Social stigma makes the opioid crisis hard to confront (7min) There are many reasons why the opioid crisis is so hard to confront. One of them is social stigma. It often extends beyond users themselves, to their families. People see addiction as a moral weakness, and by extension, the moral weakness of their families.
When drinking ruins your liver - should you qualify for a transplant? When patients develop alcohol liver disease, they are often forced to wait 6 months to prove they can abstain from alcohol before they will be considered for a transplant. Is that a fair amount of time? Is that a fair practice at all?
Withholding surgery: How gaps in policy fail people who inject drugs A recent New York Times article described a harrowing situation faced by some people who inject drugs and develop endocarditis, a life-threatening infection caused by bacteria that enter the bloodstream and settle in the heart. The article described doctors in Tennessee deciding whether to perform repeat costly heart surgeries on patients who were re-infected with endocarditis as a result of ongoing illicit drug use—and at times declining to operate. There are policy failures that are to blame, too, for how and why resources are allocated this way. This looks at those failures and how our bias influences both the policies and how they are applied.
Injecting Drugs can ruin a heart - how many second chances should a user get? A life-threatening heart infection afflicts a growing number of people who inject opioids or meth. Costly surgery can fix it, but the addiction often goes unaddressed.
The Fix (whole episode - 43min) This episode we take a sober look at the throbbing, aching, craving desire states that return people (again and again) to the object of their addiction … and the pills that just might set them free.
What happens when a patient says, "Doc, help me die." Mercy, compassion - does this fade at the end of life? Does ending a life conflict with our values as physicians? Read for one physician's perspective.
Cultivating the inner life of physicians through written reflection a look at how reflection in residency helps shape growth and development as a physician
Taking the HEAT This podcast outlines the tools and skills necessary to take the "heat" from patients, especially when dealing with difficult and/or emotionally charged patients. Some important skills that are explored are communication strategies, de-escalation techniques, setting boundaries and managing expectations. http://www.pediacastcme.org/taking-heat-pediacast-cme-016/
Day of Reckoning by Suzanne Minor Our patients' decisions are their own...but it may make them no more easy to understand. In this essay, Dr. Minor explores her own reactions to, and challenges with, accepting the decisions made by a patient.
The Pros and Cons of Living with a Terminal Illness by Ellen Diamond An interesting perspective describing ways that a chronic or terminal illness can have advantages as well as disadvantages.
Interview with Danielle Ofri, Author of What Doctors Feel (26:33) Discussion of the impact a provider’s emotional reaction has on the way we treat patients. Also discusses relationships between providers and patients.
When a patient evokes an emotional reaction from a physician by Brian Goldman, MD Some patients are “difficult” not because of their pathology, but because they evoke reactions in their providers.
What happens when a patient says, "Doc, help me die." Mercy, compassion - does this fade at the end of life? Does ending a life conflict with our values as physicians? Read for one physician's perspective.
Cultivating the inner life of physicians through written reflection a look at how reflection in residency helps shape growth and development as a physician
Taking the HEAT This podcast outlines the tools and skills necessary to take the "heat" from patients, especially when dealing with difficult and/or emotionally charged patients. Some important skills that are explored are communication strategies, de-escalation techniques, setting boundaries and managing expectations. http://www.pediacastcme.org/taking-heat-pediacast-cme-016/
Day of Reckoning by Suzanne Minor Our patients' decisions are their own...but it may make them no more easy to understand. In this essay, Dr. Minor explores her own reactions to, and challenges with, accepting the decisions made by a patient.
The Pros and Cons of Living with a Terminal Illness by Ellen Diamond An interesting perspective describing ways that a chronic or terminal illness can have advantages as well as disadvantages.
Interview with Danielle Ofri, Author of What Doctors Feel (26:33) Discussion of the impact a provider’s emotional reaction has on the way we treat patients. Also discusses relationships between providers and patients.
Daniel Kahneman Interview by the Guardian (4min) Kahneman discusses the relationship between reactions, congition, and biases.
Decisions and Desire – Harvard Business Review Emotions guide decision-making in ways that may challenge our view of “the rational mind”.
When a patient evokes an emotional reaction from a physician by Brian Goldman, MD Some patients are “difficult” not because of their pathology, but because they evoke reactions in their providers.