The Impact of Thyroid Conditions on Healthcare Workers

Written by Ahmad Alsharrah

​Ahmad Alsharrah is a striving Arab doctor who is currently studying his fourth year of Medicine at the Queen Mary University of London. With a recent diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Ahmad has been living with autoimmune hypothyroidism while finishing up his final years as a medical student. Ahmad has a particular interest in medical writing and overall wellbeing, with multiple articles published online in Fahmidan Journal. 

Impact of overworking for the guardians of health 
Healthcare providers work tirelessly to deliver the highest quality of healthcare to their patients and continue to do so on a day-to-day basis. 

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​This umbrella of workers can include doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and occupational therapists. Their responsibilities typically involve heavy workloads under immense stress, often over long working hours to provide adequate healthcare to their patients. Considering this, healthcare workers and their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing are often overlooked in their profession, as one must display immense resilience and determination to complete their duties to a high standard. When talking about healthcare workers, the term “burn-out” becomes highly prevalent and is often experienced by a large majority of workers that push through their limits and capabilities without a thought of their own health. While some may have incorporated healthy habits into their routine to mitigate this exhaustion, what about those that struggle to do so? Even more so, what about those that suffer from chronic illnesses and autoimmune conditions?

The double-edged sword of being labelled a “hero” 
It is easy to think of healthcare workers as superheroes; strong, invincible, and selfless when it comes to treating those who are sick and in need of assistance. This has created an illusion masking the underlying truth which is: healthcare workers are human, just human. They also struggle, get sick and make mistakes just as any other person would, so why are they viewed under a different lens? As a medical student recently diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, I inadvertently found myself experiencing a glimpse of this harsh reality by constantly pushing through my limits just to cover my responsibilities and the sheer content that comes with being a medical student. Weeks of somnolence and feeling down would go by without a reasonable explanation, and prior to seeking answers which eventually led to a definitive diagnosis, I always put it down as, “Medical school is taxing so just keep pushing through, as all students and doctors have.” I kept finding myself glued to my bed due to excessive tiredness, but it did not matter to me as long as I completed the tasks set out to me. Overtime I found that I was highly self-critical for not having enough resilience or drive to soldier through tough times such as these, as how can one expect rainbows without a shower of rain? It took me quite some time to gain this realisation but how can we expect doctors to improve our health at their highest performance when they’re actively neglecting their own?

A message put forth to improve our health
To begin breaking down this illusion, healthcare workers must work to adopt better self-care practises for themselves. We must always check up on our own health and ensure we are functioning at our best. Our limitations are not set by what chronic condition we suffer from, but by how willing we are to understand and work with it to achieve the best possible outcome for ourselves. You may have been dealt a bad set of cards, so use it the best way you possibly can.