Rallying resources
Avital O’Glasser, MD, a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, fervently wished she could clone herself when the pandemic first started. Not only were her kids suddenly thrown into online classes, but she was pulled in to create a new service line for the COVID response at her clinic.
Dr. Avital O’Glasser
“The number of times that I said I think I need a time turner from Harry Potter. … I felt that nothing was getting done even close to adequately because we were cutting corners left and right,” she said.
Thankfully, things have simmered down and Dr. O’Glasser is now working from home 5 or 6 days a week while her husband, a lawyer, goes to his job. “I think stress is lower now, but that’s in large part because, by the end of June, I really had to just stop and acknowledge how stressed I was and do a dramatic realignment of what I was doing for myself in terms of mental health support and bandwidth,” she said. Part of that involved realizing that the family needed a homeschool nanny for their 10-year-old and 7-year-old. “It’s been a lifesaver,” said Dr. O’Glasser.
Though life is on more of an even keel now, stress pops up in unexpected ways. “My youngest has pretty intense separation anxiety from me. Even with getting attention all day from our homeschool nanny, the day after I’m out of the house at the hospital, he really clings to me,” Dr. O’Glasser said. There’s sibling rivalry too, in an attempt to get parental attention.
Setting boundaries between work and home was her biggest challenge prepandemic, and that has not changed. “You’re trying to find that happy balance between professional development and family,” Dr. O’Glasser said. “Where do I cut corners? Do I try to multitask but spread myself thin? How do I say no to things? When am I going to find time to do laundry? When am I disconnecting? I think that now it’s facets of the same conundrum, but just manifested in different ways.”
She emphasized that parents should go easy on themselves right now. “A lot of parenting rules went out the window. My kids have had more screen time…and the amount of junk food they eat right now? Celebrate the wins.” Dr. O’Glasser chuckled about how her definition of a “win” has changed. “The bar now is something that I may never have considered a win before. Just seize those small moments. If my 7-year-old needs to do reading at my feet while I’m finishing notes from the day before, that’s okay,” she said.
How hospitalist groups can help
All four hospitalists had ideas about how hospitalist groups can help parents with school-age kids during the pandemic.
Providing child care at health care systems gives employees additional support, said Dr. Alla. Some of her friends have been unable to find child care because they are physicians who care for COVID patients and people do not want the extra risk. “I think any institution should think about this option because it’s very beneficial for an employee, especially for the long hours.”
Dr. Wray said he saw a program that matches up a hospitalist who has kids with one who does not in a type of buddy system, and they check in with each other. Then, if the parent has something come up, the other hospitalist can fill in and the parent can “pay it back” at another time. “This doesn’t put all the impetus on the schedule or on a single individual but spreads the risk out a little more and gives parents a bit of a parachute to make them feel like the system is supporting them,” he said.
“I would encourage groups to reach appropriate accommodations that are equitable and that don’t create discord because they’re perceived as unfair,” said Dr. O’Glasser. For instance, giving child care stipends, but limiting them to care at a licensed facility when some people might need to pay for a homeschool tutor. “Some of the policies that I saw seem to leave out the elementary school lot. You can’t just lump all kids together.”
Dr. Nye thought group leaders should take unseen pressures into account when evaluating employee performance. “I think we’re going to need to shift our yardstick because we can’t do everything now,” she said. “I’m talking about the extra things that people do that they’re evaluated on at the end of the year like volunteering for more shifts, sitting on committees, the things that likely aren’t in their job description. We’re going to have times when people are filling every last minute for their families. Face it with kindness and understanding and know that, in future years, things are going to go back to normal.”
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