Burnout

Three days at the Ending Physician Burnout Summit melted my cynicism. Three days of straight talk with leaders who shared candidly the facets of a broken system. Three days I was reflected as a Doctor, a hero, a hope and I remained glued to my chair, sopping up the content, excited to think of what is possible for Us. Thank you again to Jonathan Fisher, all of the educators and most of all his amazing team. And while that joy enlivens me, the news of another physician loss in Western Michigan is a harrowing reality of abysmal suicide stats affecting my fellow doctors.

There has never been a better time to talk about the Why of Physician Burnout. Thanks again to my Professor Eric Koester at the Creators Institute for helping to bring out my personal Why, echoing the cries of the many physicians who have lost their life to suicide. Through my book with the working title of “The Wounded Healer: Evolution of a Physician Burnout,” I reflect how I, like so many others, were stuffing all those bad feelings down, either afraid to share, or ashamed to admit, them. Why we are unhappy, why our days are hard to get through, why am I the Only one, are just a few of the ruminations. Freeze, Flee or Fight? Slim Choices available, as many of us struggle to stay devoted to a career we love.

The greatest part of being an author are the amazing people I am meeting while researching for “The Wounded Healer”. As promised, I want to share a Hero I recently interviewed, Dr. Mona Masood, dedicated psychiatrist, founder and chief organizer of the Physician Support Line (https://www.physiciansupportline.com/). As she watched the grief pile onto physicians during the initial phases of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, she was called to action and the rest is Our remarkable history. In fact, we may all benefit from her lessons on Community building. She saw a need, stepped up and made the first generous offering. . . Asking - “How can I help?” For some of us, that was life saving.

It all starts with one, and she was that One. She reported to us that she just “put the call out there, calling all psychiatrists and within one week, over 200 signed up and we’ve been supporting 1000’s of physicians across the United States ever since then.” As many as 800 of these compassionate experts are available to offer their free, confidential expertise- doctor to doctor, no strings attached.This call is confidential, it’s not a gimmick, not a deal, not a membership, but an offering.

Dr Masood also stated that “my hypothesis is that many physicians come to medicine as a wounded healer, whether it’s really deep, deep trauma that’s obvious or not”; “there is value in peer support for people like wounded healers, because they’re able to talk ro someone who has shared the experience of, you know, this path and this very unique journey of medicine and there’s a trust, a willingness to build insight” and “one of the key components for us, is to build that safe space for docs to be vulnerable.”

Physician suicide (an estimated 400 doctors) leads to 1 million patients per year losing their

doctors (MAYBE CAN INSERT ONE OF THESE GRAPHICS HERE -

https://www.google.com/search?q=i+million+patients+lose+their+doctor+to+suicide&clie

nt=safari&hl=en-us&sxsrf=ALeKk0021alkrPhIUjtQ952IEU3hGiFOtg:1629850647608&sourc

e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXlYzn8sryAhXXMlkFHZboAq0Q_AUoAnoECAE

QBA&biw=1121&bih=734&dpr=2#imgrc=NJJ9VVSOLRMxWM)

We believe that access to healing for our wounded healers is by telling and sharing our stories- Help us elevate the conversation and build a community dedicated to wellness for healers by checking us out at https://www.groovemds.com. And if you know of someone or have a story about Physician burnout, we would love to interview you. Check out our website and schedule an interview today.

Join the conversation, Elevate your voice and #getyourgrooveback.