For doctors who suffer from burnout, the ultimate tragedy is suicide. The British medical journal The Lancet surveyed a number of studies that discuss troubling statistics on suicide and depression among American physicians.
The subject is not new, but the studies attempt to provide a few new insights. A 2004 analysis in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that male doctors were 1.41 times more likely to commit suicide than other men. The statistic for female doctors was significantly higher, 2.27. The cause of the increased rates is not known, but the problem seems to start in medical school. At medical school, competitiveness, the quest for perfection, too much autonomy coupled with responsibility, and the fear of showing vulnerability have all been cited as triggers for mental ill health.
The hysterical patient during a busy ER shift. By VeronicaB, MD We’ve all had that hysterical patient.
The one that comes in during a busy shift. Grabbing at their head, their chest, their abdomen. The art of medicine and the power of human touch. Though I had a less than comfortable childhood, I did not know what I missed in nurturing until I played football at around age 10.
The coach, a big burly man, with a voice as huge as his girth, put his hand on my shoulder as he explained something to the team. Why cookbook medicine detracts from compassionate care. By Greg Smith, MD As a psychiatrist, part of my job is to listen as you tell me about symptoms that bother you every day.
If I can help you put these symptoms into a framework such as a syndrome or a disease, then we can work together on trying to figure out how to treat them. Often times in mental health, the best we can do is to dampen the symptoms and make them better or more tolerable because we haven’t figured out exactly how to get rid of them completely yet. Frustrating for you and for me, but at least your life can be more enjoyable and you are not plagued by intense depression, debilitating manic episodes, or maddening hallucinations. Now, we all would usually agree that getting rid of symptoms and curing disease are two admirable goals that are well worth pursuing.
What about psychiatric symptoms? Sometimes, you would be wrong. Speed dating techniques to screen medical students. Implications of Nebraska’s ill-conceived fetal pain law. Danielle Deaver, a nurse, was 22 weeks pregnant with her second child when her water broke.
Doctors determined that her membranes had ruptured and there wasn’t enough amniotic fluid to support the fetus.But because of Nebraska’s law, Deaver could not obtain an abortion and was forced to live through “10 excruciating days” waiting for her extremely premature fetus to be born even though doctors were sure it would never survive. When finally delivered, the one-pound, ten-ounce baby girl gasped and struggled for air, dying 15 minutes later in her mother’s arms. Tragically, the Deavers had sought an abortion to avoid just such an excruciating end; they were concerned that the infant would suffer while it died, trying to breathe.
TED video: Turning medical education inside out and upside down. Aspects of psychiatry this doctor appreciates. Eat Healthy Fats (July's Healthy Habit) One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to come up with monthly “resolutions” for myself and for anyone who follows this blog.
Cooking Light magazine (which is one of my favorite sources of recipes and ideas for healthy living) had the same idea, so I am shamelessly borrowing their healthy habits! It’s a lot easier to commit to 30 days of a new habit than a full year. So this month’s goal is to eat more healthy fats. Practicing Medicine Can Be Grimm Work. Using gender as sole determinant for a choice of doctor. It happened 25 years ago and I never forgot it.
I’d been in the forefront of women’s consciousness-raising; I recognized that women had been professionally downtrodden for years (in certain fields), and hoping to do my part to balance the inequity, I opted for female doctors whenever possible. But using gender as sole determinant for my choice of doctor would prove to be a huge mistake … as I’d learn. At the time, my family was up against an armada of medical woes.
At 46, my husband battled cancer that had metastasized into the bones. We had two children who were 13 and 3. I lived a fractured existence, as I raced from full-time teaching at a local junior high to pick up the younger one from her babysitter‘s, then on to school practices, sports events, etc. for the older one. Examining medicine through the lens of women's rights. I’ve always had a hard time identifying myself as a feminist.
I work for healthcare equality and human rights. Women’s rights seemed to me a part of human rights work (and as Hilary Clinton and others have said, woman’s rights are human rights). Why doctors shouldn't leave their emotions behind. Michael A.
Zadeh, MD | Physician | June 28, 2011 Part of the reason I became a physician was because I got tired of watching those close to me as they suffered through illness and eventually died, while I stood helplessly by, unable to do a thing. Throughout my training I watched as my mentors interacted with their patients, displaying a political correctness matched with just enough outward emotion so that there was no telling the difference between the good news and the bad. When you close an abdomen after a failed rescue, the OR is silent. I didn’t know her name until it was over, much too late.
What I knew was she was thirteen and that on this winter day someone in her family had been pulling her behind their car, on a sled. No doubt laughing and looking in the rear-view mirror, the person driving had whipsawed around a corner, and the young girl — probably screaming (fear? Reasons why medical students burn out and become depressed. As I finished my 24-hour call recently, I was reminded of a 2009 study revealing a decline in empathy as medical students transition from their mostly-didactic second year to third year, which is essentially an apprenticeship in the hospital with lecture as an afterthought. I began my third year with what most would argue is the most difficult rotation, surgery, and my experiences over the past 5 weeks have sparked introspection on the things that cause medical students to burn out and wall themselves off during the clinical years. Numerous factors make the third year of medical school difficult – learning the layout and flow of the hospital, adapting time management skills, the overwhelming volume of knowledge to acquire, and the emotionally-draining experience of moving from 4-5 hours of lecture daily to 14 hours of patient contact in the context of impatient hospital staff are just a few.
Lack of mentor continuity. Lack of clinical continuity. Hostile attitudes. Lack of feedback. Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges. Rennie Gibbs is accused of murder, but the crime she is alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. Yet she faces life in prison in Mississippi over the death of her unborn child. Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby's death – they charged her with the "depraved-heart murder" of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.
Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. How medicine can be like a scene in Jerry Maguire. Although the famous clip from Jerry Maguire is about a sports agent trying to negotiate a new contract for an entitled egotistical football player, every time I see it, it reminds me of work. Put a white coat on Tom Cruise, and transplant them from a shower room to an exam room, and it becomes a pretty accurate portrait of my daily conversations with patients.
In fact, when I was on medicine call the other night, I had this exact conversation with two patients. The first was a 33-year-old male who overdosed on Rohypnol, went into cardiac arrest, and was resuscitated, intubated, and taken to the ICU for monitoring; the other was a 65-year-old end-stage renal disease patient on chronic dialysis with a fever and a 10 cm x 10 cm abscess overlying his AV shunt. Briefly, my conversations went something like this … The overdose patient awoke in the ICU, was extubated, and said, “I am leaving. Tips for medical students entering intern year. As intern year winds down and all of the giddy 4th year medical students are shelling out 200 dollars to rent that a robe for one day of pomp and circumstance, all of us interns are impatiently waiting for the fresh meat to arrive.
Having just experienced every single emotion under the psychological rainbow this year, I am going to give a few pointers (or not really pointers but just some anecdotal evidence that it’s ok to feel the way you’re feeling). I am stupid enough to admit to all of the silly things that I did. 5 easy steps to become a better medical student. I recently had quite a long conversation with a college senior that was just accepted into medical school for this coming fall. As a rising fourth year medical student myself, I would like to think that I have navigated the waters of academia and figured out both efficient paths to success and avoidance of roadblocks and setbacks. However, I was quite overwhelmed with the number of questions and concerns that this particular student had. Practical advice for medical students starting clinical rotations.
Should doctors be addressed by their first name? 10 Unwritten Rules About Surviving the Third Year. One Purpose of the Psychiatry Clerkship. – In White Ink. Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. A Country Doctor, MD | Physician | April 14, 2011 In my forays into the history of medicine I came across these six little words by Hippocrates. The futility of prolonging life and the benefit to patients. ER Stories, MD | Physician | April 2, 2011. Doctors are trained to prevent death, but not deal with death. S. Irfan Ali, MD | Physician | April 4, 2011.
Medical professionalism affect how hospitals perform. Daniel Wolfson | Physician | March 31, 2011. When a patient evokes an emotional reaction from a physician. When it comes to caring for the sick, it’s often assumed that health professionals and their patients usually get along. Stop and really think about what you want from life. Ways We Keep Poor People Out of Medical School. Doctors' 5 Worst Financial Mistakes: Introduction.
Medical school is hard, and other medical student thoughts. Why medical education needs to evolve away from memorization. Why Cats Are Not Doctors « Medium Large. Defensive Medicine. Why Your Doctor Chose to Be Your Doctor. How to Date a Med Student - Love and Marriage - FOXNews.com. The blade runner generation - Times Online. News Desk: The Velluvial Matrix. How social media will change mental health care. The Blog by Ziyad Nazem. How Can I Make the Most of My Surgery Rotation? Depression in Med School: You're Not Alone. Are You Feeling Depressed?: The Differential. Admitting You're Burned Out: The Differential. The Forsaken Specialty: Abstract and Introduction. A surgeon on those who understand murderers, rapists and child molesters.
Into the Water — The Clinical Clerkships. Everything about medicine is now big business. Being a physician is not just about medicine. Medical School Interviews: What I would do differently. Pre-med advice. A Concierge Medical Practice Without the Concierge Fee. Studying for 3rd Year Shelf Exams: The Match Game. How Can I Get Enough Sleep During Med School?