The Importance of Being Pre-Paired
“Something I know about community is that you have to build it before you need to lean on it.” Suleika Jaouad (Author and Blogger)
Where or to whom do you turn when you’re experiencing professional distress or perhaps even a professional crisis? Hopefully, one of your go-to answers is “my PeerRx partner/s.” Unfortunately, the most common answer for most of our colleagues is “nowhere and to no one.”
Often in the context of my PeerRxMed work I am asked to give interviews or talks regarding the importance of health care professional peer support and how PeerRx is different from other peer support programs. During these opportunities, I find it essential to make the distinction between “formal” and “informal” peer support and make the contrast between “reactive” and “proactive” support.
In the AMA STEPS Forward material on Peer Support Programs for physicians, formal peer support is defined as the process where formally trained non-mental health clinicians (“peers”) offer support to their colleagues after adverse clinical events or other professionally stressful circumstances. In many organizations, these are known as "Second Victim" programs. This is contrasted with “informal” peer support, where a well-meaning inquiry is made by a colleague after an adverse event, but without proper training there is a concern they might minimize, dismiss, justify, or try to fix the situation rather than simply being present and supportive.
What is common about such “formal” peer support programs is that they are always “reactive” (after the fact), are activated by adverse circumstances, and usually involve interacting with someone who is relatively unfamiliar. Because they also often exist within a culture that does not talk about peer support in any other context, they can seem punitive. While such programs are a necessary (though generally underutilized) safety net when needed, they do nothing to address the emotional needs of the >50% of physicians and other healthcare professionals presently experiencing professional distress and burnout as well as the many who operate in “survival mode” as they try to navigate their daily professional demands while feeling isolated and alone.
To even begin to address this, a proactive, relationally based, and less structured (“informal”) process is necessary. Such a process should involve regular and intentional connection with a colleague or colleagues to share the entirety of our professional journey. My experience as well as those of many others would indicate that in the busyness of our professional lives, this too often just doesn’t happen, even with “the best of intentions – at least not without a “nudge.” The PeerRxMed process and platform has been my response to this need. It is designed to be both “preventive” and “supportive” as well as to provide an obvious and ready resource in those times of crisis.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much prefer to be “pre-paired” for the inevitable challenges that will come my way on this professional journey. My PeerRx buddies have helped me navigate many difficult professional times, and have also celebrated and laughed with me in the good times. Along the way, we’ve encouraged each other to be “better” versions of our professional, and personal, selves, and have greatly enjoyed doing it. No one should care alone – ever. Pass it on ….