self-care
An Attitude of Gratitude
By: Beth Shaughnessy It can be a difficult task to think about gratitude because we may become a little hardened and insensitive in light of the demands on our time. I can't help but smirk when I read articles that identify a percentage of physicians who are experiencing burnout, as if this is a fixed, unmoving percentage. I think we all experience burnout at some point or another, and we do our best to learn from it, rein it in, keep it under wraps, keep it controlled. Step back with me, then, and take a quiet look at what you have around you. Dr. Beth Shaughnessy with sisters Kathleen Shaughnessy Maddalone, Suzanne Shaughnessy, Rosemary Shaughnessy Bartosik. I just returned from a much delayed vacation, having arranged my first ever group vacation with only my sisters. I am fortunate to have them as a dependable source of...
I. AM. TIRED.
I am tired today. It was a call night, after a full day of operating. The pages came in steadily. I don’t mind the ones that have to do with patient care. Most are just from people trying to do the right thing for the patients. But the calls about whether the patient should be observation or inpatient at 3 am push my button. My internal ire rises after the call and I can’t fall back asleep right away, stealing at least 20 minutes of precious sleep. I wish these things didn’t bother me, but they do. I’m tired of having to negotiate with the OR desk to get my patient in the operating room. I’m just trying to fix a problem. This isn’t about getting to a golf course. It’s about the patient and their family being in pain and fear. If you are too nice, you get put...
Translating “Intellectual Capital” into “Career Capital”–What a Coach Can Do for You
By: Janet Bickel “We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”—Mary Catherine Bateson “Success comes to people who know themselves, learn how to manage and develop themselves, and know how and when to change the work they do.”--Peter Drucker The careers of all physicians represent an enormous personal (and often public) investment. Yet many find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the complex systems characteristic of medicine today and are thus unable to fully capitalize on this investment in terms of job satisfaction or achieving their potential as leaders. Translating “intellectual capital” into “career capital” requires many skills not touched upon during medical school or post-graduate training. Taking effective responsibility for your own career now includes multiple systems and communications skills—that is team-building, bridging numerous kinds of differences, addressing conflicts with sensitivity as they arise, hiring and delegating, negotiating, financial management, and handling chronic tensions between personal...
Having it all means having good physical, mental and spiritual health, too!
by: Marie-Christine Wright, JD “I’m discovering that women can have it all, just not all at the same time.” If we can’t have it all at the same time, is there always room for wellness, and what does being well really mean? There is the obvious answer: physical health. But in addition, we must nurture our mental and spiritual health. A surgical career requires nurturing, but so does a human being: how do we do both, without compromising either? First we must view our life’s path in two timelines: the daily minutiae and the long-term. We want to exercise and eat well on a daily basis, which seems impossible when one has all but 10 minutes to shove hospital cafeteria food in one’s mouth, spends 12 or more hours on her feet rounding or in the OR, and has to keep up with her field by reading after work. When...
Self Care and Meditation
by: Betsy Tuttle-Newhall, MD, FACS When one mentions the word “meditation”, images of saffron robed monks and lotus flowers come to mind for many; however, meditation is simply the act of quieting the mind and focusing the attention. Meditation is a practice, no one starts the practice being perfect and “doing it right, (which is an important concept for surgeons!). It is by doing and making space for attention that one learns. For those of us who work all hours of the day or night, and are constantly bombarded by phone calls, texts, pages, and other people’s needs, a moment of calm is invaluable to our own health and well-being. Meditation is about training your mind to be in the moment either for that purpose alone, or for the other benefits of well-being- calm, relief of anxiety, cooling your anger and frustration, opening our own heart and preventing compassion fatigue....
Failure
by Mary Brandt, MDDear Dr. Brandt, I enjoy your blog very much. As a second year medical student, I know that my peers and I all struggle with what we view as ‘failure’ at some point or another. I imagine this problem doesn’t stop (…ever), especially since medicine seems to attract people who hold themselves to extremely high, if not impossible, standards. If you’re looking for topics, I wonder if you might have some insight to offer on how to deal with the downfalls along the way.Dear Colleague, It is part of our profession that we will never stop trying to be perfect and – just as true – that we will always fall short. As a student, it tends to be about the tests you are taking and the feeling that you will never study enough. As a resident, it’s the feeling that you don’t know enough to make...
Creating your own academic timeline
by Christina Cellini, MD, FACS, FASCRS This topic came to me during a grand rounds given by a well-known surgeon in his mid-career - henceforth will be referred to as “WKS”. I had just returned from my second three-month maternity leave in two years and was looking forward to hearing about what advice he had to give. That morning WKS gave a talk about how he advanced academically starting from residency to his early attending years that eventually led to his promotion to associate professor. His talk was very informative, and he made a really big deal about being present for your family while trying to achieve your goals. All in all it was a thoughtful presentation. However a few things caught my attention and highlighted how everyone’s situation is unique. One piece of advice given was that one should constantly “be writing papers” and even to “get up at...
