Redesign Life From Burnout to Balance
Doctors refocus on purpose, boundaries and sustainable careers
Medicine can be a calling — and a crisis, especially when deep passion meets relentless exhaustion. For many, the system demands more than souls can give.
Faced with long hours, emotional strain and rising burnout, many physicians are reimagining what their professional lives could look like
Some stay and reshape their roles. Others step away entirely. In both cases, the goal is the same: to build a life that’s sustainable, purposeful and more aligned with who they are now.
Keep Learning Alive in Healthcare
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Remo-tito Aguilar, OB-GYN and infectious disease specialist Dr. Helen Madamba and psychiatrist Dr. Stephanie Miaco have all pulled themselves back from the precipice at one time or another in their careers. Indeed, theirs might be a work in progress.
Aguilar will never forget what an emergency medical technician told him one night: “The patient died on the way to another hospital, Doc.”
That was only 30 minutes after Aguilar received the referral — a multiple-injured patient from a hit-and-run.
“In the chaos of emergency medicine, that moment crystallized a painful truth: In our healthcare system, Patient X — who has no one, and no resources — has alarmingly slim chances of survival,” Aguilar said.
“Even those of us within the system know how overwhelming the costs can be,” he said. ”I’ve heard my kin say, ‘Health is expensive these days,’ and I’ve swallowed that frustration more times than I can count.”
Strains in Leadership
Aguilar has also witnessed the uphill battle of physician-administrators striving to keep private hospitals afloat, especially in areas where public facilities falter.
“These clinician-leaders labor tirelessly, hoping their administrative roles ease the burden on their teammates,” Aguilar said. “But time and again there’s burnout, frustration and disillusionment.
“These highs and lows too often push doctors out the very doors they once entered with hope,” he said. “That’s where the real question begins to form: Do I step away from medicine… or do I redesign my life within it?”
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To Aguilar, this is why redesigning healthcare matters:
Redesign isn’t resignation — it’s resilience.
It’s a path to sustainable work‑life balance, mental well‑being and professional fulfillment.
It’s a chance to bring fresh energy and innovation back into a system that desperately needs it.
“Sometimes there are choices we don’t make because we are afraid to face the consequences of our choices,” Madamba said. “We need to be brave enough to go outside of our comfort zone and dare to crash glass ceilings to find something better.”
Those choices arise when doctors realize they need to redesign their physician life.
Aguilar recalled hitting that breaking point in residency. He felt empty, doing the same rounds, answering the same calls.
“Every stage — from medical school to clinical practice — brought waves of self‑reflection,” he said. “When the physician life starts draining more than energizing, that’s your cue.”
Old Ways Fall Flat
Another hint is when tried and true day-to-day routines no longer bring the same results.
“When you realize things and arrangements are no longer working for you, you know you need a change,” Madamba said. “The adage that people are in your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime comes to mind. Change can be difficult but necessary.
“When we come to crossroads, there are choices we have to make that will alter the rest of our lives,” she said. “I never knew what was coming, but I opened myself to opportunities thrown my way,” she said.
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Those opportunities brought possibilities to make meaningful changes and the reality of deep-seated resentment.
“When I applied as a medical specialist in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, I wanted to reform the systems of admission, of the conferences, of the slow turnaround times,” Madamba said. “I took it upon myself to ‘redesign’ health policies and algorithms and process flows.
“I guess it was inevitable to have enemies — people whose toes were stepped on, whose status quo were rocked,” she said.
On top of that, Madamba had no idea she would rock bigger boats in the future. When COVID-19 pandemic hit, reforms and adopting technology were accelerated.
You Asked for It
“During the pandemic, the clanging cymbal was ‘You deserve what you tolerate,’” Madamba said. “We were more cognizant of work efficiency and monitoring bed utilization and shortening hospital stays.
“What worked before was no longer acceptable,” she said. “There should only be one patient per bed.”
Although extraordinary, Madamba’s experience was not unique.
“It happens to many of us,” Aguilar said. “That’s why change or redesign is never easy, both for us and the people around us.”
In general, it’s time to redesign life when achievement feels empty and rest feels guilty. Fulfillment shouldn’t require burnout first, although Miaco teetered on the brink.
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“It was a self-awareness kind of thing,” she said. “I noticed that I tended to be more effective if I was doing a lot of hobby-related things while working that made me happier. For a long time, I had gone into the regular grind of work: hospital, home, repeat.
“The work schedule — without any sort of mental ‘reprieve’ — left me feeling drained and more tired than it should,” Miaco said. “Active listening for hours — and ultimately, days on end — can be very tedious. One must have some other form of spiritual refill, so to speak.”
That led to the push-pull of work-life balance.
“I love my job, and the things I can do for people that I know will help them,” Miaco said. “But it was making me feel like I had nothing else left for myself, and correspondingly, nothing left to give.”
Draining the Cup
She recalled a “funny story” that could have had serious consequences.
“A friend and I were talking about how we had gone the whole day without eating,” Miaco said. “Then people with us — not doctors — said they were already shaking from hunger.”
Hearing that, Madamba replied. “We can’t pour from an empty cup.”
Aguilar abides by — or at least aspires to — these practical steps to redesign his physician life:
Clarify values and lifestyle priorities.
Learn new skills or retrain where needed.
Reconnect with mentors, peers or even people outside of medicine.
“These steps helped me align my career path with what truly matters to me,” Aguilar said. “№1 is the hardest. It is not easy to let go of something when you haven’t clarified or focused your values and priorities.
“Values are and should be consistent, but priorities may change depending on the context,” he said.
There’s method behind goal-setting madness
Get clear on what matters, set boundaries and align work with energy — not just income or other considerations. Small shifts in time, tasks and mindset make a big difference.
“Having a roadmap to achieve long-term targets is a good and practical strategy,” Madamba said. “The hospital system of setting quarterly and semestral targets helped, too.
“It also helped with communication among co-workers,” she said. “That eased the transition from the COVID-19 pandemic to regular programming.”
One of the best gauges of progress is effective use of metrics, or key performance indicators.
“They’re really good for a health system,” Aguilar said. “Just don’t forget our personal lives do need suitable KPIs to achieve our personal goals and well-being.”
Serious Over Acting
Role playing can enhance leadership structure — as long as the actors aren’t overwhelmed by their characters.
“During the pandemic I was the bad cop, and I didn’t really know what self-care was,” Madamba said. “I lived in the hospital and served as the watchdog of the incident command, but my health deteriorated.
“I needed to rest more, move out and have more ‘me’ time for socialization with my ‘dream team.’” she said.
Miaco’s self-medication was discipline.
“I had to physically alter my schedule according to my body clock and according to the driving conditions,” she said. “That included traffic and parking considerations.
“I had to make sure to eat breakfast,” Miaco said. “I made sure I had good writing paper, my pens were working well, and I had time to write.”
How to bounce back to even greater success
After a break, Aguilar is finding his way back to medicine but on his own terms.
“This hybrid path feels aligned, sustainable and true to my values,” he said. “For now — and likely into the foreseeable future — I’m not abandoning medicine. I’m redefining what it means to live the physician life.”
Sometimes reconnecting with your profession means redefining your role. Stepping away isn’t failure — it’s clarity. The best path is the one that fits your life now.
Return to the Basics
“I used to be more of a clinician and training officer,” Madamba said. “Then because of need, I became a hospital administrator. Now I am slowly focusing on restarting my private practice to ‘find myself’ and learn again and do research again.
“I used to be sorely dependent on my ‘dream team’ staff to take care of my health while I went off feeling like Wonder Woman,” she said. “After the pandemic, I realized I needed to focus on addressing my depression, my workaholism and my many medical disorders.”
Resilience is an even greater challenge for those on call to help
Although they might have looked tenuous to others, Miaco never considered cutting ties.
“They were always there,” she said. “I could not not do what I do for a living. The sense of duty is always there. We just need a respite, and to say no when we need to. Otherwise, there would be nothing left.”
Without question, Miaco loves her job, even when it takes a noticeable toll.
“Many times I’ve had patients tell me that I looked ‘stressed’ when I came into the clinic,” she said. “Them telling you that you look stressed is not a very good thing. I’m going to remedy that.”
Key on Resilience to Survive
Aguilar takes that as a sign of why he and his colleagues are in medicine, complete with “gears and brakes plus healthy detours at times.” In other words, redesigning matters.
“Redesign isn’t resignation — it’s resilience,” Aguilar said. “It’s a path to sustainable work‑life balance, mental well‑being and professional fulfillment. It’s a chance to bring fresh energy and innovation back into a system that desperately needs it.”
Madamba feels her stars have started to align.
“When God closes the door, He opens a window,” she said. “They might be donors, opportunities for career advancements, opportunities for collaboration, even a four-story building. When you let go of your fears and let God lead you, miracles start happening.
“I am glad that my medical director realized that I was burnt out without having to have a conversation about it,” she said. “He relieved me of some major responsibilities in the hospital so I could focus on research and building the VSMMC Research Institute.”
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Now she can turn her attention to the center’s HIV hub, a multi-specialty clinic that provides comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services
“I’ve faced changes at several crossroads in my life and realize that being a doctor is still the best profession for me, no matter how many roles I change into,” Madamba said. “I love my job.”