The Healthcare Worker Ego Trip: A Blight of Epic Proportions - Part 2

As-salamu alaykum,

Last week we explored a mental pitfall that lurks around in the shadow of very meaningful healthcare work - the Ego trip. 

As a reminder first for me, the narrative has increased my sense of awareness for this issue in my own interactions and I hope that it has at least jump-started conversations between you and your colleagues as well as other members of your healthcare team. 

If you missed it, please take a few minutes to get caught up here.

My intention today is to shed some light on practical steps that we can all take to proactively address this perennial issue. 

But before that, please oblige me by taking a look at this once in a year opportunity for renewal and refocus offered by my co-certified partners with the Productive Muslim Company, “The 10 Habits of Highly Productive Muslims”.

It was a transformational course for me just a few years that I still reference often to stay grounded and more resilient by Allah’s will.

Are you just starting residency, moving up the training ladder or about to become an attending? Definitely check out the course and/or share with others. 

Now let’s jump right back in;

Here a five proactive steps that we can all take with regards to taming our egos in sha Allah;

1. Acknowledgement

That the issue of the Ego Trip is unfortunately commonplace in healthcare is not news but what potentially we may not be acknowledging is that you and I may be contributing to the problem. As I alluded to last week, it's a shade of arrogance that is expressed in very subtle to obtrusive ways. 

Turning inwards requires both courage and humility as much as it does require a heightened sense of self awareness. This was addressed in some detail in the “Knowing You” post a few months ago. Please take a look at it as it is a crucial step on our journey of leaving the ego trip behind..

2. Learn about the Islamic Essense of the Self 

Dr. Abdallah Rothman, a renowned leader and expert on the knowledge of the self/soul from an Islamic paradigm wrote that “There exists within the Islamic tradition an entire “science” of the soul or self which is completely aligned with and based upon the Qur’an and Sunnah and which offers practical solutions to everyday struggles faced by people in the modern world.” 

Our deen provides a comprehensive roadmap in this regard if only we will lean into the divine and prophetic offering. Dive into this article written by Dr. Rothman for the Productive Muslim blog a few years ago to get you started on this step in sha Allah.

3. Cultivate a “Me” Space 

The insights that you acquire from steps 1 and 2 above are only as good as how intentionally you leverage them even if you take 1 piece of recommendation gleaned to “grow” on a monthly basis.

Your “Me” time or space is where that deep and intentional engagement happens. 

This is where you spend some time with you on a regular basis exploring your thoughts, actions, motives and carefully working on yourself - on your ego - to better understand your triggers and learn to deal with them productively. 

Consider these reflective questions that are related to the moral ranking of intentions described by Shaykh Sulaiman Nadwi in his work, Ethics in Islam as you work through the Ego trip that can creep into our work in healthcare;

• Am I doing this service to be recognized in some capacity by my peers and/or others?

• Am I seeking to please colleagues and the patient and their families at any cost?

• Is self-less service my true north? And does it drive my sense of gratification?

• Am I seeking Allah’s pleasure through this effort?

As we work through these questions, sincerity is key as this will drive the depth of our internal conversations and the immense potential for self-reform by Allah’s mercy.  

We can take this a step further by leveraging the practice of Muhasabah (self-accountability) as described by one of our pious predecessors Ibn al-Qayyim (May Allah have mercy on him). 

4. Journal your reflections

In the space that you and I are cultivating lies a unique opportunity to connect our thoughts to the pen and express ourselves in a way that is both cathartic and therapeutic. 

Journaling brings to life deep insights that we glean from ruminating and exploring our motives, thoughts and actions that simply reflecting upon them does not. We start to see patterns and can more readily recognize where things potentially broke down and the ego trip set in as well as identify upstream approaches to better manage ourselves in those situations.

It also allows us to address opportunities to follow up with others that may have been on the receiving end of our moments of weakness in a very tangible and pragmatic way.

5. Accept your humanity 

For many of us in the healthcare professions, our training environments and the rigor of the journey to our careers may have left us with traces of feeling infallible and yet we are just as human as the person on the other side of the stethoscope or the peripheral IV.

Owning this narrative is key to the needed self compassion balanced with discipline to embark on this remarkable journey of transformation and taming our egos. 

Allah, the Most High, reminds us that the successful ones are not those without sin or the infallible but rather the ones who when they sin or make mistakes return to Him seeking His countenance and forgiveness; 

Surah Al-Imran, verses 135-136: “˹They are˺ those who, upon committing an evil deed or wronging themselves, remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins—and who forgives sins except Allah?—and they do not knowingly persist in wrongdoing? Their reward is forgiveness from their Lord and Gardens under which rivers flow, staying there forever. How excellent is the reward for those who work ˹righteousness˺!” 

Regardless of our place on the healthcare totem pole, we will make mistakes related to this idea of the ego trip among other things. Our willingness to hold ourselves to account and to a standard of seeking to improve is essential to our success in this life - professionally or at home - and in the hereafter as much as is our willingness to tame our egos.

Ryan Holiday wrote about this in his book, “Ego is the Enemy”; “When we remove ego, we’re left with what is real. What replaces ego is humility, yes—but rock-hard humility and confidence. Whereas ego is artificial, this type of confidence can hold weight. Ego is stolen. Confidence is earned. Ego is self-anointed, its swagger is artifice. One is girding yourself, the other gaslighting. It’s the difference between potent and poisonous.”

For the healthcare worker, ego gets in the way of high quality healthcare work and nurturing resilient healthcare teams. 

For the muslim healthcare worker though, the stakes are even higher - we have to answer to Allah, the Most High in our pursuit of true success in the hereafter. 

May Allah, the Most High, protect us from our own selves and grant us the capacity to shed the ego tendencies and aspire to the best example of mankind, prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in all our dealings at home and at work. Amin. 

Sincerely,

Sulyman

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