Month: July 2016
An Open Letter to Young Women Considering a Career in Surgery
This post originally appeared in Hot Heels, Cool Kicks, & a Scalpel Dear Young Woman Considering a Career in Surgery, It was lovely to meet you the other day. Many times a month, a young woman just like you comes to me with similar interests and concerns. “I really love surgery,” she says, ” But I am afraid of the lifestyle and I really want to have a family.” Oh, and thank you for also inviting me to speak at your seminar the other day on Women in Traditionally Male Dominated Fields. I have been speaking at similar panel sessions since 2005 when I was a bit of a novelty at my training program as a clinical PGY-4 with an infant daughter. Your collective curiosity on what my life must be like is of great interest to me because to me it’s just my life. It’s the only reality that...
Physician, Heal Thyself: Recognizing and Understanding Burnout
By Gabrielle Rieth This topic seems particular relevant and timely for me and my classmates, as we are currently in the happy limbo-land that our school dubs “Research Block.” It takes place following our second year of medical school, sitting for the USMLE Step 1 examination, and just prior to beginning our tenure as mini-docs in the arduous final two “clinical” years of our undergraduate medical education. On some level, I anticipated what I’d find when I began researching this topic. The concepts of self-care, emotional welfare, and professional burnout are hot-button issues in the medical world. In April, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy brought it to national attention in an interview at the annual meeting of the Association of Health Care Journalists. The culture of medicine was documented on the well-known website, Humans of New York. A student at another medical school shared a candid commentary on her struggles with...
Guilt
By JS I recently completed a 1-year hospital based fellowship that is designed to provide faculty and staff with the expertise and skills needed to advance academic careers in medical education. While I originally applied for the fellowship in order to improve my teaching style, I was particularly drawn in by the wellness sessions. I learned about the high prevalence of physician burnout, which is 30-40% amongst American surgeons1 and the many signs to help recognize it in myself and in others. I also became more aware of the resources available to help someone who is dealing with burnout. As the only surgeon in the group, it quickly became obvious to me that many of the solutions to preventing burnout required time and rearranging one’s schedule, for example, to go to a yoga class or meet with a peer support person. Of course, the irony was not lost on the...
Thoughts on Being a Caregiver
By Hilary Sanfey Over the last few years I helped care for a very dear friend, a retired surgeon, who developed a progressive neurological illness shortly after turning sixty. It was challenging, not least because of the emotional investment and physical toll, but because I had to learn a whole new skill set. So many times as a surgeon in practice I had ordered meds (lots of meds- after all I was a transplant surgeon!). Some were taken with food, some on an empty stomach, some an hour after eating, some crushable, some not … Breathing treatments, physical therapy etc. without thinking of the time it takes to coordinate this regimen with the activities of daily living, not to mention how exhausting it was for the poor patient! Now I truly appreciate the little time I did spend observing the nursing staff at the bedside. What advice do I have...
Learning New Roles
By Joanelle A. Bailey, M.D. My last call of my intern year is on June 30th, which means that I will be supervising the new incoming interns when they come to care for patients for their first time as physicians on the morning of July 1st. I have been thinking of the logistics for that day, specifically how important communication between team members will be as our roles on that morning will be changing. I remember my first day of residency, nearly one year ago, and how I had a rather idealistic view of how the first few weeks would go. I knew my year would be an arduous one, but I hoped to quickly become an efficient intern and an effective member of the patient care team. Many of my co-residents set a great example for my class and provided great advice and guidance. The best advice I got...