicine for 30 years because that was very rewarding. But over the three decades, the situation gradually got worse and worse,” said Dr. Hsin. “Since leaving, I found my work much more rewarding.”Did you train in family medicine but make a bit change mid-career to a different type of practice? Get in touch with our reporter Tom Yun if you'd like to be featured in our 'Leaving family med' series: tyun@ensembleiq.com

Leaving family med: Finding mindfulness in helping others reduce their stress

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