Maintaining a Balance

Work-life balance is crucial for our staff and students to maintain, with the highest self-reported stress and burnout figures reported in the UK (Collin et al., 2019).

For dental students, it’s easy to get caught up in the routine every day schedule; 9-5s in Dental Hospital made up of an amalgamation of clinics, labs and lectures. However, many of our students have found the time to develop very contrasting activities to balance their days; moonlighting as athletes, chefs, dancers, actors, budding philanthropists, the list goes on. In this article, four students share their account of how having a work-life balance has helped them cope with the stresses of the profession.

The MedSoc drama society, stage two productions a year - a musical in the first term and a play in second term, which I’ve been extremely lucky to be involved with for the last two years. This year, our musical production Chicago, had three BDS students, Hannah Hughes, Reece Bushell and I in the cast and, was outstanding, raising £5845 for Alzheimer’s Society. I was also privileged to try my hand at directing the play this term, Patrick Barlow’s: The 39 Steps, which was also very successful, raising money for Birmingham Mind.

You must all remember the long hours and stresses of the course. So having a hobby where you can take yourself out of your clinic brogues and into a new pair of shoes, the life of your character, forgetting about the worries that BDS students have, and to be able to sing, dance and act your evening away, is particularly liberating, even if it’s just for a few hours. A work/life balance is often hard to juggle; the workload, the washing up, the hoovering, cooking, socialising, drinking 2L a day and a hobby is stressful enough to type out, let alone carry out in life without getting crushed under the weight of it all. But I could never imagine life without a single one of those aspects, and at the end of the day, Dentistry comes first. As I often say to people (stolen from the back of a shampoo bottle and slightly edited): “There is more to life than teeth, but it is a good place to start”.

“I am currently in my 3^rd year studying dentistry and have for the first time this year taken part in the Medical Society’s theatre group. In my first 2 years at dental school I did not have a hobby that I committed myself to, and found that I was working myself into the ground. Leaving school, I had the highest grades for both GCSE and A-level, and was striving to do the same at university as being “top dog” was all I had ever known. This wasn’t out of narcissism, but out of self-pressure to perform to the highest standard as I, nor people I surround myself with, have ever known any different. This in turn greatly weighed on my mental health, which developed into feelings of anxiety and poor self-confidence. Being in a closed environment at dental school with the same people always talking about dentistry and how much everybody works for dentistry can get very stale, and can make you feel inadequate with what you are doing, especially when you are no longer the “top dog”.

However, diving back into theatre, which is something I have done and enjoyed my entire life, has given me a completely new outlook on my time at university. I have a few days a week where I can completely let loose, be creative, have fun and surround myself with new faces. Having a hobby allows you to take a step back and channel some positive energy into something that really makes you happy. This in turn has helped me cope with studying as when all the fun is done, I am ready to get working. I am less anxious, more confident and enjoy my life as a whole, a lot more. And on top of this I am still keeping up with my studies and achieving very good grades, which were only a little lower than when I was working non-stop. I now look at my life as “I am only at university once, and I want to live a little while I can and enjoy myself” rather than “I MUST get very good grades, so I don’t have time for anything else”

As a dual career GB athlete in my first year of BDS, I split my time between studying and training full-time at the British Judo Centre of Excellence. Since September, with the support of both the School of Dentistry and the UBS Scholarship team, I’ve managed to get my best results to date - bronze medals at both the U21 and U23 European Championships. When I’m training I forget all about the stress of university and vice versa; I think having any sort of hobby that you’re passionate about is really beneficial for mental well-being if you organise your time well. Balance is always key.

It’s not easy to switch off from dentistry. Even as a first year dental student, my thoughts can quickly get triggered back onto the subject. Dentistry is already proving to be a stressful profession, which is why I have found it even more important to indulge in my other interests. If I were to focus purely on dentistry I would very likely burn out, or lose passion for it. That is why I use my athletic training as a healthy escape. I am currently training to compete at the Olympic Trials for the 5000m this summer, and further into the future, gain selection to compete at the 2022 Commonwealth Games that will be held in Birmingham. In addition to the physical health benefits that I get from my training, it also provides significant psychological relief. I enjoy running, and the socialising aspect that I get from it. I have learnt to use this time to ‘switch off’ from dentistry as much as I can. It has helped me to create a balance between minimising daily stresses, whilst still enabling me to be productive. Often, my training simply involves getting outside with a small group of mates, going for a run, taking in the fresh air and enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Overall, this has allowed me to approach each day a little more motivated, and a whole lot less stressed.

Conclusion: These four student are an inspiration to what can be achieved, they are managing their careers and finding time for extra curricula activities that helping to reduce the day-to-day stresses.

Kirsty Hill - 2020