Buddhist inspired resources for physicians and other health care professionals.
Posted in Angry Patients, Burnout, Compassion, Medical Education on Jul 12th, 2009
Expressing Humanism in Each Medical Encounter
Ami Schattner, MD
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(12):1095-1099.
Humanistic behavior is considered an essential component of professional medical care. However, the evidence shows that it is often neglected. Many barriers to the expression of sensitivity to the patient’s concerns and empathy and compassion in the clinical encounter can be [...]
Posted in Angry Patients, Burnout, Medical Education, Mindfulness in Medicine, Research/Evidence-Based Medicine, for nurses on Mar 5th, 2009
In the most recent Archives of Internal Medicine, investigators examined the pervasive but poorly understood issue of “the difficult patient encounter” (Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(4):410-414). The authors write “Nearly 1 of 6 outpatient visits is considered difficult by physicians. Difficult encounters are more likely to occur with patients who have a mental disorder, present with [...]
Posted in Burnout, Mindfulness in Medicine, Provider Grief on Mar 3rd, 2009
“As a RN, I spent the first 10 years of my now 20 year career trying to figure a way out. Having become a nurse as a second career at age 35, I found it hard to start over again.
When I stumbled across MBSR, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction in 2004 I was full of life [...]
Posted in Burnout, Medical Education, Mindfulness in Medicine on Oct 25th, 2008
I often hear this expression in the hospital coming from those with some degree of equanimity about the inevitable and frustrating vicissitudes one encounters in the health care system. When health-care practitioners are confronted with dreaded or unanticipated outcomes and situations are scrutinized endlessly in search of uncovering what went wrong or how things may [...]
Posted in Burnout, Medical Education, Mindfulness in Medicine on Oct 23rd, 2008
“The path to happiness and a sense of well-being in this very life lies not in avoiding suffering but in using the conscious, embodied, direct experience of it as a vehicle to gain deep insight into the true nature of life and your own existence.”
Words of wisdom for the burned-out medical practitioner, from Phillip Moffitt’s [...]
Posted in Burnout, Mindfulness in Medicine, Research/Evidence-Based Medicine on Sep 19th, 2008
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health Care Professionals: Results From a Randomized Trial.
Shapiro, Shauna L. 1,6; Astin, John A. 2; Bishop, Scott R. 3,4; Cordova, Matthew 5
International Journal of Stress Management. 12(2):164-176, May 2005.
The literature is replete with evidence that the stress inherent in health care negatively impacts health care professionals, leading to increased depression, decreased [...]
Posted in Burnout on Sep 18th, 2008
An excellent little Commentary on Physician Burnout and Buddhism. From the Archives of Dermatology: http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/138/5/587.pdf