title: Work-life balancing: challenges and strategies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Balancing the personal and the professional is an ongoing struggle for most professionals, and palliative care clinicians are no exception. A sustained lack of balance can lead to feelings of frustration, inadequacy, and guilt. Palliative care physicians may find this balance particularly difficult due to the nature of their work: caring for patients and families who are often suffering and in crisis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this article, we describe challenges to work-life balancing and strategies that may promote balance, including "timeshifting," goal setting, cognitive reframing, and self-care. We argue that the search for balance is a lifelong endeavor that entails self-reflection and continuing examination of one's values and goals.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston, MA 02115, USA. echittenden@partners.org
authors.forename: Eva H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Chittenden
authors.forename: Christine S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Ritchie
mesh_terms: D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care; D010820:Physicians; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance