Where do you lean when the going gets tough?

As-salamu alaykum,

It’s been a “fuzzy” week on my end: 48hrs of clinical work on the opposite end of the day, with a few hours of clinical leadership and volunteer meetings scattered in the mix while helping my wife and our kids get through some interesting moments all within the last 5 days. 

For those of you who are attendings/consultants, this likely sounds familiar and is probably not significantly busier than you already navigate in a typical week. 

And it is “a good problem to have” in a world where many are suffering, families decimated or displaced; where hunger lingers for several months; where healthcare workers can not even practice without the threat of losing their lives while serving others.

This, of course, should evoke a sense of gratitude for where Allah, the Most High, has placed many of us not dealing with these extreme conditions. And we pray that Allah lightens the burden of those who are in the thick of it and alleviate their pain and suffering. Amin.

It also begs the question of where these people find strength and where we should lean when the going gets tough for us.

Should we lean on our astute clinical acumen when we are called upon emergently to run a code blue? 

Should we lean on a colleague when a clinical scenario goes south and an honest mistake was in the mix?

Should we lean on the attorney to help us work through a malpractice complaint or even when a formal lawsuit is filed against us? 

The answer in all these cases is a resounding “Yes!”. 

There is often a missing piece in where we lean when the going gets tough because our training and our socialization in our modern healthcare careers often points us away from this superior reality. 

That in all these cases and more, the answer is not simply, “Yes” but rather “Yes and.”

And I call upon Allah for His divine help because my perspective, your perspective and that of all the people, tools and skills that we often lean on is rather limited in scope - we only see and appreciate what we can directly perceive.

It’s one of the wisdoms behind Allah’s statement in the Qur’an;

Surah Al-Baqarah v216: “...Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.”

That the challenge of the day may have remarkable lessons and good in it that may not be readily apparent to all the key players - you, your patients and their families, your family, your colleagues etc.

Only a few days ago on the 10th day of the month of Allah, Al-Muharram, we commemorated the day of Ashura when Musa(AS) and his people were saved from Fir’aun.

In a moment of great despair from the people of Musa (AS) when they were trapped between the sea and the army of Fir’aun as Allah describes in Surah Ash-Shu’ara v61-62, they cried out loud, “We are overtaken for sure” but Musa (AS) declared “Absolutely not! My Lord is certainly with me—He will guide me.”

Prophet Musa’s (AS) declaration here is a sharp contrast to what often pertains for us in difficult moments in our work day. 

We seek to lean on who or what is in front of us while paying less heed to the overarching divine component in everything that we do - at work and in life outside of work.

In our healthcare careers, personal and professional challenges show up often from dealing with clinical challenges and related patient and family emotions, navigating emergencies, and juggling the, often, heavy workloads.

Doing our best (Ihsan) within our capacity in all those moments is key but we must not overlook the place of leaning on Allah, directly, for divine guidance in navigating these transformative moments and opportunities to grow and to cultivate resilience on this beautiful path of service to humanity.

May Allah, the Most High, keep us grounded in the holistic reality of our service - with dunya and akhira dimensions - in a way that fosters growth, resilience and impact towards success in this life and the hereafter. Amin 

Sincerely,

Sulyman

P.S. Be on the lookout for a free webinar to answer some of your toughest questions from the last SakeenahMD webinar about on Night Shift Work Disorder…I just finished a stretch of nights too…🤓

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