Personal Stories – Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub

Developing Empathy Takes More Than You Know

NAM — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 19:04:47 +0000

In this blog post for the Journal of American College of Radiology, Andrea Borondy Kitts describes her experience and struggles as a recovering patient after numerous hip surgeries. Despite being a compassionate and competent doctor, Kitts’ surgeon failed to recognize and empathize with the challenges that Kitts faced throughout recovery. Kitts thereby provides several suggestions for radiologists to cultivate empathy for their patients.

A Physician’s Suffering – Facing Depression as a Trainee

NAM — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 20:26:40 +0000

Published in JAMA, this perspective piece by Colleen M. Farrell details her own experience with depression during her fourth year of medical school. Despite suicidal thoughts, Farrell delayed seeking care due to the logistical and financial challenges of finding a clinician and general stigma. Farrell highlights the shame and unjustified position as a caregiver, that she felt, in accepting help. Although Farrell wanted to be perceived as smart and capable by her physicians, faculty, and patients, her depression made her realize that she is not so fundamentally different from her patients.

Re-Enchanting Medicine

NAM — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 20:13:31 +0000

The author of the following perspective piece discusses the disenchantment of medical practice, which often leads to physicians feeling symptoms of burnout. He describes his personal experience of building a relationship with one patient of his, emphasizing that strong relationships with patients also benefit the health of physicians. In order to reduce physician burnout and re-enchant medicine, physicians need to reestablish the importance of the relationship between patient and physician.

Relationship of a Physician’s Well-Being to Interactions with Patients: Practices of the Highest Performing Physicians on the Art of Medicine Patient Survey

NAM — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:53:28 +0000

The following study seeks to understand what physicians do to most satisfy their patients, and how they maintain a state of well-being in their clinical practices. Results show that physicians’ communication skills are most important; drawing out the patient’s story, through active listening, included eliciting the patient’s concerns and fears. This is a great context for improved diagnosis and treatment. Similarly, physicians’ greatest reward is patient interaction and connection in the context of their clinical practice—getting to know people and helping them.

A Physician’s Suffering – Facing Depression as a Trainee

NAM — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 21:13:48 +0000

Published in JAMA, this perspective piece by Colleen M. Farrell details her own experience with depression during her fourth year of medical school. Despite suicidal thoughts, Farrell delayed seeking care due to the logistical and financial challenges of finding a clinician and general stigma. Farrell highlights the shame and unjustified position as a caregiver, that she felt, in accepting help. Although Farrell wanted to be perceived as smart and capable by her physicians, faculty, and patients, her depression made her realize that she is not so fundamentally different from her patients.

Doctoring to Heal: Fostering Well-Being Among Physicians Through Personal Reflection

NAM — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 20:32:16 +0000

The following is an account of a discussion group intervention called Doctoring to Heal that has been held monthly since 1996 in the Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) at the University of California, San Francisco. Easily adaptable, DTH sessions are based on sharing of clinical narratives and personal stories, exploring meaning and emotion in medicine with an overall intention of improving physician well-being. The authors detail the format of DTH and report positive experiences from participants. The cited benefits include strong feelings of comfort, strengthening of personal and professional identities, increased sense of connectedness, take-home techniques, and maintenance of balance and well-being.

Out of the Straitjacket

NAM — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 13:42:49 +0000

Michael Weinstein shares his personal narrative, in a New England Journal of Medicine Perspectives paper, of burnout, treatment, and gradual recovery. Through artful storytelling, he paints a stark, vivid picture of the three characteristic signs of burnout in medicine: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low perceived personal achievement. He paves the way not only to show the susceptibility of burnout amongst physicians, but also illustrates his belief in deploying tools for reflection and self-care to remove restraints and isolation — both figurative and literal.

SIGECAPS, SSRIs, and Silence — Life as a Depressed Med Student

NAM — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 15:47:10 +0000

Michael R. Rose shares his battle with depression as a medical student — the signs and symptoms that he had trouble identifying and admitting to himself. He sheds light on the importance of changing the norm of silence and stigma through policy and narrative.

Grit, Gravity & Grace: New Poems about Medicine and Healthcare

NAM — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 20:54:58 +0000

Published in the Journal of Medical Humanities, this article reviews Grit, Gravity, and Grace, a modest collection of 41 poems. Nash Woods gives a detailed account of the themes explored and suggests it be used as a useful companion to many health humanities classes. He poses that the poems serve as prompts for creative writing, forays into the works of canonical writers, dips into the illness narrative genre, and sparks for research and reflective writing.

Gardening in a desert

NAM — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 20:40:42 +0000

Deployed Air Force Physician, Maj Travis Stephensen, writes an somber narrative painting a vivid picture of the disillusionment that befalls him during his deployment. The expectations of grandeur, patriotic nobility, and valor met with mediocrity and lackluster attitudes of his leaders comrades. However, he ends the paper with a newfound discovery of hope, explaining that the change must come from one’s own heart.