Please note: transcript may not be 100% accurate
00:00
The rise of the urgency culture has been mainly from technological advancements, that sense of I can respond to anyone’s email right away.
00:14
This is Dr. Meenal and welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we uncover reality. As a mom and eye doctor, I wanna know it all. The urgency culture. This is an environment where we tend to be under a lot of pressure and prioritize speed over anything else. It’s a culture that emphasizes immediate responses, rapid decision-making, and a sense of urgency.
00:43
to complete tasks really fast, even if they’re not accurate. The result is a high stress environment that values quick action over well-considered thoughtful work. Sometimes it’s not us that experiences sense of urgency, but it’s that sense of urgency or that urgency culture that rubs off on us from our colleagues. I have worked with a colleague like this. What’s happened is that sense of urgency rubbed off on me.
01:12
and made me very stressed, very anxious all the time at work. It got so bad to the point where I could not be around that colleague, and we had to change our shifts such that I wouldn’t experience that. And this is a culture that can really make us feel stressed, anxious, depressed, and affect our mental health. The American Psychological Association did a survey in 2021
01:43
that said 74% of adults have experienced a symptom of stress over the last month that is exacerbated by this urgency culture. This urgency culture is more prevalent in certain personality traits. For example, type A personalities, they have a strong sense of competitiveness, impatience, and a desire for achievement.
02:09
So they’re always striving for that achievement and they want it done fast. Then there’s the personality traits of high neuroticism individuals. They tend to experience anxiety and a lot of stress. So because they’re feeling so anxious, they wanna get things done very quickly. And then there’s those perfectionists. They want everything to be perfect. They strive for perfection. So there’s this constant pressure on them to achieve and do it fast.
02:39
And the last is intensely driven individuals. Those that want to achieve the best that they can, and they feel they have to do it as fast as they can. These are highly motivated and ambitious individuals who are really driven. A lot of healthcare practitioners fall into all or some of these categories or these personality traits. I know I can probably say that a few match my personality trait. So.
03:06
That sense of urgency, that urgency culture gets worse amongst us healthcare professionals, especially in the environment that we work in. So it’s important that sometimes it’s not always though our personality traits, sometimes it’s the culture or the environmental factors around us. Those of us working in hospitals or fast paced clinics.
03:27
sometimes have those demands where that sense of urgency or that urgency culture is very high and we end up transforming and having that sense of urgency ourselves. The key aspects of the urgency culture are overworking and burnout. So because we have that sense of urgency and we’re around that urgency culture all the time, we tend to get more tired. We work in environments where we are emailing very fast.
03:54
We’re getting things done very fast and we tend to burn out because there’s no boundaries. Then there’s the ineffective decision-making that happens. Because we’re under this constant pressure to act fast, we may not make decisions that are best for ourselves or our patients or our colleagues. And then boundaries. Boundaries is a huge part. Our boundaries are affected. Because of the sense of urgency, we don’t know how to draw that boundary between
04:22
our home life, our work life. For example, many of us are answering non-urgent patient emails in the evenings and that boundary is just not there. On one of our episodes with Dr. Nina Maffrichi, she talked about setting boundaries, especially as healthcare professionals. And one of the pieces of advice that she gave me was even having that, when a patient sends you an email, there’s an alert that goes back to them or an email that’s…
04:51
sent back to them saying someone will respond to your email within, you know, 48 hours. So that sense of urgency is not there. Many of us don’t have that. And so we feel that constant pressure that we must reply to the email right away. So if you haven’t turned on that feature yet or added that, please do so because that will really help you as a healthcare professional. Then there’s surface level solutions. Many of us are just grazing the surface, finding a quick fix.
05:20
because that’s the fastest thing to do rather than finding the underlying issue and fixing it. And then there’s that cultural impact. Not only are we affecting our workplaces when we have built that urgency culture, but also our relationships outside. For example, sometimes when we have that sense of urgency or we’ve built into that or we’ve worked in that urgency culture long enough, and we write or text a friend,
05:48
We expect that friend to respond right away. And if that friend does not, then we almost think that they’re being rude or they’re ignoring us. That is an expectation that has been set by the urgency culture. And so from our workplaces translating into our home life, the rise of the urgency culture has been mainly from technological advancements, that sense of I can respond to anyone’s email right away. So even patients, they expect doctors or staff members.
06:17
to respond even in the middle of the night. Teachers are expected to respond in the middle of the night. And it’s because parents and patients expect that these emails should be coming through on their phones. They should be able to write back right away. And sometimes we do. And then that expectation or that bar gets raised that that urgency culture is there. Let’s continue to email them at night.
06:42
or in the evenings. And so these technological advancements to be able to do things so quickly has definitely contributed to the urgency culture. Then there’s the competitive environments that have contributed to the urgency culture, where quick results are definitely more valued nowadays over long-term achievements. So the technological advancements and these competitive environments have definitely contributed to this urgency culture, grown it and rubbed off on most of us.
07:11
In healthcare, I’m going to say the urgency culture has affected us in so many ways, whether it’s burnout, impact on our patient care, we’re making faster, quicker decisions. And then there’s the administrative burden where we feel we have to write back to a patient right away, fill their prescriptions right away. And then there’s the ethical concerns because we’re acting so fast. Have we really thought about the results, the diagnosis enough or are we just acting quickly?
07:40
But addressing this urgency culture and fixing it involves a lot of societal changes, systemic changes among the healthcare system, expectations, changes in the entitled generation. There’s so many changes that need to happen in order for us to change this urgency culture, and I feel it’s only going to get worse with time because things are only getting worse with these expectations and the sense of urgency.
08:09
requires us to slow down, focus on what really matters, and try to resist those societal norms or expectations. We need to understand that this urgency culture is something that we have built over time. And there’s this constant rush to do things fast, and it’s rubbing off on each other, such that it’s affecting all of our mental health that we don’t even know it. So,
08:36
Let’s be sure next time when we’re working to be mindful of those around us, try to focus on what matters, try to resist those societal norms, expectations, and try to not rush. Thank you listeners and viewers for tuning in. If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes, make sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me,
09:04
Follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered!