When Values and Priorities Collide: The Hidden Cost to Medical Practitioners' Wellbeing

It's 11:47 PM on a Tuesday. You're finally walking to your car after a 14-hour day at the hospital, and you realise something unsettling: you can barely remember the faces of the patients you saw today. The fluorescent lights, the constant beeping of monitors, the rushed conversations in corridors – it all blurs together into one overwhelming haze of tasks completed but purpose lost.

You entered medicine with such clear intentions. You remember the moment you decided to become a doctor – maybe it was sitting beside a sick relative, or volunteering at a community health fair, or simply knowing deep in your bones that healing people was your calling.

You had a vision of the kind of doctor you wanted to be.

Yet here you are now, perhaps years into your career, feeling increasingly disconnected from that original spark. You're working harder than ever, your schedule is packed beyond capacity, but something feels fundamentally wrong. The work that once energised you now drains you.

If this resonates with you, please know: you're not alone. And more importantly, there's nothing wrong with you.

What you're experiencing likely stems from a profound misalignment between your core values and daily priorities – and it's far more common than you might think.

Understanding the Critical Difference

What Are Values?

Think of values as your professional North Star. They're the fundamental beliefs about what's truly important in your life and work.

These are the unchanging principles that define who you are at your core as a doctor. You might recognise some of these common values among your colleagues:

• Providing exceptional patient care

• Continuous learning and professional growth

• Work-life integration that allows you to be fully present both professionally and personally

• Making a meaningful impact on community health

• Maintaining professional integrity and ethics

Here's the thing about values: they don't shift based on how busy you are or what pressures you're facing. They remain constant, serving as your internal compass for decision-making.

They're deeply personal and reflect the doctor you aspired to be when you first chose this path.

What Are Priorities?

Now, let's talk about priorities. These are quite different from values, though they're often confused.

Priorities are the tasks, activities, and commitments you choose to focus on each day. They're the "what needs to get done" list that drives your schedule.

The key difference? Priorities should ideally support your values, but they're much more flexible and can change based on circumstances.

In medical practice, priorities might include:

• Completing patient consultations

• Administrative paperwork

• Continuing education requirements

• Hospital committee meetings

• Revenue targets

When Your Inner Compass Points One Way, But Your Day Goes Another

Here's where things get challenging. Recognising this pattern takes courage.

When your daily priorities consistently contradict your core values, you create what psychologists call "cognitive dissonance" – essentially, your mind is trying to hold two conflicting beliefs at the same time.

Let me share a story that might sound familiar.

Dr Sarah is a GP who deeply values spending quality time with patients. She loves really listening, providing thorough care, building meaningful relationships. It's why she chose general practice over more technical specialties.

However, her clinic's business model demands she see 40 patients per day. This allows just 6 minutes per consultation.

Every single day, Sarah faces an impossible choice: rush through appointments and compromise her values, or fall behind and face pressure from management.

She goes home feeling like she's failed both her patients and herself. The smell of hand sanitiser still clinging to her clothes becomes a reminder of another day where she couldn't be the doctor she wanted to be.

Does this sound familiar?

If it does, please know this: the problem isn't you. The problem is the misalignment.

The Real Cost: What This Misalignment Is Doing to You

I need to be honest with you here, because understanding the true impact is the first step towards change. When your values and priorities remain in chronic conflict, it's not just about feeling a bit frustrated at work. The impact compounds over time and affects every aspect of your life.

Let me walk you through what might be happening to you right now:

1. That Constant Underlying Stress You Can't Shake

Your nervous system doesn't know how to relax when you're regularly acting against your deepest beliefs. You might notice you're always "on," even at home. Your sleep might be restless, your shoulders perpetually tense. This isn't weakness – it's a normal physiological response to chronic internal conflict.

2. The Exhaustion That Sleep Doesn't Fix

You know that feeling where you're tired in your bones? When you wake up already feeling drained? This is what happens when your energy is constantly depleted by fighting internal battles. The World Health Organization recognises this as a key component of professional burnout.

3. Decision-Making Feels Impossibly Hard

When every choice requires you to pick between what you believe in and what seems urgent, your brain gets exhausted. You might find yourself procrastinating on decisions that used to be straightforward, or feeling overwhelmed by simple choices.

4. You're Losing Touch with Why You Became a Doctor

This one might be the hardest to acknowledge. You might catch yourself wondering if you made the right career choice, feeling like an imposter, or noticing that the spark you once had for medicine is dimming. This isn't about not being good enough – it's about being disconnected from your purpose.

5. Your Relationships Are Feeling the Strain

The frustration and exhaustion don't stay at the hospital. You might find yourself snapping at family members, feeling too drained for social connections, or struggling to be present with the people you love most.

6. Your Body Is Sending You Signals

Headaches, stomach issues, trouble sleeping, weight changes, frequent illness – your body has ways of telling you when something isn't right. Many doctors I work with report relying more on caffeine, alcohol, or other substances just to cope with daily life.

Here's the Hope: You Can Change This Pattern

If you've recognised yourself in what I've described, I want you to take a breath. What you're experiencing is real, it's valid, and most importantly, it's changeable. You don't have to accept this as "just how medicine is." You have more power than you might think to realign your work with what truly matters to you.

Let me share some strategies that have helped countless doctors rediscover their sense of purpose and wellbeing:

1. Get Crystal Clear on What Really Matters to You

I want you to carve out 30 minutes this week – yes, I know you're busy, but this is essential.

Sit somewhere quiet and ask yourself: "What are the 3-5 things that matter most to me as a doctor?"

Don't overthink it. Write down what comes up. Instead of vague terms like "good patient care," get specific: "Having enough time to really listen to my patients and answer all their questions."

2. Take an Honest Look at How You're Actually Spending Your Time

For just one week, keep a simple log of how you spend your working hours. You don't need a fancy system – notes on your phone will do.

Then compare this reality against the values you identified. Where are the biggest gaps?

This isn't about judgment – it's about awareness.

3. Start Making Values-Based Decisions

Before saying yes to that next committee, extra shift, or new responsibility, pause and ask: "Does this align with what matters most to me?"

If the answer is no, consider whether it's truly necessary. You might be surprised how often the answer is actually no, but you've been saying yes out of habit or guilt.

4. Create Some Non-Negotiable Boundaries

Choose one small boundary that protects something you value deeply.

Maybe it's:

• Not checking emails after 8 PM

• Blocking 15 minutes between certain appointments for documentation

• Saying no to weekend calls unless it's an emergency

Start small, but start somewhere.

5. Look for Opportunities That Feed Your Soul

Within your current role or beyond it, where can you do more of what aligns with your values?

Maybe it's volunteering for medical missions, teaching students, or joining a practice that shares your approach to patient care.

These opportunities often energise us in ways that purely task-oriented work cannot.

6. Build Your Tribe

Connect with other doctors who share your values. Join professional groups focused on sustainable practice or find colleagues who "get it."

Having allies makes values-based decisions easier to maintain, and reminds you that you're not alone in wanting medicine to be different.

You Deserve to Love Medicine Again

Listen, the medical profession will always have its challenges – that's the nature of caring for human lives. But it doesn't have to feel like a constant battle against who you are at your core. You entered this field for beautiful, important reasons. Those values that drew you to medicine? They're still valid. They're still worth protecting. They're still part of what makes you an exceptional doctor.

The question isn't whether you can afford to make changes to better align your work with your values. The real question is: can you afford not to?

Your wellbeing matters – not just because you deserve to feel fulfilled and energised, but because your patients need you to be the doctor you're capable of being when you're aligned with your purpose. Your family needs you to come home feeling good about the work you do. And medicine itself needs doctors who are connected to their calling, not just going through the motions.

This isn't about finding perfect balance or eliminating all stress from your career. It's about ensuring that the core of what you do each day reflects the doctor you dreamed of becoming. It's about making sure that when you look back on your medical career, you can say with confidence that you practiced in a way that honoured both your patients and your deepest values.

You have more control than you think. You have more options than you realise. And you absolutely have the right to a career that energises rather than depletes you.

The time to start aligning your priorities with your values is now – not when you're more burned out, not when things get "less busy" (they won't), but today. Your future self will thank you for taking that first brave step towards practicing medicine in a way that honours who you really are.

Ready to Reclaim Your Purpose? Let's Talk

If what you've read today resonates with you, you don't have to navigate this journey alone. Sometimes we need someone in our corner who understands both the unique challenges of medical practice and the transformative power of values-aligned living.

I invite you to book an obligation-free discovery session where we can explore together:

• What's really driving your sense of disconnection or burnout

• How coaching might support you in realigning your career with your values

• Practical strategies tailored specifically to your situation and specialty

• What greater career fulfilment and wellbeing could look like for you

This isn't about adding another item to your to-do list. It's about investing 30 minutes in a conversation that could change the trajectory of your career and your life. No pressure, no sales pitch – just an honest exploration of what's possible when you have the right support.

Because you deserve to love medicine again. And I believe that's absolutely possible for you.