You don’t have to drown in the paperwork

<p>"This is not what I signed up for.</p> <p>Have you ever said this when you are rushing home 1.5 hours after the last patient left and you still haven’t finished all your charting? You grab a handful of forms to take home with you with the hopeful expectation that you will get them done tonight too. After you have done 'enough' to appear to be a present parent and prepared supper and said goodnight to the kids, that is.</p> <p>You sink into the couch at the end of the household rush with the guilty constant 'should be' invading your every breath. I should be finishing my notes. I should go empty that inbox. I should tackle one or two of those forms. But your body feels heavy, and your couch entraps you with its soft embrace, you open Facebook and disappear."</p> <p><a href="https://www.chartingcoach.ca/pages/about-us" target= "_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sarah J. Smith</a> is a family physician and can be reached at the <a href= "https://www.chartingcoach.ca/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener nofollow noreferrer">Charting Coach</a>.</p> <p>She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "<a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/you-didnt-sign-up-for-this-you-dont-have-to-drown-in-the-paperwork.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">You didn’t sign up for this. You don’t have to drown in the paperwork</a>." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/you-didnt-sign-up-for-this-you-dont-have-to-drown-in-the-paperwork.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/01/you-didnt-sign-up-for-this-you-dont-have-to-drown-in-the-paperwork.html</a>)</p>