Healing the Healers … My Story …

The mother of the dead baby sat in her husband’s arms and simply asked “why?” over and over through the Vietnamese interpreter. I had no way to answer the question. I didn’t know why. There was nothing to point to. No defect in the child or mother or the actions taken in L&D.

All I could do was say “I am so sorry” … for your baby, for you … for everyone involved.

It was a nightmare … losing a baby during childbirth in my family practice residency. It was THE thing each of us dreaded the most. What happened afterwards was even more devastating in the long run. What happened was … nothing.

Tags: Physician Burnout

Energy Vampires and Physician Burnout – stop the downward spiral

I recently heard that term for the first time on a popular online Physician Website. Energy Vampires are those patients (you know the ones) who seems to suck your life energy away every time you are near them.

Tags: physician wellness, Physician Burnout, Physician Coaching, physician stress

Physician Burnout is CRAZY sometimes

Here’s a common definition of crazy behavior:

Crazy is …

Doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting a different result.

Tags: Physician Burnout, physician burnout treatment, physician stress, physician burnout symptoms

Medical Malpractice Myths … another one bites the dust.

Apparently there is a widely held belief amongst physicians of a connection between income and malpractice risk.

Turns out the idea that poor patients are more likely to sue their doctors is nothing more than a myth, according to report published in the Friday online edition of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

Here is an excerpt from the Abstract

Tags: Physician Burnout, physician stress

Why does having a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment as a modern doctor seem like such a struggle at times?

There is an invisible battle going on, day-by-day between our search for a Fulfilling Career in Medicine and the hidden forces of Physician Burnout.

In this article, I will outline why this is most certainly not a “fair fight”. Modern doctors are programmed to burn out ... it's a setup. I will also share latest physician burnout research evidence on what you can do to even the odds

Physician's Top 3 Work-Life Balance Shortcuts
FREE Online Video Training >> Lessons from our 40,000 doctor experience
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Tools for Daily, Weekly and Monthly Balance

What is Physician Burnout Anyway?

We each know what it feels like to be burned out, toast, fried and spent after a long weekend of call or a tough night in the hospital. If you are able to recover your drive and energy before you return to work, great job. I hope your resilience continues.

The difference between Stress and Physician Burnout is this ability to recover in your time off. Physician Burnout begins when you are NOT able to recharge your batteries between call nights or days in the office. You begin a downward spiral that has three distinct symptoms.

Tags: physician burnout prevention, Physician Burnout, physician burnout treatment, physician burnout symptoms

Physician Bullying is a surprisingly large issue especially for medical students and recent residency graduates according to an article I just found on BMJ Careers’ website. This is a well written article with an 8 article bibliography summarizing research on Physician Bullying. They even document the following physician bullying types.

Types of physician bullying

• Spreading malicious rumours or insulting someone (particularly on the grounds of age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and religion or belief)
• Copying memos that are critical of someone to others who do not need to know
• Ridiculing or demeaning someone—picking on them or setting them up to fail
• Exclusion or victimisation
• Unfair treatment
• Overbearing supervision or other misuse of power or position
• Unwelcome sexual advances—touching, standing too close, display of offensive material, asking for sexual favours, making decisions on the basis of sexual advances being accepted or rejected
• Making threats or comments about job security without foundation
• Deliberately undermining a competent worker by overloading and constant criticism
• Preventing individuals progressing by intentionally blocking promotion or training opportunities

Here’s a link to the full article and thank you to Lorna Powell, the article’s author for putting this issue on my radar.

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PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT:
Have you ever been bullied?
If so, what happened and is it any one of the physician bullying types mentioned above?

 

Tags: Physician Burnout, physician stress, physician bullying

Stress and Doctors = Mindfulness Meditation

The research is becoming overwhelming that Mindfulness Meditation is the most powerful moment to moment stress reducing, burnout preventing technique for physicians. The challenge is getting that awareness out of the ivory towers of research and translating it into simple techniques a  practicing doctor can use on the fly.

Tags: physician wellness, Physician Burnout, Mindfulness

What happens when an addictive Facebook App eventually causes positive health effects on purpose. I personally believe that social gaming and crowdsourcing are two areas to pay CLOSE ATTENTION TO  in the coming years

Here is an article on the state of health causing social gaming at the present time from Science2.0.com.

Tags: Physician Burnout

Here is a great article from the Harvard Business Journal by Tony Schwartz about how to take your busy life back.

 

Tags: Physician Burnout, physician stress

Physician Burnout Symptoms

When it comes to physician burnout, the odds are stacked against us. We do whatever it takes to survive medical school and residency, but survival skills don't provide a decent quality of life.

They only allow us to squeak by. Burnout symptoms are not obvious to the burnout sufferer, so let's talk about the symptoms of burnout for just a second.

Tags: Physician Burnout, Physician Coaching, physician stress