Boundary Rituals: How to Keep Work from Following You Home

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Ever walk out of a shift and feel like the hospital came home with you? In medicine, the mental residue can cling long after the work day is done. One way to address this is boundary rituals, deliberate actions designed to process the day and allow you to leave work at work, be more present when you get home, and possibly even sleep better. As a bonus, the ability to disengage from work is one of the strongest predictors of reduced burnout.

In this episode, Mohamed Hagahmed, MD, shares how he creates this boundary—through small rituals of gratitude, stillness, and reflection. From growing up as a refugee to serving as a sideline physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dr. Hagahmed’s path has been shaped by resilience, culture, and care. He explains how he learned to stop carrying unfixable wounds home, why kindness is clinical armor, and how tiny acts of self-compassion can protect meaning in medicine.

Guest Bio: Mohamed Hagahmed, MD a Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Associate Medical Director at the Center for Emergency Medicine, and EMS Medical Director for several systems in Western Pennsylvania. On top of that, he works in high-acuity emergency departments across the region. He’s a graduate of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, passionate about resuscitation, critical care, and toxicology education. And he’s the creator and host of EMERGE in EM, a podcast focused on emergency medicine education and global health empowerment.

We Discuss:

• Growing up as a refugee and finding purpose in emergency medicine
• The toll of moral injury and why staying closed and rigid nearly broke him
• Small rituals that help shed the emotional residue of a shift
• Using gratitude and stillness as tools for resilience
• How changing clothes, music, and even snacks can protect emotional health
• Turning frustration into advocacy for immigrant health and systemic change
• Advice for new attendings on protecting the threshold between work and home

Mentioned in this episode:

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