With over 1200 messages in my personal e-mail Inbox… you can say that we are drowning in data! Many of those e-mails are less than helpful for the cause… with the COVID-19 pandemic, many bureaucratic bodies are sending out daily (sometimes 2 and 3 times a day!) messages. All attempting to inform when in actual fact, they are creating too much distracting noise.
Now that we have switched to a significant increase in telemedicine (see April 8th post Marvelous Mental Health) via telephone, text, e-mailing/sharing pictures and video visits… I think patient-centred care has taken a positive step forward in all of this COVID-19 innovative #physicaldistancing and flattening the curve work!
Unfortunately, with providing this increase in comprehensive and quality relational medical care, the boundaries of where and when we do Family Medicine are blurring big time (we’ll leave the time consuming Electronic Medical Records (EMR) data entry for another time ;D).
I am getting calls, texts and messages late in the evening and on weekends (even during my #lockdown holiday). As a Family Doctor, it is hard to “just say no” when you know sometimes that care is compromised when you don’t answer the call… especially during this global pandemic when we want to keep patients and the public safe.
I admit that I am still working on my personal e-boundaries here, but want to acknowledge that with the Blue Sky Family Medicine model, it will be the triad and quad of Family Doctors which will be a game changer in the future (can you say Orange Leader?)… we are currently beta testing and perfecting it!
I found this book review by Nina Semczuk on Cal Newport’s book Digital Minimalism very helpful with establishing healthier and more fuctional e-boundaries:
Thank you Nina! Thank you Cal!
Peace.
Blue Sky Family Medicine 