If ...then.... Rituals to make you more reflective in the moment We all have important things we want to accomplish, but there are so many distractions and stumbling blocks that may get in our way. Here, writer Bina Venkataraman shares a startlingly easy strategy to use to defeat future challenges.
Thriving in Scrubs: Making Mistakes One of the most traumatic experiences doctors go through is making mistakes. Though they try to prevent errors at all costs, they will inevitable make mistakes at some point in their training and career. How can they cope with the repercussions – for the patient as well as for themselves, legally, mentally, and emotionally? How can the medical community support one another through the process, instead of silencing the mistake, thus perpetuating shame and guilt?
Thriving in Scrubs: Mothering While Doctoring Becoming pregnant and having children is a part of life for many doctors that challenges their efforts to balance their personal and professional selves. This deeply human experience adds insight into the experiences that patients have, but adds weight to the personal demands and experiences the doctors have.
Thriving in Scrubs: How Much Time Do I Have, Doctor? Fictional accounts of medical encounters often feature the conversation when a patient asks their doctor to predict the outcome of their disease. Doctors in real life have to answer these questions, too, but without the benefit of a pre-written script. Thinking about prognostication means trying to answer difficult questions, but more importantly trying to get to the heart of what the patient may really be wondering. It’s about trying to connect with the heart of what patients need in times of uncertainty about their health. It’s also about understanding how these conversations affect us doctors as people who struggle with some of the same questions ourselves.
Thriving in Scrubs: Normal People At some point in their education, doctors start talking about “normal people” with a mixture of envy and curiosity. Why do doctors feel this distance from others, and from the parts of their own selves outside of their profession? We talk to Nicole, Sarah and Emma, three OBGYN residents at different stages of training about how they recognize, love and forgive the normal parts of themselves. Spoiler alert: it’s all about the friends who keep us from feeling alone.
Letting go What should medicine do when it can't save you? Dr. Atul Gawande examines the way doctors try to approach death and dying - sometimes well, often inadequately.
What makes a life worth living in the face of death In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis. "Engaging in the full range of experience — living and dying, love and loss — is what we get to do," Kalanithi says. "Being human doesn't happen despite suffering — it happens within it."
Sight Unseen (must download to hear) Listen to a family's reaction after learning that their son's death had been documented by a photographer embedded with a medevac team in Afghanistan.
Deceit & I RJ Walker performs this emotion-provoking poem about the large role that deceit undeniably plays in our lives and careers as a tool to save others from pain.
Everything Doesn't Happen for a Reason An essay on the importance of grieving and avoidance of "platitudes cloaked as sophistication" from "The Adversity Within" - a blog dedicated to examining the topic of resilience in the face of adversity
Getting Grief Right by Patrick O'Malley Common knowledge is that people go through stages of grief - progressing from one to the next. Not only is this an oversimplification, but providers' assumption that this is how grief "should" be processed may cause our patients harm.
Letting go What should medicine do when it can't save you? Dr. Atul Gawande examines the way doctors try to approach death and dying - sometimes well, often inadequately.
What makes a life worth living in the face of death In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis. "Engaging in the full range of experience — living and dying, love and loss — is what we get to do," Kalanithi says. "Being human doesn't happen despite suffering — it happens within it."
Sight Unseen (must download to hear) Listen to a family's reaction after learning that their son's death had been documented by a photographer embedded with a medevac team in Afghanistan.
Murderer in the Mirror Surgeon Scott Eggener recalls the devastation of the first time a patient dies on his operating table.
Deceit & I RJ Walker performs this emotion-provoking poem about the large role that deceit undeniably plays in our lives and careers as a tool to save others from pain.
Everything Doesn't Happen for a Reason An essay on the importance of grieving and avoidance of "platitudes cloaked as sophistication" from "The Adversity Within" - a blog dedicated to examining the topic of resilience in the face of adversity
Getting Grief Right by Patrick O'Malley Common knowledge is that people go through stages of grief - progressing from one to the next. Not only is this an oversimplification, but providers' assumption that this is how grief "should" be processed may cause our patients harm.
"Still Point": A Mediation on Mothering a Dying Child - Emily Rapp The struggles and emotions experienced parenting a child with Tay-Sachs disease.