Taking a pause: An option rarely considered for students and professionals

Resumen

As it is known, health care delivery can be a source of increased morbidity and mortality for patients. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion and burnout resulting from medical attention could be associated with tragic consequences such as depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide ¹. In that sense, it is essential to improve physicians’ well-being as it can contribute to the safety and care of patients, the protection of health care professionals, and the prevention of medical errors. Lee JY, et al. 2 made a conceptualization about timeouts, defined pausing as “a conscious decision to stop current performance for a physical time that allows for additional cognitive activities”, and recognized its role in clinical reasoning and decision making processes. Benefits of this kind of brief pause are described, but what about a longer pause and reboot of medical practice, including the entire timeline from undergraduate to graduate years?