Making the Case for Fitness
By Liz Sanner Davis, Certified Personal Trainer
Being fit for your job as a professional CRNA means you have fulfilled all of the requirements. You are educated, you are licensed and you are poised, CV on file and and needle in hand, to enter the operating theatre. But, wait just a minute! Are you really fit for the job?
In the exercise wellness industry it’s accepted that a “soft body” isn’t much of a marketing tool. In fact, in most aspects of wellness careers it is anticipated that job applicants will practice what they preach. But to become a quality CRNA or anesthesiologist, physical fitness isn’t required. Read your contract. Being able to do lunges isn’t there. Read the job posting, your BMI doesn’t merit even an honorable mention. There is no hands-on exam with weight-bearing exercises and cardiovascular endurance. You are allowed to be hypertensive, sleep-deprived, diabetic due to obesity, undernourished, even outright anorexic using scrubs and mask as the cover-up. If your education and your skills satisfy the needs of your Chief CRNA and his/her chief, if your personality blends with the system, if the clinic is in need of your skills and the state gives you a “go”, you’re hired. Being fit and getting fit can end up at opposite ends of the table.
In fairness, the greater acuity of the case and the more talent you bring to the table, the less important it is to have muscular curves in all the right places. Equally, a remote hospital serving a rural area is seriously more interested in your warm body than your sculpted one. But at the end of a 16-hour heart-transplant, or 10 years of them, your ability to focus, to react, to apply your years of education and experience, and to simply endure are all dependent upon your own physical condition. Umpteen years ago, some smart person over 50 said this: When you have your health, you have everything.
FYI: You will not be discriminated against for being too fat or too underfed in the modern American job market. You cannot be marginalized just because a needle is the heaviest thing you can lift. Note, however, that just because free speech about your human condition is ethically discouraged, that doesn’t mean the patient isn’t silently worried because of it. What is your long-term contribution to this or any industry if you don’t take your own health seriously? Where is your integrity in intentionally being less fit for the job than you can be?
BTW: The patient who looks at your puffy preo-op face and watery eyes may want to
post a facebook remark about patient satisfaction that reads, “I’d give it a 3. My anesthetist looked so unhealthy I was afraid he would expire before I did.”
Beki Preston, MD, JD, adamantly states that “above and beyond all other issues surrounding a surgical procedure the bottom line is always patient safety.” Well, that’s hardly a newsflash, is it? Everything you do is supposed to be directed toward the safest possible outcome for your patient. I brazenly make the claim that everything you do inside and outside of the OR affects the safe outcome of your patient. Your health affects his.
Get some shut-eye. Yours is an industry that has sleep written all over it. If your patient took the opportunity to ask you some pre-op questions on S-day, he might ask, “How much sleep did you get last night?” Getting through 45+ hours a week is not, as one popular anesthesia blogger and mystery novel author suggests,“just five minutes at the beginning and at the end of a gall bladder removal.” Case management, whether you work with or without supervision or whether the case is big or bread-and-butter, requires your full attention from pre-op to wake-up. You’d better be wearing your toe shoes and stay awake every minute that your patient isn’t.
Thirty brisk minutes of cardio starts your engines. Before your morning shower, just gitter done. Cardio will open your eyes and keep them open during the critically careful intubation of a beautiful baby, or the delivery of one. It will elevate your mood and your level of energy. Being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed enables you to look into the trusting eyes of your patient with authenticity, empowering you both. Yoga and stretching exercises will build your core, improve your balance and give you peace during difficult cases. Lifting weights and using bands will strengthen your muscles, bones and brain. Instead of complaining at the cooler about your cranky knees or the crink in your lower back, you can be aiming your complaints at the Ravens or the Rams.
Eat some measured quality calories. Your patient has a right to expect you to be fit and fed. Rolling your heavy backside out of bed and showing up for work with sleep in the corners of your eyes and frosting between your fingers, isn’t a poster for CRNA of the Year. A doughnut and cup of black coffee may get you through one hand of a two-fisted surgery, but a bowl of oatmeal with yogurt and an orange will last much longer without infusing fat chased by a post-sugar low. Turkey slices on a half multi-grain bagel topped with avocado alongside fresh fruit serve up lunchtime satisfaction and sustenance. When a team member offers you relief, go get some real relief. You don’t want to fill out on negative calories and return to Room #22 empty. Fill your vehicle with high-grade fuel to improve your mileage.
Your medical mantra should read: I am fit for duty. It’s unfair to the patient when you drag into work and try to manage your first few cases by rote. And it’s unfair to the care team if you call in sick on a Friday or Monday simply because you don’t take care of your total SELF. Additionally, it’s totally unfair to the industry to have killer expectations of you but fail to encourage and provide for your physical well-being.
We live in a country that regulates everything but your heartbeat. That, my fitness friend, is YOUR job. To be the best that you can be for the patient and for the team, do the best you can for your personal self. Get fit for the label you wear to avoid the tear. Earn the respect that you expect, the healthy income you are paid, and the important position you have established in the health and wellness industry. Get fit and be fit at the table.
Liz Sanner Davis,
Coming in April, “The Gym Rat”, a dissection of fitness programs provided to providers.