Reframing self-care as required maintenance for physicians

Board-certified pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article, "Why self-care must become medicine's new standard." She challenges the long-held belief in medical culture that self-sacrifice is noble and that self-care is an indulgence. Jessie argues that caring for oneself is not a luxury but a responsible, non-negotiable standard of care for anyone in medicine. She explains that a physician's energy is their most critical resource, and its chronic depletion leads to poor decisions, burnout, and negative ripple effects. To change this, she introduces a powerful new framework: viewing self-care not as an emergency "oxygen mask" for when things go wrong, but as the "required maintenance" that happens between flights to prevent accidents. This shift redefines rest and replenishment as foundational to safe, effective, and sustainable patient care—as essential as a surgical time-out—and calls on the culture of medicine to make time for it as an expectation, not an afterthought.

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