You know the feeling when you have back-to-back surgeries, OPD overwhelm, piles of admin, and every colleague who could help you is also up to their (empty) eyeballs?
I had the freelance healthcare journalist equivalent three weeks ago. Simultaneous deadlines, mindless admin, budget-cutting clients, and long hours keep the wolf from the door.
Then came the therapy, all too rare for the compulsively diligent.
Like a warm bath on a cold winter’s night followed by a hot toddy by a roaring fireplace. It’s called a fortnight’s holiday – long enough to forget your daily routine and allow habit-forming worries to melt away. I returned home with a new perspective, determined to see the world as I am and can be, (not necessarily ‘as it is’).
The literature says journalists most at risk of burnout are young females with fewer years of journalism experience and working in small circulation size newspapers. Editors and reporters experience higher levels of burnout than those in other roles, as do journalists in non-management positions.1 Ring any HCP bells?
Oh – by the way, this is a car review. About a vehicle which one profession might afford and the other, probably not. In my experience (and in the literature), healthcare professionals, especially certain disciplines, burn out quicker than journalists (unless we’re in a war zone, in which case the burnout can be literal – which I saw during the eighty’s ‘struggle years”).
Witness the turbo-charged two-litre diesel Hyundai Tucson mini-SUV, (retailing at around R800k), a luxury vehicle that whisked myself, my wife and two teenage daughters around over 1000kms of rural KwaZulu Natal – on a whisper of petrol and in return for three audience tailored reviews.
Skraal skrywers maak mos ‘n plan!
Like the Boks did against the Kiwis, this car can accelerate its way through unpredictable traffic, grind slowly over difficult terrain, and clear obstacles that a shorter-legged member of the mini-SUV pack would falter on, by dint of a combination of outsize 482,6 mm (19 inch) diameter wheels and a 181mm ground clearance.
It has a side-step ability like Springbok winger Cheslin Kolbe. Sensors sound a subtle but unmistakable alarm if another vehicle (or stationary obstacle), is dangerously close, and it automatically brakes if you come up too fast on another car or truck. The ‘grunt’ comes from a 137kW and 416 Nm turbodiesel engine, with drive sent to all four wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission. There is sport mode and economy mode gearing, the former a tad more fuel-consumptive than the latter, but cheap at the unmistakable extra thrust gained. I found the ride silky smooth, with more than enough power in eco mode to accelerate past trundling 18-wheeler trucks as speeding micro-bus taxis suddenly filled my rear-view mirrors.
A digital screen does the Coach Rassie Erasmus side-line duties – enabling tactical navigation and state-of-play progress monitoring, plus readings on tank mileage, temperature, and real-time and average fuel consumption. We travelled from Prince’s Grant on the KZN north coast, (near Stanger), to the remote Zingela Safari and River Company on the Thukela River near Colenso, putting its dirt road legs to the test without once scraping down on its ‘stomach’ (conscious, slow navigation needed over rough patches). Pre-set terrain modes: ‘Snow, Mud or Sand,’ help the intelligent traction system distribute power between the front and rear wheels.
The car thus did a sterling job of traversing newly muddied roads, even when left in its default setting. Later, on this four-person family holiday, we nimbly side-stepped sudden potholes deep enough to engulf half a wheel on the way to Sani Valley Lodge’s 104-hectare premier trout still water just beyond Himeville. I won’t go into the countless inactive road construction trucks we saw between there and the N3’s Underberg offramp at Howick– all doing anything but fix years-old potholes. I calculated that a fleet of six trucks would take less than a week to fill every single one.
Some badly subsided tarmac near the road verges and Wild West driver behaviour surely also contribute to emergency unit overwhelm on a regular basis.
Winter driving in the Underberg/Himeville area – we were there just before a heavy snowfall – was a pleasure with the adjustable heating in the comfortably padded and multi-adjustable seats, while an unseasonably hot coastal sojourn allowed us to evaluate the ventilated seat cooling function – an amazingly refreshing feature. The seats are trimmed in black suede and leather with attractive red stitching.
Blind stop and reverse camera monitoring come standard. Being the pleb, non-petrol head that I am, the Siri-like voice warning of a speed camera up ahead was a cost-saving delight. Lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control come standard as does a sunroof and tyre pressure monitor. Our tyre pressure monitor proved accurate with a slow leak on a rear tyre showing 1.5 bars, enabling us to top it up every few hundred clicks, thus avoiding a time-consuming, unaccustomed tyre change. The boot had adequate space for our three large suitcases, groceries, five-litre water bottles, my fishing equipment, and assorted sundries. No foot space crowding necessary. I’ll admit to some serious separation anxiety when we finally left this vehicle with the Hyundai-hired concierge at King Shaka International Airport.
The N-line newcomer is the only all-wheel-drive variant in the local Tucson line-up and comes in at about R800 000. This price includes a five-year/150 0000km vehicle warranty, a seven-year/200 000km drivetrain warranty and a six-year/90 000 km service plan.
So, if this is a fit for your requirements and pocket, I’d simply say, ‘Don’t hesitate.’
And please, take a holiday! You, (and your patients), deserve it.
REFERENCE:
1. MacDonald J.B, Saliba AJ, Hodgins G, Ovington LA; Burnout in journalists: A systematic literature review. Burnout Research. Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2016, Pages 34-44. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213058615300103