It's not OK to dismiss physician burnout / Stop being pushovers

--------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for subscribing. Did you know the [best of KevinMD] is on Facebook? Sponsors [5 tips to improve your HCAHPS scores]. Data measured by the HCAHPS survey is increasingly important. Read this eBrief for five ways technology can help you positively influence the metrics. [Read the eBrief]. [Is your hospital communication system trapped in the dark ages?] Just like a medieval page boy, pagers are annoying and inefficient. This leads to delayed patient care, frustrated providers, and potential HIPAA breaches. Learn why you need to ditch your [Page Boy] today. The common denominator in all malpractice claims: [Patient surprise, disappointment, and anger]. And regardless of the cause of injury, there’s always one convenient and visible target: The physician. But you can [take powerful steps to resolve tough situations before they lead to lawsuits]. Infographic: [The ROI of communication technology]. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Today: Jun. 2, 2016 [Why it’s not OK for older doctors to dismiss physician burnout] This past month I had the opportunity to present at a medical conference; my research topic was burnout and depression in osteopathic family medicine residents. A variety of attending physicians and residents stopped by my poster, excited to see this topic being brought to light. With the recent rise in physician dissatisfaction and suicide, there […] [A sick doctor must show up to work. That’s wrong.] A few weeks ago, I woke up feeling under the weather. It was day one of seven consecutive shifts. I looked into the mirror. A sullen face with sunken eyes stared back. As I was getting dressed, I felt fatigue trying to triumph over my body. Next came a nagging and rude cough that kept […] [A black doctor’s perspective on perceptions by race] I received the sign-out from a colleague that he was to be transferred out of the medical intensive care unit to our service, as we were the team on call that evening. My intern and I prepared to see him in the unit before he was moved to our floor, which involved reviewing his chart […] [When things go wrong operationally, nurses feel the pain first] Twenty years of experience and research reveal two indispensable truths about hospitals and health care organizations that can no longer be ignored: Those institutions neglecting the basic fundamentals of patient care risk jeopardizing the quality and safety of care they provide. Nothing can have a greater short and long-term impact on the cost of delivering health […] [It’s time for physicians to stop being pushovers] Like many physicians, I’m a people pleaser. On my medical school application, my personal statement was a literary cliché filled with my dreams of helping others, easing pain, soothing suffering — and I really meant it. What I didn’t know then was how difficult it would be to negotiate making patients happy while doing the […] [This is why health care is not a system] The Merriam-Webster dictionary has many definitions for the term system, but the most straightforward, and arguably the most applicable to our health care conversation is “a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.” The common wisdom is that our health care system is broken, and hence, our government is vigorously attempting […] [Choose your actions, not your feelings] Again and again in therapy I find myself emphasizing the distinction between feeling an emotion and acting on it. Many patients, and non-patients too, take undue responsibility for their emotions, as though feelings were volitional behaviors, the result of a choice. Often there is a stated or implied should: “I should feel this, not that.” Note how commonly people blame themselves for feeling, or […] [The alarmist approach to medical errors solves nothing] The British Medical Journal recently published a paper boasting the astonishing conclusion that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Headlines aside, the study suffers from questionable statistics that serve up alarmist conclusions about the prevalence of serious medical errors and obscure the road to addressing the tragic phenomenon of […] [10 indispensables for those with chronic pain and illness] This piece is based on personal experience and on the thousands of emails I’ve received from those who live day-to-day with chronic illness (which includes chronic pain). 1. Email. I know the joy of hearing the actual voice of a loved one. That said, email is the principal way I communicate with people. It’s hard for […] [How marriage affects men’s colonoscopy rates] Did you know that married men have a lower colorectal cancer mortality when compared to unmarried men? What about the fact that married men have higher rates of colorectal cancer screening? Interesting, right? In fact, studies showing the association between marriage and favorable behavior regarding colon cancer screening have been published as early as 2010. […] [A study on medical errors inflames, but doesn’t solve anything] For the last couple of days, the Twitter medical community has been discussing the latest in a long line of papers attempting to estimate the role of medical error as a cause of death. A recent entry appeared in the BMJ and was by a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Martin Makary, who claims that 251,454 […] [Should women doctors embrace their femininity?] My first confession is that I don’t really care to what extent a female emergency physician decides to embrace her femininity on the job. And yet, a new generation of female physicians is reshaping perceptions of our profession: what it takes to succeed, and therefore what sorts of skills, temperaments, and character types belong in […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Follow on Facebook] | [Twitter] --------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the KevinMD e-newsletter. If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD]. --------------------------------------------------------------- 173 Daniel Webster Highway Nashua, New Hampshire 03062 [Unsubscribe] | [Change Subscriber Options]