News Summary
How To Be Resilient: 4 Steps to Success When Life Gets Hard:
A must-follow blog for positive well-being is from Eric Barker. In this blog, he talks about Icelandic life and how it has made them so resilient. Taking material from the book "Comfort Crisis" Barker outlines four steps. 1. Too much comfort provided...
We Don’t Need Self-care; We Need Boundaries
This Doximity article submitted by Dr. Debbie Kolb talks about female physicians being bombarded with so much self-care advice. Author Pooja Lakshmin states that busy physicians do not have time for self-care (Go for solo lunch, pedicure, spa and massage, book clubs,...
Success Rate for Substance Abuse treatment for Health Care Professionals remains High if Monitored
Studies show that 10%-15% of physicians in the United States go through substance abuse at some point during their career, similar to the rates of substance abuse for the general population. However, physicians are often afraid to ask for help for substance...
Role of Anticipatory anxiety in the time of Uncertainty
Anticipatory anxiety can be a symptom of generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or panic disorder, but people without a formal diagnosis experience it, too – especially right now. In a March 2021 survey by the American Psychological Association, 50% of...
Will there be a Doctor in the House? Physician Supply and Demand during the Pandemics
In a yearly survey done by physician search engagements, AMN Search Solutions/Merritt Hawkins conducts on behalf of its clients, demand for physicians is rising. The failure of seven bipartisan bills in the last 12 years before pandemics has long-term implications....
Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2021: it’s not that bad, but there are some warning signs
Recently, a Medscape survey of over 10,000 nurses (LPN, CRNA, CAN, and Nurse midwives) came out. This report is published at the crucial time when we have waves after waves of covid patients overloading the hospital system. 22% of interviewed had a death of a...
An MD’s Nightmare Began with Reporting Her Manic Episode to the Medical Board
In 2006 Susan Haley, an ER doctor, had a manic episode due to prednisone. She was asked to report this to the Oregon medical board by her work. Board, in turn, told her that they had to open an inquiry to permit her to go back to work. She was asked to enter into a...
Don’t want to retire? Here’s how to maintain a fulfilling career into your 80s and beyond
In 2019 the employment rate for Americans aged 75 or older was at its highest level at 6.8%, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Some data suggest that the number may rise to 10% by 2026. So, what makes these people work beyond their retirement...
Warning: Being a parent or an unpaid caregiver during COVID Pandemic can be harmful to your health
Parents of children aged <18 years and unpaid caregivers of adults have had mental health challenges before. But COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse for them. Among 10,444 U.S. adults surveyed during December 2020 and February –March 2021, parents, unpaid...
The Resilient Prescription
His disgruntled employee shot Dr. Charney, a psychiatrist, and dean of the Icahn School of Medicine, and he survived. He is well known in the fields of resilience. He had to apply and use his own medicine. He decided to continue his activity, including speaking at the...
Empty Pews are an American Public Health Crisis
This article in Christianity Today is authored by the Director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University.In 2011, Barna group found that 43% of Americans attended religious services weekly with a subsequent drop to 29% in February 2020. Due to the onset...
Meet the Least Happy People in America
In its Office Pulse survey, Captivate Network, a media solutions company, says it uncovered "profiles of the happiest and unhappiest workers." Here is the profile of the Happiest persons list: · Male, around 39 years old, Married · Household income...
Physician wellness after COVID-19: Steps to get back to normalcy
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on our mental health, with 42% of Americans reporting depression or anxiety symptoms in December 2020, compared with just 11% the previous year. A survey of healthcare workers found that 93% reported stress,...
Then came the Pandemic: Our Brains Were Not Built for This Much Uncertainty
This Harvard Business Review article talks about how our brain copes with uncertainty. The recent pandemic has caused much more elevation in anxiety due to unrelenting multifactorial assault on our bio-psycho-social issues. These threats lead to decreased motivation,...
Outcomes of General Medicine Patients Treated by Female vs. Male Physicians: Canadian study
I am going to offend someone here. Female physicians are better than male physicians. Am I right? An earlier 2017 study of patients admitted to internal medicine wards in the US noted that those cared for by female physicians had a lower rate of 30-day...
Proven Benefits of Happiness
One website for all happiness source is https://positivepsychology.com/. I have mentioned some of the benefits earlier but this article describes the proven and well-studied benefits of happiness. 1. Healthy heart: studies have linked happiness with...
Incidence of Infertility and Pregnancy Complications in US Female Surgeons
In the modern era of medicine, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first reported woman to graduate from medical school in 1849 and pursue a career in surgery. Women are entering the surgical profession in more significant numbers, making up 38% of residents2 and 21% of...
How to support a friend or family member who’s struggling with their mental health?
Being a psychiatrist, I have been asked this question many times by a well-wisher. Author Sahaj Kohli has outlined some of them do and don’ts. Do listen and validate with neutrality, ask what kind of help they need, offer regular support for a specific task, and read...
Doctors lose Compassion for Vaccine Refusers
We were dreaming of that beautiful fall wedding celebration or a vacation, but our plan has changed. Delta wave has put an unnecessary burden on healthcare workers. Are you Mad? Exhausted? Scared? Disappointed? Or probably all of the above. Dr. Karkowsky expresses in...
High Rates of Work-Related Trauma, PTSD in Intern Physicians
It is not uncommon for physicians to experience workplace violence (verbal or even physical). Physicians are at risk for work-related exposure to traumatic events, including patient critical illness and death, serious medical errors and complications, treating people...
MD Jailed for Road Rage and Career Spirals Downhill
When was the last time you got angry and thought you would lose it all? Dr. Maag, in this Medscape article, talks about how his impulsivity and anger ruined a nice day. It’s a chilling story with a good deal of confession by this doctor. He got into road rage with a...
Rate of Suicide Among Women Nurses Compared with Women in the General Population
This study examined the suicide rates and patterns in Unites states from 2007 till 2018. Our health care workforce is primarily comprised of female workers, especially nurses. Among female suicides in 2017-18, nurses were 1.7 times more likely to carry out a...
The Mental Benefits of Being Terrible at Something and what happens to your brain when you finally nail it (Outside Magazine)
Have you heard of the 80/20 rule before? Once you’ve learned or figured out the first 80 percent of something, the effort it will take to learn the last 20 percent might not be worth it—because the last 20 percent is almost always the hardest. Adults...
A Clinician who sought mental health shares his journey
This article highlights the obstacles we face for seeking mental health help and how a young psychiatrist struggled with it. A study based on a sample of 2,106 female physician-parents that appeared in General Hospital Psychiatry found almost half...