Vacation Survival Guide for Overworked Doctors

VACATION GUIDE FOR DOCTORS: How to Enjoy Your Time Off Even When Your Phone is Trying to Ruin It

1. First, Admit You Deserve It

Let’s start with the truth: you’re not a machine. Yes, you run on adrenaline, caffeine, and delayed meals. Yes, you handle life, death, complaints, and insurance forms like a wizard. But none of that means you don’t deserve a break. In fact, if you’ve ever thought, “I’ll relax when I retire”, congratulations—you’re exactly the person this blog is written for.

2. Diagnose the Problem: Vacation Anxiety Syndrome (VAS)

Common signs include:

• Checking patient charts while poolside
  
  
• Packing your stethoscope “just in case”
  
  
• Feeling personally responsible for covering all shifts in your absence
  
  
• A recurring nightmare of the ER catching fire while you sip coconut water in Bali
  

The first step in treatment? Recognize it’s okay to disconnect.

3. Write a Prescription for Your Own Brain

Treatment plan:

• Dosage: 7-14 days of unapologetic rest
  
  
• Route: Through beach, mountains, or wherever your burnout won't follow
  
  
• Side effects: Laughter, increased serotonin, sudden dancing
  

4. Let Your Phone Die… or at Least Be Sedated

Your phone is the villain in this story. It brings lab results, emergency texts, annoying group chats, and an EHR login screen in high resolution. If your phone had a personality, it would whisper, “Pssst… just one more case to review.”

Here's how to escape:

• Put it on airplane mode before you take off—physically and mentally.
  
  
• Use a decoy phone: bring a backup with only your family and Uber app.
  
  
• Use a vacation auto-reply: “Currently out of range. Also out of damns to give.”
  

5. Send the Guilt to the ICU

Guilt is a chronic condition in doctors. You feel guilty for leaving your team, your patients, your inbox. But would you guilt your own patients for going on a holiday? No. You’d say, “You need this.”

Be your own doctor.

6. Avoid the Worst Vacation Diagnoses

• Compulsive Rounding Syndrome: When you walk past a hospital abroad and wonder if they’re understaffed.
  
  
• Phantom Pager Syndrome: When you hear your pager buzz… but you haven’t carried one since 2012.
  
  
• White Coat Withdrawal: When you reach for your badge reflexively every morning on vacation.
  

There is no shame in taking time to forget your NPI number.

7. Travel With a Different Type of “Case”

Not everything you carry needs to be a case of pneumonia. Pack:

• A trashy beach novel
  
  
• Noise-cancelling headphones
  
  
• A swimsuit that has never seen hospital lighting
  
  
• Sunscreen. Not SPF 5. Real stuff.
  

Bonus: Bring a notebook for random non-clinical thoughts like “what if jellyfish had kidneys?” or “I miss anesthesia… but not the 6 a.m. rounds.”

8. Redefine Emergencies

Not all calls are created equal. A few vacation emergencies to actually respond to:

• Someone drops your gelato
  
  
• You run out of SPF
  
  
• You forgot your sunglasses and now squint like a confused consultant
  

Everything else? Let it go. If the hospital actually needs you that badly, you probably need a longer vacation.

9. Bring a Travel Buddy Who’s NOT a Doctor

Yes, we love each other. But doctors on vacation together can turn into mini grand rounds:

• “That looks like melanoma, have you checked it?”
  
  
• “Your BP is borderline. You should hydrate.”
  
  
• “I know it’s a buffet, but are you really eating that?”
  

Vacation is not a CME credit. Let your inner human breathe.

10. Explore the Beauty of Saying ‘No’

• No, I’m not checking my email.
  
  
• No, I won’t join the emergency Zoom call.
  
  
• No, I don’t want to hear about the latest drama in radiology.
  

Give yourself permission to rest without having to earn it.

11. Keep a Vacation Journal – Doctor Edition

You’ve documented thousands of progress notes. Try writing for fun:

• “Day 1: Did not check hospital group chat. Pulse 72, BP normal.”
  
  
• “Day 3: I forgot what day it is. Prognosis: excellent.”
  
  
• “Day 7: I remembered who I am outside of the clinic.”
  

This can double as a therapy tool post-vacation when real life resumes.

12. Replace Scrubs with Sarongs (Or Just Anything Not Blue)

You’ve worn enough poly-cotton blends to last a lifetime. Pack clothes that don’t scream “code blue ready.” Let your body breathe. Let your personality shine. Nobody should see you and say, “You look like you’re about to intubate someone.”

13. Treat Burnout Like a Real Diagnosis—Because It Is

You wouldn’t ignore a febrile patient with tachycardia. Don’t ignore your own signs of exhaustion:

• Cynicism that no coffee can fix
  
  
• Apathy even when you hear “stat”
  
  
• Fantasizing about leaving medicine to become a barista in Lisbon
  

A vacation isn’t a luxury. It’s damage control.

14. Stop Earning Rest Like It’s a Gold Star

Doctors are experts at delaying gratification. You saved lives, led rounds, covered 36-hour shifts… and then maybe considered 3 days off.

Flip the script. Don’t make rest the prize. Make it the foundation.

15. Plan Like a Surgeon, Flex Like an Intern

Yes, research your destination. Book the trip. But also allow for randomness:

• Missed flights? Adventure!
  
  
• Restaurant closed? Street food!
  
  
• Lost luggage? Excuse to shop!
  

Medicine requires perfection. Vacations reward flexibility.

16. Use Medical Jargon to Your Advantage

Not responding to emails? “Sorry, I’m currently undergoing neural recuperation therapy via parasympathetic activation on a foreign beach.”

Someone tries to guilt-trip you back into hospital chat groups? “I’m currently in a remote clinical trial involving restorative sleep and sunshine exposure.”

Patients calling? “Temporarily off-call due to iatrogenic compassion fatigue.”

17. Give Your Future Self a Gift: Unwind Now

Post-vacation-you will thank you for:

• Not burning out
  
  
• Laughing at least once a day
  
  
• Having enough mental clarity to actually listen during patient interviews again
  

Even one week of proper rest can revive your clinical instincts, empathy, and immune system.

18. Set Clear Boundaries Like You Mean It

Try:

• “I won’t be available from [start date] to [end date].”
  
  
• “Please contact [colleague] for urgent matters.”
  
  
• “I will not be checking emails.”
  

And if they still try? Turn off notifications. Or go one step further: delete the apps. They’ll still be there when you get back—unfortunately.

19. Bonus Activity: Do Something Un-Doctorly

Take a salsa class. Go zip-lining. Paint. Take naps that last longer than a surgical case. Stare into the ocean. Eat dessert for breakfast.

Your brain has been your scalpel. Let it rest.

20. When You Come Back… Come Back Changed

Don’t just treat vacation as a detour. Treat it like recalibration. Promise yourself:

• Fewer weekend calls
  
  
• More lunch breaks where you actually chew
  
  
• Monthly mini breaks, even if it’s just a hike
  

Let your vacation teach you something medicine never did: how to be still.