Physicians are not strangers to stress, but familial well-being often may be sidelined by professional pressures, particularly around the holiday season. Here are a few tips from physician family experts to help you maintain happiness in your medical marriage.
Personal satisfaction can contribute to professional satisfaction, so maintaining a happy and healthy home life is essential for physicians. An article by three experts from the Center for Physician Resilience in the AMA Alliance magazine Physician Family suggests these ways for how medical families can boost their happiness and own self-care:
- Honor each other’s roles and contributions. A physician’s spouse should not feel like “just a physician’s spouse.” Everyone in the family plays an important role, and voicing appreciation to one another can foster healthy relationships.
- Don’t eliminate family rituals because someone is working. Protect family time, such as family meals. Rituals are essential to surviving stressful times, and even simple routines or traditions can have a positive impact on your family’s morale.
- Remember that marriage is not a “suffering contest.” Respect that you and your spouse have stress, and remember that it is hard to be a physician, just as it is difficult to be the partner of a physician.
See more information on maintaining healthy medical marriages in the fall 2014 issue of Physician Family, published online four times a year especially for the loved ones of physicians, residents and medical students. Check out special tips for medical families in preparing for the holidays at AMA Wire®.
