How do I cope with giving patients less time than they need?

You trained to heal minds, and the system hands you fifteen minutes for a person who plainly needs an hour. Every day you make a compromise you never agreed to, and it wears against everything you believe good care should be. That ache is your conscience working, not failing. You did not build this system and you cannot fix it from your chair today. But inside those fifteen minutes, you still have real choices. How present you are. Whether the person feels seen or processed. A rushed visit given with full attention is still a different thing than a rushed visit given on autopilot. So protect what is actually in your hands. Give those minutes your whole self, and let go of the guilt for the minutes the system refuses to give. Where you can, push for change in the ways that are open to you. But do not let the impossible standard rob you of the good you truly can do, one patient at a time.